Top foreign policy moments from the Harris-Trump debate

Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and tariffs dominated the foreign-policy sections of the high-stakes showdown

Al Majalla

Former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in a highly anticipated presidential debate on Tuesday night, in what was their first—and potentially only—showdown ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Top foreign policy moments from the Harris-Trump debate

Christina Lu and Amy Mackinnon

last update on 11 Sep 2024

The debate, hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, comes amid an unusual election cycle marked by a number of dramatic turns, including US President Joe Biden’s historic decision to drop his reelection bid following his disastrous debate performance in June as well as Trump’s attempted assassination in July.

With 55 days to go until the election and polls showing a tight race, the 90-minute debate allowed voters the most sustained opportunity to hear from Harris since she entered the race. And while Trump’s general vision for the country is well known to the American public, Tuesday’s debate offered him a chance to reinvigorate a campaign that has struggled to adapt to Harris’s entry into what had otherwise been a lacklustre race.

Though domestic policy issues, including the economy, border security, and reproductive rights, got ample attention, foreign policy also featured prominently as the candidates clashed over Trump’s trade war with China, Washington’s stance in the Israel-Hamas war, and the future of US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Here’s what the two candidates said on the biggest foreign-policy issues facing Washington right now:

Russia-Ukraine

Asked whether he would like to see Ukraine win the war against Russia, Trump responded that he wants to stop the war and pledged to “settle” the war before taking office if he wins in November, without offering any details as to how he would accomplish that. “What I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, and I’ll speak to the other,” he said. “I’ll get them together.”

He reiterated his past claim that the war would never have happened had he been in office instead of Biden and insisted that he is more respected by world leaders than Biden or Harris is. “I know (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky very well, and I know (Russian President Vladimir) Putin very well,” he said. “They respect me. They don’t respect Biden.”

Trump also touted the support he has gotten from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has visited Trump in Florida twice this year and bragged that he has “deep involvement” in the Trump team’s policy deliberations. Orban maintains close ties with Putin and has repeatedly tried to curtail Europe’s attempts to aid and arm Ukraine. “Let me just say about world leaders, Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart prime minister of Hungary. They said, ‘Why is the whole world blowing up?’” Trump said.

“(Orban) said, ‘Because you need Trump back as president. They were afraid of him. China was afraid.’ And I don’t like to use the word ‘afraid,’ but I’m just quoting him. ‘China was afraid of him. North Korea was afraid of him.’ Look at what’s going on with North Korea, by the way. He said, ‘Russia was afraid of him,’” Trump added.

Trump also criticised the Biden administration for how much it has spent on defending Ukraine compared with how much European countries have spent. But total European aid to Ukraine actually exceeds US aid to the country, both in terms of pledged commitments and actual allocations, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker.

Asked how she would deal with Putin and whether her approach would diverge from Biden’s, Harris highlighted the role she played in the run-up to the invasion, including meeting with Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in February 2022 to deliver the latest US intelligence assessments warning of Russia’s plans, less than a week before Russian troops streamed into Ukraine.

The vice president recounted the Biden administration’s record on the war, rallying allies in support of Kyiv and providing critical military aid. “Because of our support, because of the air defence, the ammunition, the artillery, the Javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country.”

Harris did not offer any forward-looking agenda as to how she may look to support Ukraine in a potential future administration or any clues as to where she stands on the ongoing debate over whether to allow Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike targets deep in Russia.

Harris did not say where she stands on allowing Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to strike targets deep in Russia

Israel-Hamas

Since becoming the Democratic Party's nominee, Harris's remarks on the Israel-Hamas conflict have been closely scrutinised by Israel's supporters and critics for any signs of divergence with Biden, a longtime staunch supporter of Israel.

Despite intense diplomatic efforts, the administration has failed to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that would secure the release of hostages held by the militant group in Gaza. Asked by the moderators how she would break through the stalemate, Harris recounted the details of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war and Israel's right to defend itself, adding that she would "always give Israel the ability to defend itself," in an apparent reference to calls from progressives to halt US military aid to Israel in light of its unsparing campaign in Gaza. She underscored Israel's need to defend itself from Iran and its proxies in the region.

Harris added that the nature in which Israel defends itself also matters, a refrain she has used long before becoming a presidential candidate. "Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," she said during the debate, reiterating her support for a two-state solution and for the Palestinians' need for security and self-determination.

Her response was consistent with her previous remarks on the conflict and hewed closely to her speech to the Democratic National Convention last month.

When asked by the moderators, Trump offered no details as to how he would negotiate with Israel and Hamas or how he would address the increasingly dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Instead, he repeatedly insisted that if he had been president, the Israel-Hamas war would have never begun.

The former president also claimed, baselessly, that Harris "hates" both Israel and Arabs. "She hates Israel. She wouldn't even meet with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech," he said. While Harris skipped the speech due to a previously scheduled commitment, she met with him the following day.

"If she's president, I believe that Israel would not exist within two years from now," Trump added. He went on to say that Harris also hates Arabs, claiming that "the whole place is going to get blown up."

If elected, he pledged to "settle" the ongoing conflicts before any inauguration—again, however, without offering any details as to how that would happen.

"Look at what's happening with the Houthis and Yemen. Look at what's happening in the Middle East. This would have never happened. I will get that settled, and fast, and I will get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended," he said. "If I'm president-elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president."

China

Even though Trump and Harris weren't directly asked about China during Tuesday's debate, both candidates clashed sharply over US economic competition with Beijing early on in the night.

Across both the Trump and Biden presidencies, China has been the one foreign-policy issue where there tends to be more bipartisan agreement. Trump pursued a hawkish policy toward Beijing, particularly when it came to trade, and imposed a raft of tariffs on Chinese imports that triggered a trade war; Biden has largely kept those tariffs in place and has gone further with his own collection of trade restrictions targeting semiconductors and electric vehicles. While Harris's own track record on China is comparatively limited, as FP's Lili Pike has reported, her approach is expected to largely track with Biden's.

Still, on Tuesday night, Harris and Trump sparred over the latter's pledges to drastically hike up tariffs across the board, a plan that could see all US imports face at least a 10% tariff while goods from China would be subject to at least a 50% tariff. "China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years" are going to face higher prices, Trump declared.

Saul Loeb / AFP — US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks as former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens during a presidential debate in Philadelphia on September 10, 2024.

Harris attacked Trump's tariff proposals, warning that they would drive up inflation, as 16 Nobel-winning economists have publicly said, and "invite a recession." Trump fired back by pointing out that the Biden administration has mostly kept the Trump-era tariffs in place.

If "she doesn't like them, they should have gone out, and they should have immediately cut the tariffs," Trump said. "But those tariffs … they had (them for) three and a half years now under their administration."

Harris hit back by criticising his economic record. "Let's be clear that the Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit, one of the highest we've ever seen in the history of America," she said. "He invited trade wars."

She also accused Trump of selling semiconductor chips to China, perhaps to draw attention to the Biden administration's expansive chip export controls. "He ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernise their military," she said. "(He) basically sold us out when a policy about China should be in making sure the United States of America wins the competition for the 21st century."

Trump said China bought their chips from Taiwan, not the United States.

Harris said she would "always give Israel the ability to defend itself" in response to calls to halt US military aid to Israel.

Afghanistan

Tuesday's debate came in the shadow of the third anniversary of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the responsibility for which is the subject of significant debate in Washington.

Asked by the debate moderators if she bore any responsibility for how the withdrawal unfolded, Harris avoided answering the question directly and instead reiterated her support for Biden's decision to withdraw. "Four presidents said they would, and Joe Biden did it," she said, before pivoting to attacking Trump's record in negotiating the initial withdrawal deal with the Taliban, bypassing the Washington-backed Afghan government, seeking to invite the militant group to Camp David, which has played a storied role in US diplomacy.

Trump defended his record, claiming that he sought to withdraw to protect the lives of US troops and falsely adding that the Taliban inherited $85bn in US military equipment left behind in the hasty withdrawal. The actual figure has been put at around $7bn, according to a Defense Department inspector general report to Congress.

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