Biden aims to paint Trump as a man whose foreign policy makes him too dangerous to be in the Oval Office

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions have sometimes seemed like an afterthought in an election with domestic concerns at its heart.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy positions have sometimes seemed like an afterthought in an election with domestic concerns at its heart. Yet with two hot wars, growing global instability and a right-wing tilt toward isolationism – in the US and abroad – it will be difficult for Biden and Trump to avoid the subject at Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta. The Biden campaign is hoping to make domestic issues like the economy and reproductive rights the centerpieces of the president’s reelection argument. But it is foreign policy that has consumed much of his time during his first term, including in the direct lead-up to Thursday’s debate, when Biden embarked upon back-to-back trips to Europe. His close advisers have candidly acknowledged, particularly since October 7, that events abroad have more than once – and more than his team would like – diverted the president’s attention away from important domestic issues. Unlike previous presidential election cycles, there is not a scheduled debate dedicated only to foreign policy, which in the past provided an opportunity for in-depth contrasts on world affairs between Republican and Democratic candidates. Instead, Biden advisers expect those issues could arise as part of the broader discussion that unfolds on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday. To that end, Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, has been one of the more than dozen top advisers who has joined Biden at Camp David this week to lead the group’s discussions on foreign policy, according to a source with knowledge of the preparations.