Here’s where Donald Trump and Joe Biden stand on relations with China and US allies

The Millennial Source
5 min readSep 15, 2020

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Trump has maintained that he is the person best positioned to ensure that the world “respects” the US. Biden’s campaign says his foreign policy vision is “to restore dignified leadership at home and respected leadership on the world stage.”

In April, TMS first compared the broad policy positions of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. In the months since then, Biden secured the delegates to become the Democratic nominee, selected Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate and officially accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

With less than a month until the first of three presidential debates (and one vice presidential debate), the candidates are campaigning during an unusual, coronavirus-altered election year. While there has been a smattering of in-person events, for most voters, understanding each candidate’s stances on the various issues will require personal research.

To that end, TMS is spending 2020 scrutinizing the positions of both candidates. We previously examined Trump and Biden’s stances on mental health care and issues that are most relevant to female voters. In this article, we’re taking a deeper look at where Biden and Trump stand on foreign policy issues in relation to China and the United States’ allies.

Trump and Biden on foreign policy

In April, TMS said of Trump, “The backbone of Trump’s foreign policy has been his ‘ America First ‘ ethos.”

Since his first campaign and throughout his first term, Trump has maintained that he is the person best positioned to ensure that the world “respects” the US. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, tarnished the US’ reputation on the world stage.

Global polling challenges that contention, with the US’ favorability among foreign nations dipping since Trump took office. However, Trump is viewed favorably by people on the ideological right.

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