Foreign policy and national security have not played a dominant role in this year’s campaign so far, but a fumbled answer at Tuesday’s presidential debate could damage either candidate in a race with no margin for error.
As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris head into the homestretch of debate preparation, who is coaching them on how to address the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine and China’s efforts to overtake the U.S. as the world’s superpower?
There are stark differences between Harris and Trump in their foreign policy positions and how they express them. And the current and former officials and lawmakers who advise each candidate reflect those divergent outlooks.
In the mock debates Harris is holding in Pittsburgh as rehearsal for Tuesday, the adviser playing Trump’s role is underlining the differences between the candidates by allegedly dressing as Trump, right down to the big blue suit and long tie.
According to multiple sources associated with the candidates and their parties, here is a rough sketch of who is advising Trump and Harris on foreign policy for the debate — and for their potential presidencies:
Donald Trump
As always with Trump, expect his approach to be fluid and improvised, according to multiple sources and his own comments.
Trump has said he has been prepping for the debate his whole life and questioned the need for elaborate study in advance. “I do, I have meetings on it,” Trump said recently when asked about his preparations. “We talk about it, but there’s not a lot you can do. Either you know your subject or not.”
Viewers can expect him to attack Harris over the southern border, the war in Gaza and the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. Trump has never articulated an overarching foreign policy, but he has one core belief that he has expressed for decades. Trump thinks other nations are taking advantage of the U.S. — that too many allies are freeloading off American military might and not spending enough on their own armed forces.
His campaign has no process for formulating foreign or domestic policy, and Trump doesn’t have a designated foreign policy adviser. But his campaign team does provide talking points for surrogates on foreign policy.
Trump speaks about national security with a variety of former officials who served in his administration and who are deemed loyal, as well as several senators. His son-in-law Jared Kushner retains influence, as well. Trump’s emphasis on loyalty rules out a long list of former national security officials who worked under him but who have criticized him publicly.
The former Trump administration officials and senators who speak to Trump about foreign policy range from traditional conservative voices who invoke Ronald Reagan to those favoring a more isolationist “America First” vision that calls for scaling back international commitments and imposing tariffs on adversaries and allies alike. Some fall somewhere in between.
Many of these figures are jockeying for jobs in a second Trump administration and trying to figure out how they can best play to Trump’s inclinations and opinions, John Bolton, who was Trump’s third national security adviser, said in an interview.
Bolton, who advised Trump from 2018 to 2019, said that Trump has no coherent foreign policy views and that his “decisions are ad-hoc, anecdotal, transactional.” Bolton, who has publicly and repeatedly criticized his former boss, said he does not support either Trump or Harris.
Keith Kellogg, a retired Army general who was Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, has endorsed Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and founded a think tank bearing that slogan. Kellogg speaks to Trump regularly and has been advising him as he prepares for Tuesday’s debate, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Kellogg, who has defended the infamous phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about investigating Joe Biden’s son Hunter, is a co-author of a proposal to end the war in Ukraine. The plan calls for pushing Kyiv to negotiate with the Russians or face a cut in U.S. military aid, but it would ramp up U.S. weapons deliveries to Ukraine if Moscow rebuffed peace talks.
Although many former advisers have fallen out of favor, Stephen Miller, who was a senior adviser and chief speechwriter during Trump’s presidency, has been a consistent influence inside Trump’s circle for years. Miller has shaped Trump’s hard-line immigration policies and positions. Miller and Trump have vowed to launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants if Trump is elected.
Richard Grenell embodied Trump’s hostility toward European allies when he was the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Grenell backed withdrawing some U.S. troops from Germany because of what he called Berlin’s low levels of defense spending. He later was an envoy to the Balkans and the acting director of national intelligence, from which post he ousted career intelligence officers.
Donald Trump Jr. has said Grenell is a “top contender” for secretary of state in a second Trump administration. Since Trump left the White House, Grenell has been an envoy for him abroad, meeting far-right leaders in foreign capitals.
Other former national security officials who have stayed in Trump’s orbit include Mike Pompeo, who served stints as his CIA director and secretary of state. Pompeo has shied away from MAGA-style isolationist rhetoric, expressing support for arming Ukraine, for NATO and for keeping a large U.S. footprint in the Middle East.
An unabashed hawk, he pushed for tough approaches to China and Iran in the Trump administration, backing the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Kash Patel worked on Trump’s National Security Council and in November 2020 became chief of staff to the acting defense secretary. Patel has embraced Trump’s calls to purge intelligence officials considered disloyal, and he promoted conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that a “deep state” inside the government is plotting against Trump.
JD Vance, the senator from Ohio whom Trump picked as his running mate, has been a prominent voice in the Senate opposing military assistance to Ukraine. But multiple sources say Trump does not appear to rely on Vance for foreign policy advice.
Robert Lighthizer, a major influence on Trump’s trade policies when he was the Trump administration’s trade representative, is urging more protectionism, extending tariffs on a variety of products and countries.
The Republican lawmakers getting calls from Trump include Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee.
Kamala Harris
Harris is likely to criticize Trump for his praise of autocrats like Vladimir Putin and his skepticism about America’s long-standing network of alliances. Echoing past presidents from both parties, Harris views allies as vital to U.S. economic and military power — especially at a time when China and other U.S. foes are deepening ties with one another.
Harris relies mainly on her national security staff to help navigate foreign policy issues, and that advice has shaped how she talks about foreign policy as a candidate. But her White House staff is not legally permitted to take part in the preparations for the debate, so that will be handled by experts who are out of government.
Philippe Reines, who wan adviser to Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 campaign against Trump, is playing the role of Trump in Harris’ mock debate sessions, just as he did in Clinton’s White House bid. The last time around, Reines famously adopted method-acting techniques and wore dress shoes with 3-inch lifts and a loose-fitting suit with large cuffs and a long tie to try to help Clinton become accustomed to Trump’s large physical presence. Sources close to Harris say Reines will be wearing his Trump outfit again this year.
In an interview, Reines recounted how he initially planned to read reams of material to prepare for the mock sessions.
“I got my own team of lawyers to volunteer to help because they’re so good with paper,” Reines said. “But then the paper overwhelmed me. Then I’m like, ‘F--- this. Trump’s not reading any paper; I’m not going to read any paper. I rationalized it as if I really get into character here, I’m not going to do anything he’s not.”
Colin Kahl, a former top Defense Department official in the Biden administration, said in an interview that he is informally advising the Harris campaign on foreign policy.
“Harris believes that foreign policy is a team sport, and so we need to rally our team,” said Kahl, who was also a national security adviser to Biden during Barack Obama’s presidency. “Trump does not believe it’s a team sport. He’s also not sure which team he’s on.”
Other former national security officials advising the campaign informally include Tom Donilon, who was Obama’s national security adviser; Jeremy Bash, chief of staff to former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; and Tom Nides, a Democratic Party insider and former banker who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel until last year.
Foreign policy questions debate prep will also involve Grace Landrieu, policy director for the Harris campaign and a veteran of Democratic politics, and Brian Nelson, former undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department. Nelson, who managed the imposition of sanctions against Russia, Hamas and other U.S. adversaries, has ties to Harris dating to her time as attorney general of California.
Harris’ White House staffers include Philip Gordon, her national security adviser. Gordon worked in previous Democratic administrations and has become an influential figure for Harris. He was the head of European affairs at the National Security Council under Bill Clinton and the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs during the Obama administration.
In a 2018 commentary he co-wrote, Gordon said Russia’s aggressive actions had led him to conclude that the U.S. “needs to confront Russia more forcefully.”
In a 2020 book, Gordon recounted the fallout from U.S.-backed regime change in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Gordon portrayed those efforts as unrealistic, uninformed and reckless.
Rebecca Lissner, Harris’ deputy national security adviser, taught at the U.S. Naval Institute and wrote a book about how to adapt American leadership to counter increasingly powerful authoritarian global powers led by China.
Dean Lieberman, Harris’ deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, crafts her speeches and public statements.
Harris’ speech at the annual Munich Security Conference in February, drafted by Lieberman, offered something close to the world view of the vice president — and her advisers — as well as a response to Trump world's calls for pulling back from international commitments.
“History has also shown us: If we only look inward, we cannot defeat threats from outside; isolation is not insulation," Harris said. "In fact, when America has isolated herself, threats have only grown."
