Trump leads Harris on handling wars in Ukraine, Middle East, new poll says

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds an edge over Democratic rival Kamala Harris when it comes to swing state voters’ confidence about navigating the U.S. through foreign wars, a new Wall Street Journal poll shows.
The survey of seven battleground states, released Sunday, finds Trump ahead of Harris 50% to 39% when respondents were asked who is best able to handle Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump holds a larger 48% to 33% lead over Harris when those voters were asked about the Israel-Hamas war, which has pulverized much of the Gaza strip and threatens to expand in the Middle East. The states cited in the polling included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
What’s happening overseas has become an increasingly important subject in the 2024 presidential election, with both contenders arguing they have the better vision for America’s role in the world.
Trump, who asserts the U.S. is on the brink of World War III, has pulled the GOP in a more isolationist direction in recent years and has been skeptical of additional U.S. aid to Ukraine. He has been especially critical of NATO, a North American-European coalition that stems from World War II, particularly in terms of funding and the alliance.
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NATO members are asked to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense, but not all members have reached this goal. However, it’s a budget formula that Trump has repeatedly mischaracterized during his years in public life.
The former president has declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the bloody conflict against Russia, but has asserted repeatedly without evidence that Russia would not have invaded if he was still in the White House.
Harris, for her part, alleges Trump is weak on foreign policy and leaned into the historic importance of America’s international alliances. The Biden administration has spent more than $100 billion on aid and weapons toward Ukraine.
During the presidential debate in September, Harris talked about the need to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the vice president said, “would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland” if Trump were still in charge.
In terms of the Middle East conflict, Harris and Trump share the view that the U.S. should support Israel in its war against Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis in a terror act last year.
But the two candidates hold very different beliefs on how the U.S. should help bring an end to the war, which has claimed the lives of roughly 42,000 Palestinians and wounded about 96,800, according to a Reuters report citing the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry.
Trump initially lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the days after the terror attack, but the former president cooled on those criticisms in the months after. He has offered few specifics on ending the Israel-Hamas war, but as of late he has called for the U.S. ally to “get it over with.”
When he was president, Trump made the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and ended opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the Biden administration later reversed. He claims without evidence that Israel would “cease to exist” if Harris becomes president.
Harris has walked a tightrope to capture the nuance of the longtime clash, saying she supports continued military aid to Israel while ducking questions on whether Netanyahu was a “real close ally.” She has called for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza and Lebanon and criticized the number of civilians killed while emphasizing the Biden administration’s continued pursuit for a diplomatic resolution.
But like many Democrats, the VP has been intensely pressured by grassroots activists on the political left who argue the Biden administration, and by extension Harris, hasn’t done enough to force Netanyahu’s hand in deescalating the conflict.
Harris has said she both sympathizes with the Palestinian people and supports Israel’s right to defend itself against the Hamas militants who killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took approximately 250 hostages last year.
According to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry, more than 40,000 Palestinians have died and 200,000 housing units destroyed in the ensuing war. Nearly 2,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced by Israeli attacks, Reuters reported, citing Lebanese officials.
The Wall Street Journal’s poll was conducted between Sept. 28 and Oct. 8. It included 2,100 voters on questions about Israel and Ukraine. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points.