Republicans like me, loyal to principles over individuals, are grateful to see Reaganesque qualities in a candidate running for president in 2024.

It would surprise and disappoint President Reagan, however, that it’s not the candidate on the GOP ticket.

It is President Biden who, like Reagan, often demonstrates moral and strategic clarity in global affairs. It is Biden who, like Reagan, understands how to find common purpose with allies. It is Biden who, like Reagan, values mustering bipartisan coalitions to try to restore shaken faith in America.

Biden exhibits many of the qualities that drove Reagan’s successes and powered the Reagan Doctrine. Donald Trump demonstrates almost none of them.

First, Trump has a distinctly non-Reaganesque approach to international relations. His bellicose initial statements to those endangering America often turn to appeasement of America’s enemies. Despite threatening “fire and fury” for North Korea, he turned Kim Jung Un from a globally isolated dictator into one gaining legitimacy on the world stage by having a bilateral meeting with the U.S. president. Despite the famous “love letter,” Kim yielded no concessions on North Korea’s nuclear program and firmly aligns with America’s competitors and enemies.

Similarly, as Trump demonstrated when he publicly agreed with Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies, he willingly emboldens enemies of the civilized world order. Since then, he has openly expressed admiration for Putin’s authoritarianism and imperialism.

Such an approach is not Reaganesque. It’s just ineffective.

Conversely, Biden and Reagan share a strategy of engaging global challenges that threaten our national interest, and doing so before they reach our shores. Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine echoes both Reagan’s and President George H.W. Bush’s response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Biden galvanized allies to prevent Russian victory. He employed the Reagan Doctrine, based on Westphalian principles, that imperialist invading nations must meet determined opposition to deter the annexation of sovereign nations. While the U.S. contributed to Ukraine’s defense, it is not alone. European nations have combined to provide more aid than the U.S. to support Ukraine’s self-defense. The international response has been as formidable as the coalition Bush assembled to defend Kuwait.

Thanks to Biden, our allies and, most of all, Ukrainians themselves, we followed the Reagan Doctrine. Putin’s invasion hasn’t succeeded. NATO didn’t collapse; it expanded and developed a newfound sense of purpose. The ruble’s value is nosediving. The European defense industry woke up. The war will slog on, but Putin’s dream of re-creating the Russian Empire over vanquished nations will fail.

Biden has also been the more Reaganesque president domestically by employing one of Reagan’s most underappreciated qualities: bipartisanship. Contrary to progressive caricatures, Reagan was doggedly bipartisan. His cultivation of leading Democrats like House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash., yielded dividends. Those relationships helped secure congressional funding for the defense buildup that overwhelmed the Soviet Union and hastened the end of the Cold War. As staff director of the Defense panel of the Senate Appropriations Committee during the Reagan administration, I saw Reagan strike agreements widely thought impossible.

Biden has the same touch. Despite unpopularity with MAGA Republicans, he has secured many bipartisan deals. The Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, the PACT Act, the MAT Act and the Ukraine-Israel military assistance package all passed with substantial Republican support. Bipartisanship is in Biden’s DNA. During my years with the Senate staff and in two Republican administrations, I witnessed it firsthand. He starts negotiations believing common ground yields the best outcomes. Not everyone liked the results, but he enjoys proving different parties and branches of government can find common cause.

Yet even Reagan sometimes failed. Reagan’s administration succeeded because he possessed the firm character to move past disappointments. He was steady, optimistic and moral, and empathized with the citizens he served. He was never fooled by a despot’s flattery. He believed working together made America a shining city on a hill.

Trump shares none of those virtues. As a veteran of two Republican administrations, I’m disappointed to admit that the Democrat in this race, Joe Biden, shares them all.

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