Political science professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul M.A. ’86 criticized President Donald Trump’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine war at a Stanford Political Union (SPU) event Thursday. He also addressed the possible presence of intelligence officers on campuses.

Audience member Joe Nail M.A. ’26 MBA ’26 asked about the University’s policies on admitting students from “particularly hostile or adversarial nations,” citing a recent Stanford Review article alleging the presence of Chinese espionage agents on campus. McFaul, who served as ambassador from 2012 to 2014, responded that only the federal government has the adequate intelligence to identify potential terrorists and spies.

“The policing of [spies] should come, in my view, when you get a visa to come into this country,” he said, adding that the federal screening system for terrorist and spy prevention has “broken down” and that it should be more “robust.”

McFaul continued that universities and their ability to attract talent globally are integral to the United States’ competitive strengths with rival nations like Russia and China. He said that the founders of Tesla, NVIDIA and Google would not have established their companies in the U.S. had visa bans been in place. 

The Trump administration announced last week that it would revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students and require existing international students to transfer, an escalation in the White House’s ongoing clash with the school. 

“I think this is a big advantage we have that we just cannot give away,” McFaul said. International students, who often pay full tuition, also end up subsidizing domestic students’ tuition, he added.

Turning to foreign policy, McFaul said that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s appointed Special Envoy to the Middle East who has been talking with Putin, was not a “very good negotiator.” Witkoff’s strategy, according to McFaul, is “strange” and fails the fundamental principles of diplomacy and negotiations. 

“If you give something, you want to get something in return, right?… And yet, [the Trump administration] never ever have tried to get anything from the Russians. I honestly did not understand that strategy, and now, I think it’s led to this situation where Putin keeps upping the ante,” McFaul said. McFaul cited the Trump administration’s opposition to Ukrainian NATO membership and proposal to recognize Crimea as Russian territory as evidence of Trump’s appeasement to Putin’s growing demands.

However, McFaul said Russia’s strategy is “smart,” clearly appeals to Trump and encourages a normalized relationship between the U.S. and Russia in which economic deals come before the Russia-Ukraine war.

Despite this, McFaul saw two caveats to such a relationship: a poor history of U.S.-Russia business relations and the American public’s animosity toward Putin. According to a Pew Research poll, 85% of Americans view Russia very or somewhat unfavorably. 

Referring to Exxon Mobil’s withdrawal from a joint venture with Russian company Rosneft in 2018 following U.S. sanctions against Russia, McFaul expressed doubts about whether Russian companies would pursue business relations with the U.S.

Regarding the debate about whether the U.S. is currently in a Cold War with Russia and China, McFaul said he thought it was “wrong” to take an absolute position and that there are similarities and differences between the current political climate and the Cold War. 

While he said that Russia and China’s efforts to ideologically expand communism are now a “lesser threat,” he was concerned about how nuclear deterrence did not disincentivize Putin’s war operations in Europe. Most concerning of all, he said, was isolationism in American politics.

“If we become this isolationist, nationalist place, we lose to the Chinese. I really, sincerely believe we will lose,” McFaul said.

Attendee Jhonny Almeida ’28 agreed with McFaul that “the federal government does have a responsibility to make sure that we don’t have we don’t have foreign agents here,” but added that this responsibility should not be twisted to suit a political agenda, as he believes the Trump administration is currently doing.

Almeida was also happy to see several STEM majors at the talk. 

“With AI in our backyard, we have to be even more aware of these discussions,” Almeida said, stressing what he viewed as the moral dangers of using AI in the defense industry.