In July 2016, just prior to the Republicans' 2016 Convention in Cleveland, Gordon successfully advocated with elected delegates to soften a proposed amendment to the Republican National Committee's policy platform that called for providing "lethal defensive weapons" to the government of Ukraine. At the time, many Republican foreign policy leaders favored stronger support of Ukraine than the Obama administration had offered. In January 2017, "Business Insider" reported that he had "never left" his "assigned side table, nor spoke publicly at the meeting of delegates during the platform meeting," but in March 2017 he acknowledged to CNN that, in CNN's words, "Gordon had advocated for language in the GOP platform that the Ukrainians not be armed in their battle against pro-Russian separatists." Gordon has said of his advice to soften the proposed amendment on Ukraine that "this was the language Donald Trump himself wanted," though he has denied that Trump was aware at the time of the "details."