Donald Trump Reveals First Members of His Foreign Policy Advisory Team
Donald Trump has revealed the first members of his foreign policy team.
The advisers include academics and former military officers with expertise on the Middle East and energy issues.
The Republican frontrunner told the Washington Post that he would name more advisers in the coming days.
Several of Donald Trump’s advisers have served as experts for other Republican presidential candidates such as Mitt Romney and Ben Carson.
On March 21, Donald Trump named retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and retired Gen. Joseph Schmitz.
The team is led by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama who has helped shape Donald Trump’s policies, most notably on immigration.
Donald Trump has come under criticism in recent days over his policy credentials. When cable news network MSNBC asked him who was advising him on policy, Donald Trump named himself.
While some members of his team are not well known in Republican academic circles, others are seen as controversial figures.
Gen. Joseph Schmitz resigned from the military in 2005 amid accusations of misconduct. However, Joseph Schmitz was never charged with wrongdoing.
Another adviser, Walid Phares, was criticized when he was named as part of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team in 2011.
Muslim advocacy groups took issue with Walid Phares’s close ties to right-wing Christian militia groups during the Lebanese civil war.
He is an outspoken critic of Sharia, or Islamic religious law, and has appeared on Fox News and other conservative media outlets as an expert on the Middle East.
George Papadopoulos recently served as an adviser to Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race in February. George Papadopoulos has worked as a consultant for energy companies in the Middle East.
Donald Trump also said the US should spend less money on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“We are paying disproportionately,” he told CNN.
“It’s too much and frankly it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea.”