http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/03/21/donald-trump-lists-five-foreign-policy-advisers/Donald Trump Lists Five Foreign Policy Advisers
By Damian Paletta
Mar 21, 2016 5:07 pm ET
Donald Trump, the GOP’s leading presidential candidate, listed five people Monday he said are advising him on foreign policy, with backgrounds in everything from energy to the Middle East.
Mr. Trump, in a meeting with the Washington Post editorial board, said his foreign policy advisers included Walid Phares, Joseph Schmitz , Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.
Previously, the only person Mr. Trump had listed as an adviser in this area was Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), who has been named chairman of Mr. Trump’s national security team. That had prompted questions about whether Mr. Trump has a comprehensive, identifiable approach to foreign policy.
The five advisers Mr. Trump named Monday may not answer that question, since they do not adhere to a specific camp within the foreign policy establishment.
They are also not as well-known as the foreign policy advisers who had signed on to help some other GOP candidates, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Many of their backers were veterans of previous GOP administrations with lengthy careers at the Pentagon or State Department.
But part of Mr. Trump’s pitch to voters is that he plans to break with past practice, and this slate of advisers could reflect that.
Mr. Phares was born in Lebanon and is a Middle East expert who has consulted with numerous government agencies, according to his website. He has written several books about the Middle East and terrorism and served as an adviser to the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
Mr. Phares, a Lebanese Christian, has won praise from Republicans in Congress and has been a consistent critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign and domestic policies. But he is primarily known as a consultant, academic and pundit, not for driving foreign policy.
Mr. Phares’s association with Mr. Trump wasn’t disclosed until Monday, but he wrote on Facebook on March 6 that a “deal is possible” that could help the GOP candidate with the most delegates win the nomination.
Mr. Schmitz is a former inspector general at the Pentagon who also served as general counsel at Prince Group, which was the parent company of controversial security firm Blackwater Worldwide. Mr. Schmitz was part of a recent effort to help direct private arms shipments to Syrian rebels, paid for at least in part by a member of the Saudi royal family. The effort was purportedly quashed by the U.S. government.
Mr. Schmitz is also listed as a co-author of a 2010 study titled “Shariah: The Threat to America.”
Mr. Page is a founder and managing partner at Global Energy Capital, a New York firm. He was previously a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Lt. Gen. Kellogg spent 32 years in the Army and commanded the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2003 and 2004 he served as chief operating officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, which came under criticism for what many considered a botched transition following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Efforts to reach the five advisers were unsuccessful.
Mr. Phares, in a Facebook post he wrote Sunday, lamented the way some critics had blasted the foreign policy advisers revealed by Mr. Trump’s chief opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas).
“As soon as Trump would announce his, the Iran-Ikhwan backed voices and pens would start the shelling as well,” he wrote.
