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March 21st, 2016 
Awake Goy From: washingtonpost.com
Donald Trump speaks with Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan, left, as he departs a meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post. Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt is on the right. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Donald Trump outlined an unabashedly non-interventionist approach to world affairs in a meeting Monday, telling the Washington Post editorial board that he questions the value of U.S. involvement in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has formed the backbone of Western security interests since the Cold War.
Trump’s meeting with members of The Post’s editorial board covered a range of issues, including media libel laws, violence at his rallies, NATO climate change and the U.S. presence in Asia. He also revealed the names of several new foreign policy advisers.
Trump — who is set to give a major address on foreign policy later Monday before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — said he advocates an aggressive U.S. posture in the world with a light footprint. In spite of unrest abroad, especially in the Middle East, Trump insisted that the United States must look inward and steer its resources toward rebuilding domestic infrastructure.
“I do think its a different world today, and I dont think we should be nation-building anymore,” Trump said. “I think its proven not to work, and we have a different country than we did then. We have $19 trillion in debt. Were sitting, probably, on a bubble. And its a bubble that if it breaks, its going to be very nasty. I just think we have to rebuild our country.”
Trump also revealed five members of an emerging team, chaired by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who are counseling him on foreign affairs and helping to shape his policies: Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and Joseph E. Schmitz.
Trump praised George P. Shultz, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s top diplomat, and was harshly critical of current Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He questioned the United States continued involvement in NATO and, on the subject of Russian aggression in Ukraine, said Americas allies are “not doing anything.”
“Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet were doing all of the lifting,” Trump said. “Theyre not doing anything. And I say: ‘Why is it that Germanys not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why arent they dealing? Why are we always the one thats leading, potentially the third world war with Russia.’ “
Trump declared U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington. “We certainly cant afford to do this anymore,” Trump said, adding later, “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, were protecting Europe with NATO, but were spending a lot of money.”
Trump sounded a similar note in discussing the U.S. presence in the Pacific. He questioned the value of massive military investments in Asia and wondered aloud whether the United States still was capable of being an effective peacekeeping force there.
South Korea is very rich, great industrial country, and yet were not reimbursed fairly for what we do,” Trump said. “Were constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games were reimbursed a fraction of what this is all costing.”
Asked whether the United States benefits from its involvement in the region, Trump replied, “Personally, I dont think so.” He added, “I think we were a very powerful, very wealthy country, and we are a poor country now. Were a debtor nation.”
He added: “I watched as we built schools in Iraq and theyre blown up. We build another one, we get blown up. We rebuild it three times and yet we cant build a school in Brooklyn. We have no money for education because we cant build in our own country. At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?’ So, I know the outer world exists and Ill be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”
Trump cast China as a leading economic and geopolitical rival and said the United States should toughen its trade alliances to better compete.
“China has got unbelievable ambitions,” Trump said. “China feels very invincible. We have rebuilt China. They have drained so much money out of our country that theyve rebuilt China. Without us, you wouldnt see the airports and the roadways and the bridges. The George Washington Bridge [in New York], thats like a trinket compared to the bridges that they build in China. We dont build anymore. We had our day.”
Trump began the hour-long meeting by pulling out a list of some of his foreign policy advisers.
“Walid Phares, who you probably know. PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives. Hes a counterterrorism expert,” Trump said. “Carter Page, PhD. George Papadopoulos. Hes an oil and energy consultant. Excellent guy. The honorable Joe Schmitz, [was] inspector general at the Department of Defense. General Keith Kellogg. And I have quite a few more. But thats a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do. But thats a pretty representative group.”
Trump said he plans to share more names in the coming days.
Kellogg, a former Army lieutenant general, is a former executive vice president at CACI International, a Virginia-based intelligence and information technology consulting firm with clients around the world. He has experience in national defense and homeland security issues and worked as chief operating officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad following the invasion of Iraq.
Schmitz served as inspector general at the Defense Department during the early years of President George W. Bushs administration and has worked for Blackwater Worldwide. In a brief phone call Monday, Schmitz confirmed that he is working for the Trump campaign and said that he has been involved for the past month. He said he frequently confers with Sam Clovis, one of Trump’s top policy advisers, and that there has been a series of conference calls and briefings in recent weeks.
Papadopoulos directs an international energy center at the London Center of International Law Practice. He previously advised the presidential campaign of Ben Carson and worked as a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Phares has an academic background, teaching at the National Defense University and Daniel Morgan Academy in Washington, and has advised members of Congress and appeared as a television analyst discussing terrorism and the Middle East.
Page, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and now the managing partner of Global Energy Capital, is a longtime energy industry executive who rose through the ranks at Merrill Lynch around the world before founding his current firm. He previously was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focused on the Caspian Sea region and the economic development in former Soviet states, according to his company biography and documents from his appearances at panels over the past decade.
Trumps meeting with The Post was on the record. An audio recording was shared by the editorial board, and a full transcript will be posted later Monday. Trump was accompanied to the meeting, which took place at The Post’s new headquarters, by his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and spokeswoman, Hope Hicks.
Source: washingtonpost.com
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