Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Delivers a
Powerful Speech to the US -
Israel Relation Conference AIPAC on 3/21/2016
Today Monday, March 21, 2016, Donald Trump speaks at the AIPAC Conference in
Washington, DC.
Trump questions
U.S. financial backing for
NATO
The United States should significantly cut spending on the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Monday, questioning a policy that has underpinned U.S. foreign relations for nearly 70 years.
Trump, whose world views have been rebuked by a section of the
Republican establishment, made the comments as he unveiled a partial list of foreign policy advisors who are relatively little known.
"
We are paying disproportionately (for NATO).
It's too much and frankly it's a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea," Trump said in an interview on
CNN. "We have to reconsider. Keep NATO, but maybe we have to pay a lot less toward NATO itself."
The comments reinforced Trump's relatively isolationist stance on foreign policy. He has alarmed mainstream Republican foreign policy thinkers with comments denigrating Muslims and
Mexican immigrants, and with his vows to tear up international trade deals.
Announcing his foreign policy advisors in an interview with the
Washington Post editorial board, he said the
United States should not be "nation-building anymore," adding that
Washington could not afford to keep funding NATO at current levels.
"We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore," he said.
Trump has said he is willing to work more closely with authoritarian
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military intervention in
Ukraine has increased tensions with NATO.
Washington is the biggest contributor to NATO, and U.S. officials have long been critical of its
European allies for not spending more.
NATO is planning its biggest build-up in eastern
Europe since the
Cold War to deter
Russia, helped by an increase in planned U.S. spending.
Trump's advisory team includes terrorism expert
Walid Phares, energy industry executive
Carter Page, international energy lawyer
George Papadopoulos, former
Pentagon inspector general Joe Schmitz, and former
Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg.
'OBSCURE'
TEAM
He said he would soon name more people who are helping him shape his foreign policies as part of the team, led by
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from
Alabama who endorsed Trump last month.
"
Taken as a group, it's a fairly obscure set
of individuals," said
Michael O'Hanlon, a national security and defense policy specialist at the
Brookings Institution, adding that he does not recognize most of the names on
Trump's list.
Trump, one of three remaining
Republican presidential candidates, has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks to say who advises him on foreign and security matters.
One hundred and twenty Republican national security experts who have served in past presidential administrations have signed a letter saying they cannot support Trump and will work to ensure he is not elected.
Phares told Reuters he began advising Trump on Friday. He previously had served as a national security adviser to
2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has roundly criticized Trump. Phares said in an email he has not met Trump in person since last year.
The others on the list could not be immediately reached to confirm their role with Trump's campaign.
Schmitz was Pentagon inspector general under
President George W. Bush and worked for
Blackwater Worldwide, a now-defunct private
U.S. security firm whose personnel were involved in a deadly shooting that killed Iraqi civilians in
2007.
Kellogg has considerable military experience, having served as the chief operating officer of the
Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run provisional government imposed on
Iraq after the U.S.-led
2003 invasion under
Bush. He has worked at
CACI International, a Virginia-based intelligence and information technology consulting firm.
Trump has vigorously criticized the invasion. Asked at a news conference about why he chose Kellogg despite his role in Iraq, Trump said: "I don't have to agree with them but I have to hear different opinions."
According to the
Post, Papadopoulos previously advised Trump's former rival
Ben Carson, who has now backed Trump.
The London Center of
International Law Practice's Center website lists him as the head of its Center for
International Energy and
Natural Resources Law &
Security.
Page serves as a managing partner of
Global Energy Capital, a private energy services company, the Post said.
Sessions is not seen as an influential foreign policy or national security player in the
U.S. Congress. He does not serve on the influential
Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, although he is a member of the
Armed Services Committee.
- published: 22 Mar 2016
- views: 121