Donald Trump revealed on March 21 to the Washington Post who his foreign policy advisers are. These advisers will counsel him on foreign affairs for his candidacy leading up to the election in November.
The announcement came five days after Trump said in an interview on “Morning Joe” that he consults himself when it comes to foreign policy. The six names are as follows: Jeff Sessions, Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares, and Joseph E. Schmitz.
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Washington Times called Sessions “A tea partyer before the tea party was cool” and is one of the most staunch fiscal and social conservatives in the Senate.
Like Trump, one of the core issues of his leadership is immigration reform. Sessions has opposed any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
He is a defender of the Patriot Act, The Defence of Marriage Act, and religious liberty.
According to the Conservative Review:
“Taken as a whole, Sessions has become the leading statesman in the country against open borders and in defense of American sovereignty, the American worker and taxpayer. He has led every major immigration fight with a relentless supply of data and intellectual firepower, along with floor speeches and media appearances.”
Sessions endorsed Trump last month at a rally in Alabama.
Walid Phares
“Walid Phares, who you probably know. PhD, adviser to the House of Representatives. He’s a counter-terrorism expert,” Mr Trump told the Washington Post.
Since 2007, Phares has served as one of the experts on Fox News on Middle East affairs and global terrorism.
He was the adviser for the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 2009, he has been co-secretary general of the Transatlantic Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism, a Euro-American Caucus.
He also worked as adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012.
Joseph Schmitz
Joseph Schmitz was an inspector general during the early George W. Bush years, and former Blackwater employee. Blackwater is a private military contractor that helped U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Blackwater came into controversy when the group was accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
General Joseph “Keith” Kellogg
A lieutenant general in the army for 32 years, General Kellogg retired in 2003 and worked as an executive vice president at CACI International in Virginia between the years of 2005 and 2009.
In 2009 CACI International was accused of torturing prisoners in an Abu Ghraib prison.
Kellogg has also worked with San Diego-based intelligence and communications contractor Cubic Corp. as senior vice president for ground combat programs. He then became the president of Abraxas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cubic when he left in 2014.
George Papadopoulos
George Papadopoulos is a former adviser for Ben Carson’s campaign, and the director at an international energy center in London. He also has experience as a research fellow at the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute.
Carter Page
A graduate from the United States Naval Academy, Carter Page is an energy-industry executive that has worked with Merrill Lynch and is now a managing partner at Global Energy Capital.
Page has worked previously at the Council on Foreign Relations, and researched energy resources around the Caspian Sea.
