Sputnik International<\/p>\n
As a businessman with\u00a0no governing experience, foreign policy has always been an especially vulnerable aspect of\u00a0the billionaire\u2019s presidential campaign. As Trump inches closer to\u00a0the Republican nomination, his campaign has begun to\u00a0shift gears, as\u00a0he will likely face-off against\u00a0former US Secretary of\u00a0State Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n
![\"Republican](\"http:\/\/cdn5.img.sputniknews.com\/images\/103646\/39\/1036463936.jpg\" "\\"Republican")
<\/div>\nTo distance himself from\u00a0the Democratic frontrunner, he appears to\u00a0have adopted an isolationist viewpoint. During an interview with\u00a0the Washington Post on\u00a0Monday, Trump questioned the need for\u00a0the NATO alliance.<\/p>\n
“We certainly can\u2019t afford to\u00a0do this anymore,” he said. “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we\u2019re protecting Europe with\u00a0NATO, but\u00a0we\u2019re spending a lot of\u00a0money.”<\/p>\n
Trump stated a similar position with\u00a0regards to\u00a0US involvement on\u00a0the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n
“South Korea is [a] very rich, great industrial country, and yet we\u2019re not reimbursed fairly for\u00a0what we do,” he said. “We\u2019re constantly sending our ships, sending our planes, doing our war games \u2013 we\u2019re reimbursed a fraction of\u00a0what this is all costing.”<\/p>\n
![\"Anonymous](\"http:\/\/cdn5.img.sputniknews.com\/images\/103141\/19\/1031411966.jpg\" "\\"Anonymous")
<\/div>\nBut while Trump may be voicing support for\u00a0non-interventionism, his actions suggest otherwise. The billionaire provided the Post with\u00a0the five-member list of\u00a0his foreign policy team, and it includes a string of\u00a0individuals deeply invested in\u00a0the military industrial complex.<\/p>\n
At the top of\u00a0that list is Keith Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant. Kellogg is a former employee of\u00a0CACI International, a \u201cmultinational professional services and information technology company\u201d that operates across\u00a0the world.<\/p>\n
In 2004, CACI was sued by\u00a0256 Iraqis over\u00a0its alleged involvement in\u00a0torture, war crimes, and crimes against\u00a0humanity, in\u00a0relation to\u00a0the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.<\/p>\n
![\"Republican](\"http:\/\/cdn1.img.sputniknews.com\/images\/103568\/99\/1035689977.jpg\" "\\"Republican")
<\/div>\nNext on\u00a0Trump\u2019s list is Joe Schmitz, a former inspector general with\u00a0the US Defense Department and, perhaps even more problematically for\u00a0Trump\u2019s isolationism, a former employee of\u00a0security contractor Academi, when the company was still branded as\u00a0Blackwater.<\/p>\n
While Academi was still known as\u00a0Blackwater, the contractor was vilified after\u00a0its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians in\u00a02007. For his part, Schmitz once publicly argued that lawsuits regarding Blackwater\u2019s actions in\u00a0Afghanistan should be dismissed. He argued that any charges filed in\u00a0Afghanistan should be subject to\u00a0regional Sharia law, which, conveniently, does not hold companies responsible for\u00a0the actions of\u00a0its employees.<\/p>\n
George Papadopoulos, Trump\u2019s third adviser, is the director of\u00a0the Center for\u00a0International Energy and Natural Resources Law & Security at\u00a0the London Center of\u00a0International Law. While he doesn\u2019t have as\u00a0questionably hawkish a past\u00a0as Schmitz and Kellogg, he was a foreign policy adviser to\u00a0erstwhile presidential hopeful Ben Carson. Given that the neurosurgeon candidate struggled to\u00a0differentiate “Hamas” from “hummus,” it doesn\u2019t bode well for\u00a0Trump.<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"http:\/\/cdn5.img.sputniknews.com\/images\/103458\/54\/1034585411.jpg\" "\\"Donald")
<\/div>\n