MEET THE MEN SHAPING DONALD TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY VIEWS

By Missy Ryan

Chicago Tribune
March 21, 2016

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump on Monday provided five names on his foreign policy team after months of speculation over who could be advising the businessman frontrunner. Here's what we know so far about the advisers named by Trump in a meeting with the Washington Post.

Joseph Schmitz

Schmitz served as inspector general at the Department of Defense during the George W. Bush administration. A Los Angeles Times investigation in 2005 revealed a number of issues with Schmitz's term there:

"Schmitz slowed or blocked investigations of senior Bush administration officials, spent taxpayer money on pet projects and accepted gifts that may have violated ethics guidelines, according to interviews with current and former senior officials in the inspector general's office, congressional investigators and a review of internal email and other documents.

"Schmitz also drew scrutiny for his unusual fascination with Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, a Revolutionary War hero who is considered the military's first true inspector general. Schmitz even replaced the official inspector general's seal in offices nationwide with a new one bearing the Von Steuben family motto, according to the documents and interview," the Times reported.

He later became a senior official at the Prince Group, the parent company of defense contractor Blackwater. In an article in The Washington Post covering the move, Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, said, "The inspector general is a standard-bearer for ethics and integrity for the Pentagon. To see a person who has been holding that position cash in on his public service and go work for one of their contractors is tremendously disappointing."

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.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Schmitz attended the U.S. Naval Academy and Stanford Law School, and has worked in recent years for two small law firms bearing his name. His father is the late former Republican Congressman John G. Schmitz, who was also a member of the right-wing John Birch Society.

One of Schmitz's siblings is Mary Kay Letourneau, the ex-schoolteacher who received seven years in prison for child rape after starting a relationship with a 13-year-old student.

George Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos directs an international energy center at the London Centre 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.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he has had meetings with the president of Cyprus and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. He obtained a Masters from the University of London in 2010 and an undergraduate degree from DePaul University in 2009.

A biography on Carson's website says Papadopoulos "designed the first ever project in Washington, D.C. think tank history on U.S., Greece, Cyprus and Israel relations at a symposium entitled 'Power Shifts in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Emerging Strategic Relationship of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus.'"

Papadopoulos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Walid Phares

Phares is a provost at BAU International University, an institution in downtown Washington that was founded in 2013.

According to his LinkedIn profile and his personal website, Phares has taught at various colleges and universities and has advised members of Congress. He has also been an analyst for Fox News. He obtained his PhD from the University of Miami.

Phares attracted attention in 2012 when, as an advisor to Mitt Romney's presidential bid, a Mother Jones story linked him to armed Christian factions blamed for abuses in Lebanon's civil war:

"During the 1980s, Phares, a Maronite Christian, trained Lebanese militants in ideological beliefs justifying the war against Lebanon's Muslim and Druze factions, according to former colleagues. Phares, they say, advocated the hard-line view that Lebanon's Christians should work toward creating a separate, independent Christian enclave.

A photo obtained by Mother Jones shows him conducting a press conference in 1986 for the Lebanese Forces, an umbrella group of Christian militias that has been accused of committing atrocities. He was also a close adviser to Samir Geagea, a Lebanese warlord who rose from leading hit squads to running the Lebanese Forces."

He did not immediately respond to attempts by the Post to contact him.

J. Keith Kellogg Jr.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Kellogg is a former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he served as chief operating officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. He has also worked at Oracle, CACI International, an intelligence and information technology consulting firm with clients around the world, and Abraxas, a risk mitigation firm.

Kellogg was interviewed by The Washington Post in 2005 soon after he joined CACI:

"I started my career in the U.S. military. Traditionally in the military . . . you either start with a technical background or a more leadership-focused one. I took the leadership path. The scope of responsibility starts from leading about 30 people to where I finished with 14,000 people that I led and managed. You are responsible for budget, housing, feeding, training, equipping, making sure that the families are taken care of. So it's a huge management responsibility."

Kellogg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carter Page

Page, a longtime energy executive, told The Washington Post that he and other advisers have met with the Trump campaign. Page is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and rose through the ranks at Merrill Lynch before founding his current firm, Global Energy Capital. 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, Carter told the Post in a phone call. He is also a fellow at the Center for National Policy in Washington and has a PhD from the University of London.

In a September 2014 article, Page appeared to blame NATO in part for provoking Russia.

While interventionist policies of the Soviet Union might have stood as the pivotal threat in Europe when Thatcher was rising to power as she argued at the time, similar aggressive policies of pushing NATO right to Russia's doorstep have instigated today's predicament.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Where did Trump dig these guys up? Off of his TV show? Never mind all the bickering within the Republican Party … his choice of foreign policy advisers is a good reason for him not to be the presidential nominee.