WASHINGTON (AP) – Confronting doubts about the depth of his knowledge of world affairs, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump delivered a sober speech to a pro-Israel crowd on Monday and outlined for the first time the team of foreign policy thinkers advising his campaign.
In a lengthy interview with the editorial board of The Washington Post, Trump outlined a distinctly non-interventionist approach for America in the world. It came with doubts about the benefits of the country’s decades of foreign engagement, including its role as an anchor of NATO.
“I do think it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation-building anymore,” Trump told the newspaper. He stressed instead the need to invest in infrastructure at home.
“At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?'” he said. “So, I know the outer world exists and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”
Trump has largely avoided the nitty-gritty of policy details during his campaign, focusing instead on boldly-stated goals and declining to say who he counts among his advisers – despite repeated promises to do so. The billionaire businessman said last week in an interview with MSNBC that his “primary consultant is myself.”