Donald Trump on Monday named several members of his team of foreign policy advisers in a meeting with The Washington Post’s editorial board, ending weeks of questions about whether Trump is surrounding himself with experts on global affairs.
The team of foreign policy advisers, led by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, consists of counter-terrorism expert Walid Phares, energy consultant George Papadopoulos, former Defense Department inspector general Joe Schmitz, managing partner of Global Energy Capital Carter Page and former Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the names to CNN.
“And I have quite a few more. But that’s a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do. But that’s pretty representative group,” Trump told the Washington Post editorial board.
Trump’s meeting with the Post came just hours before the real estate mogul is slated to take questions from the press at the hotel he is building in Washington.
Trump has for weeks said he would release the names of foreign policy advisers but has until now repeatedly missed his own deadlines.
Asked last week in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about his advisers, Trump first pointed to himself: “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain.”