Donald Trump outlines isolationist policy and advisor team

White House hopeful Donald Trump outlined Monday a starkly isolationist stance and a advisory team drawn from the energy industry and the wilder fringes of Washington’s foreign policy establishment.

Trump, who is closing in on the Republican presidential nomination, had been under pressure to name a foreign policy team, amid reports that mainstream experts are loath to endorse him.
But in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post editorial board, the property baron turned Republican frontrunner rattled off half a dozen names prepared to lend their reputation to his campaign.

And, despite the association of some of the figures with the Middle East adventurism of George W. Bush’s administration, he endorsed a radical retreat from the United States’ security commitments overseas.

“I do think it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation-building anymore,” Trump told the paper, dismissing his fellow Republican’s record in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think it’s proven not to work, and we have a different country than we did then. We have $19 trillion in debt,” he added, promising to build up the US military but to send it to fewer places.

Trump raised concern about China’s aggressive posture in the South China Sea, where its forces are building bases on disputed reefs and newly-built artificial islands, but he said allies South Korea and Japan should pay more for US protection.

And in Europe, he criticized Germany for not tackling Russian ambitions in Ukraine, warning the leading role played by Washington in the NATO alliance is no longer affordable and will be scaled back.

Later, at a press conference, he said he would seek a better relationship with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, rather than confrontation.