International

Battle brews over Trump’s foreign policy

21/11/2016

BY KRISTINA WONG

A battle is brewing between the GOP foreign policy establishment and outsiders over who will sit on President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team.

The fight pits hawks and neoconservatives who served in the former Bush administrations against those on the GOP foreign policy edges.

These libertarians, isolationists and realists see an opportunity to pull back America’s commitments around the world, spend less money on foreign aid and “nation-building,” curtail expensive military campaigns and troop deployments and intervene militarily only to protect American interests.

The establishment camp, many of whom disavowed Trump during the campaign, are pushing hardest for Stephen Hadley, who served as national security adviser under George W. Bush.

Another Bush ally, former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, also falls into this camp. His name has been floated as a possible secretary of State.

Other establishment candidates floated include Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), outgoing Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), rising star Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and senior fellow at conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute and former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.).