Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday met with Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and national security advisor under President Richard Nixon.
The meeting, which took place at Kissinger’s home, came as Trump seeks support from members of the Republican establishment and to shore up his foreign policy credentials. Last week, Trump met with former Secretary of State James Baker.
Trump has so far eschewed Republican foreign policy orthodoxy, saying he opposed the 2003 Iraq War, and calling into question the U.S.’s military alliances and the benefits of international trade.
Kissinger recently weighed in on the presidential campaign at a Pentagon ceremony where he was awarded the Department’s top civilian honor.
“We are entering a presidential campaign, and it seems to be the habit of political figures now to contrast themselves with the evils of their predecessors and of aspirants to office to contrast themselves with the evils of the incumbent,” he said at the May 9 ceremony.
Kissinger told Fox Business News in December that he opposed Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants.
“If he were the Republican nominee he would urge him not to make such a blanket exclusion,” said Kissinger, who was himself an immigrant. He also said he would be more comfortable with another nominee, according to CNN.
Kissinger himself has been a controversial figure in the presidential campaign.
Hillary Clinton touted a compliment from Kissinger during the fifth Democratic debate, saying “I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better — better than anybody had run it in a long time. So I have an idea of what it’s going to take to make our government work more efficiently.”
The comment prompted fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to say he was “proud” that Kissinger was not his friend and that his role in the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War made him responsible for one of the “worst genocides in the history of the world.”
(via: The Hill)
