Trump outlnes his foreign policy path

WASHINGTON -

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."

His newly-announced team, chaired by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), includes Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and Joseph E. Schmitz - a group with varying degrees of foreign policy experience.

During the interview, Trump stumbled when questioning the U.S. role in assisting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia and arguing other members of NATO should be doing more.

"They're not doing anything. And I say: 'Why is it that Germany's not dealing with NATO on Ukraine? Why is it that other countries that are in the vicinity of Ukraine, why aren't they dealing?' " he said. "Why are we always the one that's leading, potentially the third world war with Russia?"

In fact, since the Ukraine crisis erupted more than two years ago, the Obama administration has refused to provide the new, pro-Western government in Kiev offensive military equipment to use against Russian-backed separatists. Ukraine is not a member of NATO and has only received defensive materiel from the U.S. and its allies.

And while a February 2015 ceasefire helped reduce the worst of the violence, Germany and France spearheaded that mediation effort. The United States wasn't directly involved.

Trump has also drawn concerns from Jewish leaders for saying he would attempt to be "neutral" in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He worked to soothe those worries Monday in a major speech before the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.

Trump discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said he would reject any attempt by the United Nations to impose conditions on either side during future peace talks.