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Sessions: Trump Not ‘Trigger Happy’

Sen. Jeff Sessions discussed Donald Trump's foreign policy

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump at an Alabama Rally. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump at an Alabama Rally. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Donald Trump is not “trigger happy” when it comes to foreign policy, said his chief Senate supporter.  

“I think you’d have a foreign policy that when we identify an enemy, [Trump] would move with strength and vigor, and he would be more reluctant to see us enmeshed in conflicts around the globe for which there is no real end in sight,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said at a breakfast Thursday hosted by the American Council for Capital Formation. He later added, “So I don’t think this is a trigger-happy guy.”  

Sessions was the first, and so far, the only senator to endorse Trump , the billionaire GOP presidential front-runner. In early March, Trump named Sessions the chairman of his national security advisory committee.  

Sessions told the group gathered at The Monocle restaurant near the Capitol, that he was in the process of talking with other potential advisers to Trump. The front-runner said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that “my primary consultant is myself” on foreign policy.  

“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things,” Trump said.  

His statement prompted a reporter to ask Sessions whether he was helping to put together a team of experts to advise Trump.  

“I’m talking to a lot of good people,” Sessions said, “and I’ll be talking to Mr. Trump today to report on those calls, and just try to make sure that I’m sharing with him honestly, a lot of these private conversations, as other candidates are having.”  

The Alabama Republican also delved into the state of working Americans, and said their disillusionment with so-called establishment politicians  and the country’s economic situation has contributed to Trump’s rise.  

“People are not happy out there. We’ve got to recognize this,” Sessions said. “So they believe that immigration is impacting their ability to get a job.”  

Sessions stressed the need to focus on talking to middle and working class Americans, rein in illegal immigration, and increase leverage in trade deals by shifting to bilateral agreements. Trump’s ability to sustain his front-runner status, Sessions argued, proves that this is a winning strategy.  

“I think that it validates, maybe even more than I suspected, the hunger for the American people for somebody that listens to them,” Sessions said. “We promised these trade agreements are going to be great, we promised that we’re going to fix immigration for 30 years, and it hadn’t happened. So I think people have a right to be mad.”

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