Trump, who has cited himself as his primary foreign policy adviser, has announced eight team members so far, one of whom has discrepancies on his résumé.
George Papadopoulous, a 2009 graduate of DePaul University, has described himself in several lengthy published résumés as an oil and gas consultant and expert in eastern Mediterranean energy policy.
But his claim to have served for several years as a fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute was refuted by David Tell, Hudson senior fellow and director of public affairs, who said the institute’s “records indicate that Mr. Papadopoulos started here as an unpaid intern in 2011 and subsequently provided some contractual research assistance to one of our senior fellows.”
Papadopoulos also lists attendance as “U.S. Representative at the 2012 Geneva International Model United Nations.” Two people who were part of the delegation that year, including Antony Papadopoulos (no relation), current secretary general of the Geneva program, said they had no recollection of him being there.
He also cites the delivery of a keynote address at the 2008 annual American Hellenic Institute Foundation Conference. The conference agenda that year noted Papadopoulos’s participation on a youth panel with other students; it lists 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis as the keynote speaker.
Asked via his LinkedIn account about these discrepancies, Papadopoulos initially replied with a question. “Is it true that the ‘establishment GOP foreign policy advisers,’ many of whom I’ve met, are confused why the presidential front runner chose a group of experts with regional, on the ground experience, with track records of getting deals done with governments, instead of relying on their failed policies they likely devised at Starbucks on Pennsylvania Ave? If so, I am very shocked.”
He referred subsequent emailed questions about the discrepancies, how he met Trump, what he admires in the candidate’s foreign policy vision and what he would like to achieve in a Trump administration to campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.