Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump will meet with former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger on Wednesday. The meeting with Kissinger comes after apparently weeks of telephone conversations between the two men. Trump had a similar meeting last week with former Secretary of State James Baker. Baker released a brief statement after the fact, offering no signs of support. Earlier that same day he criticized some of Trump's foreign policy plans before a Senate committee, without directly mentioning the presumptive GOP nominee.
"The more countries that acquire nuclear weapons, the more instability there is going to be in the world," Baker said in response to questions by former candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Trump has suggested he is open to more nations having nuclear weapons.
Kissinger has previously been critical of Trump as well, particularly his proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States.
"I don't think we can build a wall that excludes everybody," Kissinger said in December. "I do not favor an exclusion based on religion."
At the time he added if Trump became the nominee, he would "urge him not to make such a blanket exclusion." He also said at the time that while he would prefer another candidate, he was withholding a formal endorsement.
"I think the best contribution I can make is to contribute to the thinking about foreign policy. And I would not like to get into a fight between the various [candidates]," Kissinger said.
Trump also announced the hiring of a pollster late Monday. Tony Fabrizio has previously worked for Rubio and Florida Gov. Rick Scott during their statewide campaigns. He is considered to have strong ties to the large swing state. He is now also working for the man vying to be Rubio's replacement – Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.
Trump had previously criticized the usefulness of pollsters, at least in the primary.
"I don't have pollsters. I don't want to waste money on pollsters. I don't want to be unreal. I want to be me. I have to be me," Trump said in August.
The move to meet with Kissinger though is a likely a show of force that Trump is serious about getting into policy detail. But Kissinger is as controversial as he is respected across partisan lines.
He was praised earlier this year by Hillary Clinton, while critics to her left have called for his jailing for crimes in southeast Asia in the past.
Trump has been criticized throughout the campaign for having a scant policy advisory team around him, especially on foreign policy. He changed that earlier this year when he added Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, and George Papadopoulos, among others, to his campaign.
