Trump advisers meet with officials on UN sidelines ahead of US election

By Gram Slattery and Simon Lewis

(Reuters) – Some of Donald Trump’s advisers are meeting with foreign officials on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, where U.S. allies are seeking to understand what a Trump victory in the Nov. 5 election would mean for U.S. foreign policy.

It is unclear who met or planned to meet with the advisers, or what they intended to discuss. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, held the position from 2017 to 2021.

His foreign policy advisers have generally said they are careful not to promote specific policies in private conversations or engage in discussions that could be seen as damaging to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

A company founded by Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser, hosted a reception for senior foreign diplomats Monday night in Midtown Manhattan, according to a person familiar with the event.

Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director and secretary of state under Trump, was scheduled to host a separate reception Tuesday night, according to two people familiar with the event who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Those expected to attend include former Trump administration ambassadors, one of them said.

In response to a request for comment, the campaign did not address meetings between foreign officials and Trump advisers. A representative for Pompeo did not respond to a request for comment.

Opinion polls show Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in a tight race with Trump in key battleground states that could determine the winner, although a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris opening up a 7-percentage-point lead nationally.

A former Trump national security adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said he received up to six meeting requests a day from foreign officials, many from Central and Eastern Europe.

In recent weeks, Trump has been relatively quiet with foreign leaders, with some advisers urging him to decline some meetings to focus on his campaign and avoid unnecessary negative headlines in the final days of the campaign, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

The former president had planned to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda at a Polish-American Catholic shrine north of Philadelphia this weekend, but the Trump campaign canceled the joint appearance.

While Trump said on the campaign trail last week that he planned to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would “probably” meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this week, such meetings have yet to take place.

On Monday night, Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania that Zelenskiy wanted Democrats to win the next election.

Washington and its allies have provided a multibillion-dollar aid package to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, while imposing several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.

Trump has consistently called U.S. aid to Ukraine a waste of money and has refused to say he wants Ukraine to win, remarks that have raised concerns in Central and Eastern Europe. His allies say he has the business acumen to broker a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a statement, Trump’s campaign referred Reuters to an earlier statement by Trump, in which he said he was “the only one who can end the war (in Ukraine).”

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Washington and Simon Lewis in New York; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; editing by Phil Stewart and Howard Goller)