# Walid Phares **Walid Phares** (born December 24, 1957, Batroun, Lebanon) is a Lebanese-American terrorism commentator who advised both the [[Mitt Romney]] 2012 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns. He links the American "counter-jihad" commentariat to a Christian militia from Lebanon's civil war. ## The Lebanon background During the 1980s Phares was a political adviser to Christian militants in Lebanon's civil war; he says his role was "only in a political capacity." A 2016 Mother Jones investigation quoted former Lebanese Forces official Toni Nissi: "Walid Phares was responsible for training the lead officers in the ideology of the Lebanese Forces." (The Lebanese Forces' role in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre is a charge against the militia, not against Phares personally.) ## U.S. career Phares emigrated in 1990 and taught Middle East studies at Florida Atlantic University from 1995. He was an NBC commentator (2003–06), a [[Fox News]] commentator from 2007, and a [[Newsmax]] analyst from 2022, and advised the House Anti-Terrorism Caucus from 2007. ## Trump 2016 Phares was paid $13,000 a month as a 2016 campaign adviser but received no government post. On July 20, 2016 he was part of the convention-sideline encounter with Russian ambassador [[Sergey Kislyak]] alongside [[J.D. Gordon]] and [[Carter Page]]. **Current status:** Newsmax analyst per Wikipedia; no 2025–26 activity verified. ## RWKB angle Phares is a bridge figure between the post-9/11 counter-jihad media ecosystem ([[Islamophobia]], [[Eurabia]]) and Republican campaign foreign-policy staffing. ## See Also - [[J.D. Gordon]] - [[2016 Republican Platform Ukraine Amendment]]