Former Congressman and Libertarian icon Ron Paul issued a warning to President-elect Donald Trump Friday, saying that neocons and shadow government figures are going to attempt to infiltrate and influence his presidency and prevent him from achieving successful change.

“Unfortunately, there has been several neoconservatives that are getting closer to Trump. And if he gets his advice from them then I do not think that is a good sign,” Paul told RT anchor Peter Lavelle.

“We look at the president, we look at what he said, we look at what he might do when you look at his advisors,” Paul said.

“But quite frankly there is an outside source which we refer to as the ‘deep state’ or the ‘shadow government’.” Paul warned.

“There is a lot of influence by people which are actually more powerful than our government itself, our president,” the congressman said.

“Yes, Trump is his own guy, more so than most of those who have ever been in before. We hope he can maintain an independence and go in the right direction. But I fear the fact that there is so much that can be done secretly, out of control of our apparent government and out of the view of so many citizens,” Paul urged.

Paul touched on the potential to radically alter US foreign policy to be less interventionist and hawkish, something he has long been an advocate for.

“During the campaign, he did talk a little bit about backing off and being less confrontational to Russia and I like that.” Paul noted.

“He criticized some the wars in the Middle East at the same time. He believes we should accelerate the war against ISIS and terrorism, without showing he has an understanding of what causes terrorism.” Paul added.

The former Congressman also warned that wars and military interventions can sometimes be forced upon a sitting President by dark actors.

“Sometimes the false flags and the unintended consequences are beyond the control of even a sincere President that would prefer that not to happen.” Paul noted.

Paul said that he believes it will be difficult for Trump to break the US away from NATO, as the candidate suggested he would do.

“Get the United States out of NATO, we should have never joined.” Paul said, noting that the long term goals of the US was to stay out of entangled military and political alliances.

“I’m optimistic in the long run, but it’s going to be messy in the short run,” Paul said, adding “The odds of Trump winning that argument are very slim.”

Paul also warned that Trump’s temperament on the international stage should not be taken lightly.

“He does not like to get pushed around so if it looks like we’re getting pushed around in the world his reflexes will be rather quick and they are not going to be wishy-washy, and that should concern people as well,” Paul said.

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