“The Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled,” Says Trump
Trump’s Board of Peace
Time reports Trump Sets Price Tag for Peace Board Membership
Donald Trump has described his proposed “Board of Peace”—the body that will oversee the transition and reconstruction of the war-wrought Gaza Strip—as “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place.” But that prestige apparently comes with a hefty price tag.
Countries will have to cough up at least $1 billion in order to secure a permanent seat on the board, according to a draft charter, while other members will have three-year terms. Bloomberg first reported on the high fee, and The Times of Israel posted a copy of the draft charter text.
“Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman. The three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force,” the draft reportedly says.
Putin invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza
CNN Reports Putin invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the committee that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, his spokesman said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters during a regular media briefing, Dmitry Peskov said: “President Putin also received through diplomatic channels an invitation to join this Board of Peace.”
He said the Kremlin is now reviewing the invitation and “hoping to get more details from the US side.”
‘Greatest Board Ever’
Described by Trump as the “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled,” the committee will include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. [Note: Carney is not no board and has set conditions]
Trump has also invited Israel to join the board as a founding member state, a senior Israeli official told CNN on Monday. According to the official, the invitation was extended to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another Israeli representative on his behalf.
Members of the committee will receive a permanent seat if they pay $1 billion, according to a US official, who told CNN that, while there was no requirement to contribute funds to the board, members who do not make the $1 billion payment will have a three-year term.
Trump Wants His Peace Board Signed in Davos. Macron Declines
Bloomberg comments Trump Wants His Peace Board Signed in Davos. Macron Declines
France’s Emmanuel Macron, for one, has come right out of the gate to decline an invitation that was also extended to strongmen such as Belarus’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko. Several liberal democracies are squirming, uncertain how to respond and not wanting to offend Trump.
They don’t have long to decide.
Trump wants the full constitution and remit of the committee signed in Davos on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. But some elements of the small print have left invitees wondering whether to accept.
Much of the concern centers on the wording of the peace board’s charter, seen by Bloomberg, which appears to place its ultimate decision-making power with Trump. That raises many questions — not least over where the payments for long-term membership would go, the people said.
So far, only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly pushed back against the proposal. While he’s in favor of the Board of Peace as a concept, his office said the make-up of a separate Gaza committee serving under the board, was “not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” after officials from Qatar and Turkey were included.
Others suggested they’d seek changes. Carney said that while he’s up for joining the board, “in principle,” the terms would need to be discussed. A person familiar with the matter made clear Canada would not pay the fee. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to endorse the board, saying only that he’d talk with allies about a response.
Former British premier Tony Blair, who was appointed as an executive to the board, is playing a key role behind the scenes along with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the people familiar with the situation added.
Privately, senior European officials are more strongly critical. Several told Bloomberg they saw it as a clear attempt by Trump to set up a rival or replacement for the United Nations, a body of which he has been a long-standing critic. They said the board was about far more than the reconstruction of Gaza and that Trump sees it as a vehicle to resolve other conflicts and control international events.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited by Trump to join the peace board, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. Moscow aims to contact the US side to clarify all the details of the proposal, he said.
A European official called that move farcical in light of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and said they had no doubt that the Russian leader would be delighted to accept. They warned it confirmed the dilemma for the continent: go along with what Trump wants or risk further splitting apart the transatlantic alliance.
Trump’s $1 Billion-a-Seat Diplomacy Club Takes Aim at the U.N.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump’s $1 Billion-a-Seat Diplomacy Club Takes Aim at the U.N.
President Trump has expanded the mission of his proposed Gaza Board of Peace into a global body that would take on the role mediating conflicts currently held by the United Nations and carry a $1 billion fee for a permanent seat, according to a charter sent to prospective members.
The expansive mandate underscored Trump’s accelerating push to replace the international system established by the U.S. after World War II, which he has attacked for years as ineffective, with a new structure built around himself that bypasses existing multilateral institutions. Earlier this month he pulled the U.S. out of 31 U.N. agencies and bodies, saying they operated “contrary to U.S. national interests.”
“It’s hard not to read this as an attempt to establish a precedent in Gaza that could be used elsewhere in terms of saying that Trump is going to be calling the global shots here, and you either fall in line or you’re not part of the process,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Around 60 governments have received invitations to join the board, but the reaction from most has been cautious so far. Asked Monday about the Trump plan, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters: “We’re talking to allies about the terms of the Board of Peace.”
In an invitation sent Friday to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Trump described the board as “a distinguished group of nations ready to shoulder the noble responsibility of building LASTING PEACE.” Sisi hasn’t responded to the invitation.
Several Arab countries object to involving the board in other conflicts, saying it should be exclusively focused on carrying out the Gaza peace plan at first, officials said. It is risky to create an alternative global peace and security architecture under Trump’s control, they added.
As chairman, Trump would have wide authority over the new organization, with the power to appoint and remove member states, as well as a veto over its decisions. The charter specifies that the board’s decisions will be “made by a majority of the member states present and voting, subject to the approval of the chairman, who may also cast a vote in his capacity as chairman in the event of a tie.”
It also reserves for the chairman the “exclusive authority” to create other entities to carry out the board’s mission.
You have to be truly brain dead to give $1 billion to Trump, controlled by Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner.
I doubt any country will donate, except perhaps the US (the latter not appropriated by Congress).
Observation of the Day
Related Posts
January 17, 2026: Trump Hits European Nations With Tariffs Until Deal Reached to Buy Greenland
If you need another reason IEEPA tariffs are idiocy, you have one.
January 18, 2026: We Are Now Bearing the Poisoned Fruit of Trump’s Self-Proclaimed Morality
Trump says his own morality is the only check on his power.
And here’s the irony of the day: Trump “No Longer Feels an Obligation to Think Purely of Peace”
