Trump’s Board of Peace wants to replace the UN

Boards are some of our favourite things: surfboards, hoverboards, smorgasbords…

But there’s a new board in town: President Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza.

He proposed it back in October as part of the Israel-Hamas truce, but headlines dried up (we were all a little distracted tbh) until last week, when the US shared more details.

So… who’s on board? (pun 100% intended) 

There’s one person whose participation is certain: Donald Trump. As chair, he’s claiming veto powers, agenda control, and even the right to select his successor.

You might’ve expected former British PM Tony Blair as another certainty, but word over the break was he’d been dropped, perhaps to mollify Middle Eastern leaders over his Iraq War role. He’s still listed on the Board, though there are rumours his role is now lighter.

The others in Trump’s first announcement are all US nationals, including Steve Witkoff (special envoy), Jared Kushner (son-in-law / advisor), Marc Rowan (Wall St billionaire), Ajay Banga (World Bank), Robert Gabriel (deputy natsec advisor), and Rubio (~everything).

Why so US-heavy? Our sense is it was tricky to get broader buy-in, so Trump opted to charge ahead into Phase Two of his Gaza plan while pressuring others to join.

But why so tricky? Capitals have quietly flagged a few Board concerns, including…

• a) the $1B fee for permanent membership (slated for Gaza’s reconstruction)
• b) the Trump-dominated structure (his is a lifetime chair role)
• c) fears Board membership will invite US pressure to send troops to Gaza
• d) mission creep (Trump says this Board could replace the UN), and…
• e) who else is involved.

On that last one (Board membership), Trump has now invited 60+ world leaders to maximise broader buy-in, which maybe makes sense until you recall…

• Inviting Putin 🇷🇺 is a shock for the continent he’s now attacking (Europe)
• Inviting Netanyahu 🇮🇱 is a non-starter for Erdogan 🇹🇷 (and vice versa)
• What are the chances Xi 🇨🇳 joins a board run by Trump (zero), and
• Some dislike a Gaza board without Gazans (who’d be a Netanyahu non-starter).

If you squint enough, it all looks like trying to organise an extended Thanksgiving when Uncle Gus still isn’t talking to Cousin Jennifer, who still hasn’t forgiven Grandma Gertrude.

A few have now joined, including Trump-friendly leaders in Argentina, Belarus, Hungary, Morocco, and the UAE, while POTUS has answered France’s ‘no’ with warnings of 200% wine tariffs until Macron joins! The beatings will continue until membership improves.

Anyway, the full Board reveal is slated for Davos tomorrow (Thursday), and you can bet US diplomats will be twisting arms right up to the buzzer.

Intrigue’s Take

You could pull on any of the above threads and get yourself a nice little podcast series, but let’s ask the obvious one: will this Board work? You might argue it’s already working in the unspoken sense of a placeholder to paper over Gaza’s vacuum-packed limbo, which at least extends the uneasy truce.

Yet any practical success depends not just on the Board’s pending membership, but also its expanding mandate. We say “expanding” not just because of the president’s “replace the UN” remarks, but because his draft Board charter doesn’t seem to mention Gaza! Rather, it now covers “areas affected or threatened by conflict” (aka the entire world).

And for all the UN’s flaws, that’ll still irritate UN Security Council members who rubber-stamped this Board on the grounds it’d oversee a technocratic Gaza, not set up some parallel structure then start passing the plate around for membership dues that’d eclipse the UN’s entire secretariat budget ($3.5B) with just four swipes of the national Amex.

Sound even smarter:

• It’s unclear if Putin’s invite is more US sweet-talking in hopes of Ukraine peace, or another example of Putin getting invited back to the red carpet, free of charge.
• Gaza’s reconstruction will cost at least $70B, according to UN estimates.