By José Niño
When President Donald Trump unveiled his Board of Peace at a signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, the initiative promised a new framework for resolving the Gaza conflict. Yet the document establishing this international organization makes no mention of Gaza, Palestine, or the specific mandate outlined in the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized it.
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Instead, critics warn, the Board represents an unprecedented concentration of power in one individual’s hands, a pay to play system requiring billion-dollar contributions for permanent membership, and a governance structure that excludes the very people it purports to help.
The board emerged from Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza conflict, endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2803 in November 2025. However, the actual charter circulated to national capitals describes the board as “an international organization” seeking to “secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.” Its preamble asserts that “durable peace” requires “courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”
Most troubling is the governance structure itself. The Guardian reported:
Most of the text is devoted to the club rules, which make the chairman (Trump himself—the only person mentioned by name) all-powerful. All other members are selected by him and can be terminated by him. The chairman (mentioned 35 times in the document) can choose when the board meets and what it discusses. He can issue resolutions off his own bat.
Even permanent membership can be terminated by Trump, despite countries paying $1 billion “in cash funds” for that status.
According to the charter, Trump holds authority to veto any decision, approve or reject meeting agendas, invite or exclude member countries at his discretion, dissolve the entire board, select his successor, and maintain the chairmanship indefinitely, potentially beyond his presidency.
The board’s membership has raised eyebrows for both who joined and who declined.
Countries that agreed to participate include Argentina, Belarus, Morocco, Vietnam, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kosovo, Hungary, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. Notably absent are major European democracies.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban emerged as the board’s most enthusiastic supporter, declaring on social media: “If Trump, then peace. We have, of course, accepted this honorable invitation.” Orban characterized the board as “one of the first institutions of the new world order.”
The billion-dollar membership fee has drawn particularly sharp criticism. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Ca.) delivered one of the most pointed critiques at Davos:
I am not ignorant of the unprecedented corruption and graft we are witnessing in American history. I recognize that billion-dollar checks are being written to [Steven] Witkoff and Jared Kushner for the new peace agreement being announced today.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Ma.) posted simply: “This isn’t a Board of Peace, it’s Cash for Trump.”
Aaron Miller, a former U.S. diplomat, characterized the fee as fundamentally unserious:
Adding a billion-dollar entry fee as if this is getting a seasonal membership at Mar-a-Lago has created the sense that this is not serious.
Perhaps most controversial is the board’s composition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted Trump’s invitation despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant charging him with “war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare” and “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” in Gaza.
The executive board includes several figures who have sparked controversy. Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and a Peace Board member, “led a campaign to defund UPenn after it hosted a Palestinian literary festival. Told donors to ‘close their checkbooks’.”
Another Gaza Executive Board member, Yakir Gabay, an Israeli-Cypriot billionaire, “was part of a group chat with U.S. business leaders strategizing how to ‘change the narrative’ in favor of Israel after Oct. 7.”
Tony Blair’s involvement has proven particularly contentious. As former UK Prime Minister, Blair’s legacy includes the 2003 Iraq invasion and a tenure as Quartet envoy to the Middle East marked by failure to achieve a two-state solution.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese captured the outrage, posting: “Tony Blair? Hell no. Hands off Palestine. Shall we meet in the Hague perhaps?”
Palestinians themselves are conspicuously absent from both the main Peace Board and the Gaza Executive board. Instead, they are relegated to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a subordinate body tasked with managing municipal services under foreign supervision.
Independent journalist Ahmed Eldin described the hierarchical structure bluntly:
You have the Board of Peace. You have Trump as emperor of it. You have this founding [Gaza] Executive Committee. And then, you know, they’re under that. They have absolutely no sovereignty, no control and no real say over the decisions of the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.
Marc Weller, director of the international law program at Chatham House, offered a stark assessment:
In opting out of this consensus, the United States risks assuming the position of a rogue state within the international system.
The implications extend far beyond Gaza. Trump told reporters that the board might replace the UN, which “just hasn’t been very helpful.” Foreign Policy warned
Trump’s “Board of Peace” is neither an alternative to the UN nor a harmless vanity project but a threat to international cooperation.
Whether the board will achieve lasting peace remains deeply uncertain. What is clear is that its establishment marks a significant departure from seven decades of American leadership in multilateral institutions, concentrating unprecedented power in one individual while sidelining the people most affected by the conflict it claims to resolve.
José Niño is a writer based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is currently the Deputy Editor of Headline USA. You can contact him via Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.
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