Trump’s Board of Peace is No Challenge to the UN
Let’s stop the hand wringing, please
Donald J. Trump’s Board of Peace, on which Donald J. Trump serves as chair-for-life, held its inaugural meeting today at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump United States Institute for Peace. On hand will be leaders of about two dozen countries not typically associated with foreign policies that prioritize international humanitarian law and peaceful conduct in international affairs.
It was an odd juxtaposition: Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace gathered in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. appeared to be readying for war with Iran. In this week’s To Save Us From Hell episode, Mark and Anjali discuss why this Board of Peace can’t really compete with the Security Council, and what its advent says about international relations today. They then discuss a looming American attack on Iran, and what that suggests about the diminishing role of international law and the much-lamented rules-based international order. Finally, they unpack a bizarre confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs—who appears to be too racist for this particular role.
The major outcome of this meeting was announced ahead of time: in a social media post last week, Trump claimed he has received $5 billion in pledges for Gaza reconstruction. If true, that would be a massive sum. In all of 2025, donors committed about $4.2 billion in aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
I say “if true” because we’ve not seen any actual documentation of these pledges made through the Board of Peace. This is unlike the UN system, which assiduously documents pledges and then compares those pledges against actual committed funds. The UN does this because donors sometimes make a big show of promising money to a humanitarian crisis, only to never commit those funds. So, until we have clarification about whether this $5 billion actually exists as committed funds, it’s reasonable to be skeptical. Also, until we know how these funds will be spent—for example, on supporting local Gaza initiatives or as financing for real estate projects run by family members of the Chairman-for-Life of the Board of Peace—it is probably worth withholding judgment on the propriety of this kind of fundraising.
What we can judge right now is the notion that this Board of Peace will somehow challenge—even supplant—the United Nations and the Security Council. It won’t. And it can’t.
