One of Elon Musk’s former DOGE recruits has been elevated to the controversial board Donald Trump set up to advance his dream of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Josh Gruenbaum, a little-known ex-Department of Government Efficiency worker, is now a senior adviser on Trump’s Board of Peace, working alongside executive board members such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The board was set up by the president last year, in part, to rival the UN, which Trump views as a “failed” institution. It offers permanent membership for a $1 billion dollar fee, with the stated goals of “promoting stability” and restoring “lawful governance” in conflict zones, initially focusing on reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
However, many U.S. allies—including Italy, the UK, and France—refused to join the organization where Trump, as the board’s chairman, has significant power over the charter, financial commitments, and decision-making.
Pope Leo was also invited to join, but the Vatican declined, saying it was “perplexed” by some of the board’s plans and that “critical issues” needed to be resolved.
“At the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See Secretary of State said in February.
Gruenbaum’s role, first reported by Politico, includes planning for post-conflict governance and reconstruction in Gaza after years of being bombed by Israel in its war with Hamas.
He has also reportedly been working on special envoy Steve Witkoff’s team, giving him a front row seat to the administration’s biggest foreign policy efforts, such as its attempts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
One photograph captured in January shows him alongside Witkoff and Kushner, shaking the hand of Russian president Vladimir Putin during closed-door meetings.
But being on the Board of Peace could be a challenging job for members, with Trump’s vision of a Middle East “Riviera” raising concerns among critics who fear it would involve the potential displacement of Palestinians.
A new study published in the Lancet journal last month estimates that at least 75,200 people died violently during the war between October 2023 and January 2025. This figure was significantly higher than the approximate 49,000 deaths reported over the same period by the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Gruenbaum was one of a group of Musk allies installed at the General Services Agency in January last year as part of a sweeping effort to overhaul federal procurement.
According to the Wall Street Journal, he has helped Kushner craft a postwar reconstruction plan “to turn Gaza into a high-tech hub with beach resorts, and previously worked on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution formalizing Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on the roles, which come at a critical juncture for Trump as he seeks to cement his legacy as a “peace president.”
The 79-year-old commander in chief has long made the dubious claim that he resolved eight wars in eight months while arguing he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
But last week, he took credit for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon while inexplicably upping the count of wars he claims he solved.
“It has been my Honor to solve 9 Wars across the World, and this will be my 10th, so let’s GET IT DONE!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
