Some of the United States’ longest standing allies have scorned en masse a signing ceremony for Donald Trump’s new “Board of Peace” initiative.
Not a single representative from a Western European country was present at the launch Thursday morning at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Fewer than 20 nations made an appearance, among them Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, along with Argentina and Paraguay. The number stands well below the 35 anticipated by senior White House officials.
“Every one of them’s a friend of mine,” Trump said from the stage. “In this group I like every single one of them, can you believe it? Usually I have about two or three that I can’t stand.”
“They’re great people,” he added. “They’re great leaders.”
As about a dozen world leaders sat stone-faced on the stage, Trump went on to brag that his new group would bring “glorious peace” to the Middle East.
“For that region and for the whole region of the world, because I’m calling the world a region,” he said. “The world is a region.”
“Everybody in this room is a star. You’re all stars,” he said.
At several points throughout the signing ceremony, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to be the only person in the room loudly applauding before others slowly joined in.
Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which offers permanent membership for a $1 billion dollar fee, has the stated goals of “promoting stability” and restoring “lawful governance” in conflict zones, initially focusing on reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. But critics have slammed the initiative as an effort by Trump to create a MAGA-fied corollary to the United Nations.
Israel, whose president Isaac Herzog is presently at the Davos summit, did not send a representative to Wednesday’s ceremony.
Other invitees who’d otherwise attended the conference—among them French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—also did not show up.
European partners have expressed skepticism about the “Board of Peace” given the U.S. president’s decision to invite Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, who’s engaged in a bloody war against Western ally Ukraine, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally and key enabler of that conflict.
The initiative’s unveiling also came amid Trump’s own mounting threats to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, which the president has chalked up to his snub for the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” the MAGA leader wrote in a letter to Norway’s prime minister earlier this week.
The Norwegian government is not in any way affiliated with the Nobel Committee, a non-state body that decides independently who will be granted its various prestigious awards.
On Wednesday, Trump said progress had been made toward a deal on advancing U.S. interests in Greenland while avoiding military confrontation with other NATO members and the brewing trade war with Europe his threats have helped spark.
