President Donald Trump wants to hijack the world’s foremost economic meeting with a special “ceremony” paying homage to his $1 billion peacekeeping grift.
Sources cited by Bloomberg on Monday described widespread confusion behind the scenes as Trump embarked on a last-minute push for a signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos to thrust his newly unveiled “Board of Peace” front and center.
Announced by the White House last week, the board is ostensibly meant to guide Gaza’s post-war reconstruction and was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council last November.
However, there’s no mention of Gaza in its charter, and as more details have emerged about the new body’s composition and its reported $1 billion buy-in fee, questions are mounting about what the real endgame is.
A flurry of world leaders received spammy invitations to join the “one of a kind” board over the weekend, including accused war criminal Vladimir Putin and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
While the Kremlin and Lukashenko appear to have been buoyed by Trump’s overture for them to rejoin the global stage, other world leaders were baffled by the board’s steep price tag.
European officials are already scrambling to change the terms of the board, according to Bloomberg. Of particular concern is where the permanent membership fee would go, and what guarantees would exist to ensure the funds are applied to rebuilding Gaza, as an unnamed U.S. official claimed in comments to the Associated Press.
Trump’s position as chair of the board has also reportedly made some European officials uneasy, as it would appear to leave all decision-making power in the hands of a man who is not only threatening to seize control of Greenland, but who has now openly admitted that he no longer feels the need “to think purely of Peace” after he was snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize.
With thousands of attendees gathering in Switzerland for the four-day annual meeting to discuss “improving the state of the world,” Trump appears to be scheming to inject a bit of his trademark dysfunction into an otherwise prestigious gathering.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who’s leading the U.S. delegation for Trump, is planning to take an aggressive stance ahead of Trump’s arrival to fend off European criticism and sell the president’s oft-repeated claim that America is the “hottest” country in the world right now.
Trump, due to arrive in Davos on Wednesday, is said to be maneuvering to have the full constitution and remit of his “Board of Peace” signed in a separate ceremony on Thursday. As of Monday afternoon, a handful of world leaders had already signaled they have no intention to join, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what the ceremony might entail.
