‘Today the world is richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago’.
Trump was being sincere when he made this pronouncement at the launch of his absurdly named Board of Peace initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.
Not for the first time, I was confused by his remarks. I wasn’t sure which world Trump was talking about.
Sure, the US President lives in a different realm to the rest of us, especially when it comes to facts, statistics and simple truths, but now I’m not sure he’s even in the same universe.
He continues to claim to have ‘put out all of those fires’ – to have ended multiple wars.
But let us look at just one conflict that Trump has claimed to have solved, that ended up sparking this whole endeavour.
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Gaza.
We know there is little peace there. Despite the US declaring a ceasefire in October 2025, Israel continues to kill civilians and journalists, with 463 Palestinians dying and 1,269 injured in the three months since then.
Now this Board of Peace organisation that Trump has muddled together – looking for all the world like a Mafia meeting – has even extended an invite to President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
The same Putin who has been under investigation for war crimes, and for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants, as they have for Benjamin Netanyahu, another proud member.
In response to this invite, Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has declared that the UK will not be joining the Board of Peace, citing the Labour Party’s ‘concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace’.
And rightly so.
But among the flock of leaders on the executive board sits our very own oxymoron regarding peace: Sir Tony Blair.
If the former Prime Minister had any qualms about joining, they weren’t sufficient enough to keep him away.
Blair has been heavily criticised for his support of the US-led 2003 war in Iraq that led to the British Armed Forces participation. A fifth of Brits think he should be tried as a war criminal – and quite frankly, I’m not surprised.
Blair joined Bush in invading the Middle East, and that decision led to the deaths of over 4,000 US, 179 UK troops and at least 200,000 Iraqi civilians.
And over 20 years on, the former Prime Minister clearly has no problem rowing in behind a US Presidency with an eye for war.
But even Blair’s presence is less of a gut punch than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, which he has reportedly accepted.
The very man who leads what a UN commission considers a genocide has been asked to be part of its peace mission.
This feels like satire – but so does everything Trump says.
When discussing the ‘peace’ he allegedly created, he continues to state that ‘a lot of people didn’t know, including me, that those wars were going on’.
Admitting to being oblivious – as the President of the US – to conflicts around the world, is outrageous, and in turn makes us all feel that little bit stupider for watching it.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who also sits on the Board of Peace, has unveiled a surreal vision for property and workforce redevelopments in Gaza – including coastal tourism. This feels like yet another Trump family money-maker, and people around the world appear all too eager to join so they can grab their chunk of Palestinian land.
The President himself has, after all, not been very secretive about his desire to open a luxury seafront redevelopment in Gaza.
Ultimately, this group feels like a colonial rebrand.
Western intervention is, after all, how Palestinians ended up suffering under conditions Amnesty International, other charities, and multiple historians consider apartheid.
Over a hundred years ago, the area was handed to the British by the League of Nations (established at the end of WWI), to establish a Jewish homeland in the region.
It has been a long time since Palestinians had autonomy over their entire land.
And with this latest carve up, they don’t look likely to have it any time soon.
I don’t believe Trump, Netanyahu or even Blair are looking to bring peace to Palestine. Everything we know about these men suggests they are concerned exclusively with looking after their own financial and military goals.
There is a suspicious lack of space being saved on the board for a Palestinian, or someone affected by the war in Gaza. And that is because it is not for them.
It’s a vanity project – an attempt for Trump to show off his big boy boots, stomping around the world without considering any consequences.
This is not a Board of Peace, but a group of opportunists, villains and power-hungry vultures.
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