Donald Trump's Pantomime United Nations
Ishaan Tharoor
The New Yorker
February 21, 2026 Click here for the article
Summary
Trump's newly created Board of Peace held its inaugural formal meeting on February 20 at the renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., drawing foreign leaders, diplomats, and officials who lavished the President with praise.
The meeting focused nominally on Gaza reconstruction, with participating nations pledging approximately $7 billion and offering thousands of military personnel for a proposed international stabilization force, though details on fund disbursement, force deployment, and oversight remain vague.
The board's founding charter enshrines Trump personally — not the US presidency — as chairman in perpetuity, and its logo is widely seen as a near-copy of the UN emblem, with the world map replaced by a graphic covering only North America, northern Latin America, and Greenland.
Analysts and diplomats view the board as a deliberate attempt to supplant the UN Security Council, operating under sole US veto power rather than genuine multilateralism. Traditional US allies in Europe have largely rebuffed membership, while participants include a mix of Gulf states, countries involved in alleged Trump peace initiatives, and ideological allies such as Argentina's Javier Milei and Hungary's Viktor Orbán.
Critics note that no Palestinian official holds a senior position in the board's structure, leading the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to dismiss it as "a colonialist operation." Fundamental obstacles remain in Gaza, including Hamas's refusal to fully disarm and ongoing Israeli military operations, casting doubt on whether pledged reconstruction funds will ever materialize.
Meanwhile, the US continues to withhold nearly $4 billion in UN dues, deepening the organization's financial crisis, with no other world power stepping forward to compensate.
Quotes
"It's not a genuinely multilateral one where others have a say, or the United States is constrained," but one where "the United States, and Trump personally, is at the center of everything." — Phil Gordon, former White House coordinator for the Middle East
"Despite all of its failings, [the UN] has been a big part of eighty years of unparalleled peace and prosperity in human history." — Thant Myint-U, historian and grandson of UN Secretary-General U Thant
"As absurd as it is, it's also the only game in town." — Phil Gordon
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