The Guardian / January 22, 2026
Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Julian Borger; produced by Tom Glasser, Ruth Abrahams, Isaaq Tomkins and Brian McNamara; executive producer Homa Khaleeli.
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Trump’s board of peace includes Putin, Netanyahu and Tony Blair. What on earth will it do? Julian Borger reports.
Donald Trump promised to bring peace to Gaza. And part of that promise was the creation of a board of peace. For months it was unclear who would be on it, but now we know: Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside billionaire businessmen and Tony Blair.
Apart from how Putin and Netanyahu – who have been accused of war crimes – can bring peace, there are other questions. The charter of the board makes no mention of Gaza. And there is apparently a price tag – if you want to stay on the board for more than three years, you must pay $1bn.
So what’s Trump trying to do? “He sees the board of peace as being the strong men from around the world who get around a table and thrash things out,” says Julian Borger, the senior international correspondent at The Guardian. “In the charter, it says it will take a pragmatic approach to peace-making and rejecting the failed methods and institutions that went before, presumably a swipe at the UN.”
But is he doing more than taking a swipe, asks Nosheen Iqbal: is he trying to replace it? “He wants to remake the world where all the institutions are institutions that he runs,” Julian says. “The UN has been left sidelined. The board of peace, he says, “it’s about him having a club like the G7, G20, but with him very much in charge. He’s the only individual named in the charter, and not as a president of the United States but as him, Donald J Trump.”
Julian Borger is The Guardian’s senior international correspondent based in London
Nosheen Iqbal is the host of The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast
