President Donald Trump convenes his Board of Peace on Thursday with representatives from more than 40 countries and observers from a dozen more. The inaugural meeting’s focus is reconstruction and building an international stabilization force for a war-battered Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal persists.
Trump says board members have pledged $5 billion for reconstruction, a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory. Members also are expected to commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces, amid fears that Trump is seeking to create a rival to the United Nations.
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Vatican says the UN should remain paramount
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters earlier this week that “at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations.”
The Trump administration on Wednesday pushed back: “This president has a very bold and ambitious plan and vision to rebuild and reconstruct Gaza, which is well underway because of the Board of Peace,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “This is a legitimate organization where there are tens of member countries from around the world.”
And Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said board is “not talking, it is doing.”
“We are hearing the chattering class criticizing the structure of the board, that it’s unconventional, that it’s unprecedented,” Waltz said. “Again, the old ways were not working.”
Trump has stoked concerns that his board aims to rival the United Nations
Trump said this week he hopes the board would push the U.N. to “get on the ball.”
“The United Nations has great potential,” he said. “They haven’t lived up to the potential.”
US fine arts commission is expected to advance Trump’s White House ballroom proposal
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is one of two federal panels reviewing the president’s plans to build a ballroom twice the size of the White House itself on the site of the former East Wing.
The commission, now led by Trump’s appointees, is scheduled to further discuss the project at its monthly meeting on Thursday, held over Zoom.
At last month’s meeting, some of those commissioners questioned the architect about the “immense” design and scale of the project even as they broadly endorsed the president’s vision for the massive expansion.
UN Security Council members blast Israel’s West Bank plans on eve of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting
Members of the United Nations Security Council are calling for Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent, and blasting Israeli efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution. They met Wednesday on the eve of Trump’s first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.
The high-level U.N. session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board’s meeting for the same day, complicating travel plans for diplomats. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations’ most powerful body and Trump’s broader ambitions to broker global conflicts, which have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council.
US trade deficit slipped to $901 billion last year amid Trump tariffs
The U.S. trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025 as Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries.
The gap the between the goods and services the U.S. sells other countries and what it buys from them narrowed to just over $901 billion from $904 billion in 2024, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Exports rose 6% last year, and imports rose nearly 5%. The trade gap surged from January-March as U.S. companies tried to import foreign goods ahead of Trump’s taxes, then narrowed most of the rest of the year.
Trump’s tariffs are a tax paid by U.S. importers and often passed along to their customers as higher prices. But they haven’t had as much impact on inflation as economists originally expected. Trump argues that the tariffs will protect U.S. industries, bringing manufacturing back to America and raising money for the U.S. Treasury.
Countries that have said they’ll join
Include Argentina, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, El Salvador, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kosovo, Morocco, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
See the full list of countries that have joined, opted out or haven’t decided.
Trump’s vision for the board
It has morphed since the group was initiated as part of the president’s 20-point peace plan to end the conflict in Gaza. Since the October ceasefire, Trump wants it to have an even more ambitious remit — one that will not only complete the Herculean task of bringing lasting peace between Israel and Hamas but will also help resolve conflicts around the globe.
How to disarm Hamas
These questions are central to the discussions. A key demand of Israel and a cornerstone of the ceasefire deal is the creation of an armed international stabilization force to keep security and ensure the disarmament of the militant Hamas group.
Thus far, only Indonesia has offered a firm commitment to Trump for the proposed force. And Hamas has provided little confidence that it is willing to move forward on disarmament.