cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29640
President Donald Trump pledged Thursday that the United States would provide $10 billion in funding for his so-called Board of Peace—without specifying where the money would come from or how it would be used.
“Totally illegal,” US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote in response to Trump’s remarks at the inaugural meeting of the president’s board, where attendees—from far-right Argentine President Javier Milei to FIFA president Gianni Infantino—were given MAGA-style red hats.
Trump said during the gathering that “the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace.”
“We’ve had great support for that number,” the president said, without saying from whom. “And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war. That’s two weeks of fighting. It’s a very small number. Sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small number, so we’re committed to $10 billion.”
Trump also said that member nations of the board have pledged $7 billion total for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which Israel has obliterated with the help of US weaponry. (The United Nations has estimated that Gaza reconstruction would cost more than $70 billion over the course of several decades.)
Watch Trump’s remarks:
Trump’s vow to provide $10 billion in US funds for a board he created and leads intensified concerns that the entire project is another grift by a president who has been described as the most corrupt leader in US history, openly using the power of his office to enrich himself and his family.
“Can’t help but notice that this insane attempted theft is the same sum he’s trying to steal from the Treasury, disguised as damages for the disclosure of his tax records,” wrote journalist Brian Beutler, referring to the $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed last month against the US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.
“Probably a coincidence, which is worse, because it implies double stealing,” Beutler added.
Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, warned in an op-ed for The Hill on Wednesday that the Board of Peace is part of the Trump administration’s “the monetization and privatization of foreign policy for personal enrichment.”
“Initially presented as a mechanism to oversee a Gaza-Israel peace process, it has been widely chided as just another unserious Trump vanity project,” Okail noted.
David Corn of Mother Jones wrote earlier this month that Trump is “essentially cooking up a global slush fund over which he will exert complete control.”
“Countries that get in early—while he’s president—will certainly be in a strong position to request preferential treatment in state affairs. The opportunities for graft and grift are immense. He will probably ask Congress to kick in the $1 billion pay-to-play membership fee to guarantee he’ll have a pot of money to spend (or pocket) at his fancy.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that USAID was not a perfect organization. I have said as much before. Countries are often not doing that kind of thing for purely altruistic reasons, but evidence suggests that people were getting food and healthcare through them that they otherwise would not have received. You can argue the benefits of supplying that vs upskilling or local investing, but people are now lacking something they used to be able to count on USAID for. I think good could have come from something like that, and there just isn’t the political will to remake that where possibly it could be used for good. I understand people may feel like reform is impossible, but I think a lot of USAID work was doing something for people that we owe something to. More and better should have been done, but I don’t think dismantling it the way they did helped as much as it hurt.