Trump’s $1 billion-a-seat diplomacy club takes aim at the U.N.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump has expanded the idea of his proposed Gaza Board of Peace into a global body that would take on the role of conflict resolution currently held by the United Nations and carry a $1 billion fee for a permanent seat, according to a charter sent to prospective members. Trump announced the board last September as part of the Gaza cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The charter doesn’t mention Gaza or the U.N., describing a “nimble and effective international peace-building body" with Trump as chairman and other governments serving as member states. “Too many approaches to peace-building foster perpetual dependency, and institutionalize crisis rather than leading people beyond it," the charter’s preamble says, calling for “a coalition of willing States committed to practical cooperation and effective action." The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the charter. The expansive mandate underscored Trump’s accelerating push to replace the international system established by the U.S.

after World War II, which he has attacked for years as ineffective, with a new structure built around himself that bypasses existing multilateral institutions. Earlier this month he pulled the U.S. out of 31 U.N.

agencies and bodies, saying they operated “contrary to U.S. national interests." “It’s hard not to read this as an attempt to establish a precedent in Gaza that could be used elsewhere in terms of saying that Trump is going to be calling the global shots here, and you either fall in line or you’re not part of the process," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. China,