‘Orwell on Steroids!’ Ex-Bush Advisor GOES OFF on Trump Inviting Putin to be on ‘Board of Peace’

Richard Haass, the former advisor to President George W Bush and president of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2003 to 2023, went off on President Donald Trump on Monday morning after it was revealed that Trump had offered Russia’s Vladimir Putin a seat on his so-called “Board of Peace.”

MS Now’s Jonathan Lemire began the conversation by reporting the news.

Trump “has announced the formation of a new international committee to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. But countries who are seeking a long-term role will have to pay up. Listen to this: according to a draft charter, the group currently being dubbed the Board of Peace would grant permanent seats to countries that contribute $1 billion towards reconstruction efforts. Other member countries will be limited to just three-year terms on the board.”

“At least eight countries say they have been invited to join, with officials from Hungary and Vietnam saying they have accepted, while a Kremlin spokesman is saying that Vladimir Putin is studying the proposal. Putin got an invite to the Board of Peace. However, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a speech just moments ago that he will not endorse the board, declining to pay the $1 billion fee,” Lemire continued, adding:

Executive membership reportedly includes senior U.S. officials and some international figures, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also criticized the board, saying it was not coordinated with Israel and, quote, “runs contrary to its policy.”

So far, no representatives from Gaza have been appointed to the board. Richard, let’s just get your thoughts on this. First of all, this is sort of President Trump’s efforts to build his own UN, we think. You should illuminate viewers as to who would get control over the money—that $1 billion fee that would be submitted. And just, what is going on here?

“What is going on here? I could see paying a billion dollars not to be part of this,” Haass replied, adding:

That’d be one thing. Second of all, this is a kind of parallel to the UN body, really ill-defined. It’s not Gaza only. And by the way, the Israelis are unhappy with it because you’ve got countries like Turkey on it who have an agenda that the Israelis don’t buy into. You have Netanyahu disagreeing with this. We ought to be paying countries if they’re actually helping towards peace.

I would have thought we’d maybe incentivize them to do it, rather than have them pay up. And the idea that Vladimir Putin—I mean, this is—he’s considering the proposal. This is Orwell on steroids. The idea that Vladimir Putin, who is carrying out the most destructive war in decades in Europe, could be even talked about as joining an organization with the word “peace” in the title is just—again, it’s Orwellian. This makes absolutely no sense, but it’s a kind of privatization, to put it again. This is privatization of national security and foreign policy. And it ought to—I hope it just dies of its own weight.

Watch the clip above via MS Now.

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