President Trump convened the first meeting of his new Board of Peace on Thursday, announcing $7 billion in pledges from nine member countries to rebuild Gaza while offering few details about how Hamas can be disarmed or when Israel might fully withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
And in an unexpected foray into European politics that flouted diplomatic protocol, Mr. Trump publicly declared his “complete and total endorsement” for Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, in elections in April.
A right-wing populist and immigration hard-liner who attended the peace event in Washington, Mr. Orban is a hero to many pro-Trump conservatives but has struggled in polls ahead of the vote.
American presidents sometimes signal their preferences in foreign elections, but it is unusual for one to issue an explicit endorsement, for fear of seeming to meddle in another country’s politics. Mr. Trump said Mr. Orban “does an incredible job on immigration.”
Hosting Thursday’s event, Mr. Trump announced that nine of the more than 20 member countries have agreed to contribute to the Gaza rebuilding effort. Several are wealthy Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which said it would donate $1.2 billion.
Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania said they would commit peacekeeping troops to Gaza, while Egypt and Jordan have committed troops to train police there.
Mr. Trump also said the United States would contribute $10 billion to the board, without saying where the money would come from or whether Congress had been consulted on the matter.
The event was held at the U.S. Institute of Peace building in Washington. The modernist federal building was constructed to house an organization by the same name created by Congress in 1984, and which the Trump administration largely dismantled last year. Mr. Trump’s name has since been added to the building’s facade.
The foreign leaders who spoke at the event mixed praise for Mr. Trump with talk of Gaza’s bright future. But the juxtaposition of eye-popping dollar figures and thin policy details was conspicuous.
Hamas has still not agreed to disarm, and Israel still occupies much of the devastated territory, which by some estimates will cost $70 billion to rebuild. The promises of money and peacekeepers came with few specifics or timetables.
Mr. Trump announced his Board of Peace last fall, saying it would oversee the enactment of an October 2025 cease-fire that his administration had brokered between Israel and Hamas. A United Nations Security Council resolution later authorized the body to “set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza.”
But Mr. Trump — who celebrates himself as a peacemaker with inflated claims about having “stopped” eight wars worldwide — has since suggested grander ambitions for the board. “I think it’s going to go far beyond Gaza,” he told reporters on Monday. “I think it’ll be based all over.”
During Thursday’s event he went even further, suggesting that the board might one day supersede the United Nations itself. In the future, he said, “the Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly.”
(Mr. Trump actually spoke positively overall about the United Nations, which even many diplomats concede is often ineffective in the face of global conflict, saying he wanted to strengthen the global body. “We’re going to make sure the United Nations is viable,” he said, promising to “help them, moneywise.”)
Many major U.S. allies, including western European powers, have declined to join Mr. Trump’s board. They include France, which did not send a representative to Thursday’s event. A spokesperson for France’s foreign ministry complained about the “ambiguity” of the board’s scope, saying that it must “refocus on the situation in Gaza.”
But in his remarks at the event, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the idea that the board’s scope was in fact widening. Mr. Rubio said the body was formed because the “Gaza situation was impossible to solve under orthodoxy, under existing structures.”
But, he added, “We hope that this can serve as a model for other complex and difficult situations, so they can be solved in the same way.”
The event had more than one unusual detour.
In addition to Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Orban, Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania used his brief speaking slot to denounce the indictment by a special international tribunal in The Hague of Kosovo’s former president, Hashim Thaci, on charges of crimes against humanity committed during Kosovo’s war for independence more than 25 years ago.
Mr. Thaci’s indictment was delivered by Jack Smith, a federal prosecutor who was then the tribunal’s chief prosecutor. Mr. Smith later oversaw the Justice Department’s 2023 indictments of Mr. Trump on charges of election interference and mishandling classified documents.
Without mentioning Mr. Smith by name, Mr. Rama made sure Mr. Trump was aware of the connection, saying that Mr. Thaci’s indictment was “the doing of the very same sicario prosecutor that went after President Trump himself, and for that became worldwide famous.” Sicario is a Spanish word and Hollywood movie title that can connote thuggishness or criminality.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
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