Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Debuts in Davos Amid Big Questions (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: President Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. And the president's envoys are set to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow. This is the latest round of negotiations on the war in Ukraine. It has been a busy morning, to say the least. A short time ago, the president officially launched his so-called Board of Peace. Nineteen nations attended the sighing ceremony, but the only European ally present, Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orban. The absence of any other major European allies was notable there. The board was created to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, though the president has hinted the scope could be much, much wider.

[00:00:42] Speaker 2: Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do, and we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations. You know, I've always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential, has not used it.

[00:00:55] Speaker 1: All right, also this morning, there are new questions about what the president called a framework of a future deal on Greenland. He retreated on his latest tariff threats to European allies, but what was actually agreed to remains a bit vague. Let's get right to CNN's Caitlin Collins, who's been working round the clock in Davos with the very latest. Like I said, a whole lot of activity, but a whole lot of questions, too.

[00:01:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, John, there is, and I was just in the president's speech as he was sitting down with the world leaders that we know have signed on to this board of peace. Many of them were either on that stage or represented by some of their top senior aides on stage there. The White House says that they believe about 30 of the 50 countries, 50-ish, I would say. They didn't specify exactly how many people have been invited, but about 30 of those have signed on to being on the board of peace. According to the White House, these invitations, though, just went out last Friday, which is why the White House says you didn't see all of those members on that stage. And though the president says that everyone wants to be on the board of peace and that he's gotten no rejections, almost, or very few, we do know that there are several countries that are at least still skeptical of this and have not yet committed to joining. That includes the United Kingdom, France, Norway, several others, Italy as well, that have not yet said yes to this. One person who has, according to the president, said yes is President Putin of Russia. That is something the Kremlin has not yet confirmed, though they've been talking about using his frozen assets in the United States to pay to be on the board of peace after that first three-year term is up. All of that is still up in the air, and it's still a big question of what exactly the future of the board of peace is going to look like. The White House is certainly touting it, and when we were just in the room a few moments ago, we heard not just from President Trump but from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, and Steve Whitkoff as well, who, as you noted, John, are headed to Russia later today. They really focused on Gaza, quite an ambitious plan, as far as Jared Kushner going through a PowerPoint, basically, to rebuild Gaza. And one slide that I saw estimated it would cost probably about $25 billion. It's not clear who exactly is going to pay all of that $25 billion that they have for their vision of reconstructing Gaza, but that is at least what the president was setting out to do today before he's got these other bilateral meetings with other world leaders, including Ukraine's President Zelensky, who was not initially slated to be here. We did just spot him, though, as he is set to meet with the president soon, John.

[00:03:25] Speaker 1: So, Caitlin, as we wait for word on what comes out of that meeting, what is actually known about what kind of deal there is over Greenland, if there is, in fact, a deal?

[00:03:39] Speaker 3: Not a ton of detail. We were waiting for the president last night as he was finishing up meetings here at the Davos Forum. And when he came out, that was when he had announced in the middle of that, after that meeting with the NATO secretary-general, that they had reached that framework. When he came out, we asked for details, because it wasn't really clear the timeline, whether or not it still included U.S. ownership, like the president has been demanding. All of those were still huge questions here. And the White House says, basically, that the details will be released once it's fully agreed to. So this is still very much a prospective deal, but it has gotten the president to back down off his tariff threat. And, obviously, as he was ruling out military force in Greenland yesterday, he told me it's an infinite deal that would go on forever, John, when I asked the president if he still wants to own Greenland, as he has made very clear that he wants to do. So there's still a lot of questions there in terms of what exactly that's going to look like. And I'll tell you, I just spoke to Kevin Hassett, one of the president's top economic advisors here on the sidelines of Davos. He said those details still aren't fully known to him either. And, obviously, he works in the economic sphere, but the tariff threat that the president had made that relevant to his portfolio. So there are still questions, even within the administration, of exactly what this deal is going to look like and, of course, whether or not it's ultimately agreed to.

[00:04:55] Speaker 1: Yeah. I suppose I should have been much more careful about even calling it a deal at this point, a framework with a lot of questions still remaining. Kaitlin Collins in Davos, like I said, I mean, like a 40-hour day straight for you. Thank you for all the work you're doing there. Keep us posted as there are new developments.

[00:05:11] Speaker 4: This is the president in Davos, where he has just finished the signing ceremony for the Board of Peace Charter. This is a board that has, at the moment, at least 20 charter members, countries from Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Hungary. And the purpose of the Board of Peace is to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, promote stability and peace in governments, and also restore law and governance in conflict zones. Which brings us to the next point. The president just now, in his comments, was asked about Ukraine, which obviously is still mired in its war with Russia. The president said that there may be a meeting with Putin today or tomorrow, that he's still, the U.S. is still interested in working on that particular conflict. I want to add one more thing, which is that this kind of wraps up an interesting 48 hours in Davos, where the president backed away from tariff threats against European allies over his goal of taking Greenland in an extensive speech yesterday, where he said he would not use force. So I want to talk to my panel about all of this, because I think even a few weeks ago, Megan, you and I were like, why is he going to Davos? They're always talking about global elites. What does he want to do there? He's not going to go announce a housing thing or whatever. It has been a consequential couple of days. First, because of that escalation over Greenland, and now because of this conversation over how the war in Gaza will end and whether the Board of Peace, through its investment-forward strategy, will do it. Can you talk, I know Axios is there, can you talk about, like, sort of the reaction to some of, any of this from European allies?

[00:06:51] Speaker 5: I mean, Trump put text to what has been subtext now for a long time, which is that he no longer trusts Europe, and he does not like dealing with Europe. The Board of Peace, going around Western and most of Eastern Europe, his speech yesterday was basically a very lengthy, at times subdued, lecture of Europe for not, you know, not doing enough to support NATO, for not, you know, giving him the Nobel Peace Prize, for not giving him Greenland.

[00:07:16] Speaker 4: And for not putting in money to NATO, not building up their own militaries.

[00:07:20] Speaker 5: There is, and this started from the very beginning when J.D. Vance went over to the Munich Security Conference early last year, when he went and basically said that Western Europe is basically in the midst of social decay. And so you are seeing a huge pivot away from those historic allies, because this administration no longer believes that the relationship as it currently is is worth it for the United States.

[00:07:44] Speaker 4: I want to play for you guys a moment from his speech as he was doing this charter signing for the Board of Peace, which, again, was developed by the White House to implement the peace plan that the White House helped develop. And he talks about the United Nations as always having had tremendous potential. And if anything, this was, to me, the softest critique I've heard from him on the United Nations. Let me play it for you guys.

[00:08:10] Speaker 2: I've always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential, has not used it. But there's tremendous potential in the United Nations, and you have some great people at the United Nations, but so far it hasn't. You know, on the eight wars that I ended, I never spoke to the United Nations about any of them. And you would think that I should have. You would think they could have done those eight wars, but they couldn't have, and they tried, I guess, in some of them, but they didn't try hard enough. But there's tremendous potential with the United Nations, and I think the combination of the Board of Peace with the kind of people we have here, coupled with the United Nations, can be something very unique for the world.

[00:08:55] Speaker 4: We don't know what in conjunction means, given that the White House has pulled out of many UN organizations and aid organizations. What are you going to be looking for, Megan?

[00:09:05] Speaker 6: I mean, I think that he's not wrong that sometimes the UN is slow to move on things. It's a very bureaucratic organization. I don't think that means we should just write it off completely, which I don't think he is suggesting here either.

[00:09:16] Speaker 4: And I think the European allies agree with you because they're not at the Board of Peace, and they've raised a lot of questions about how is this going to work.

[00:09:23] Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I don't think that they're at the Board of Peace because I don't think that they find it a serious operation or organization, so I think that's probably why they're not there, and also they are tired of being embarrassed and shellacked by the president for no reason after Greenland, and he just continually tries to embarrass them, so I'm sure that's also why they're not there, and they're also not going to give a billion dollars. So I just think that it's just an interesting... I don't think we can create our own UN. I don't think that we have the standing in the world to do that at this juncture. I do think that there needs to be some more emphasis on what the UN's mission is and goal is and try to make it less bureaucratic.