George Orwell would have had a chuckle listening to US President Donald Trump speaking at the inaugural meeting of his new international organisation.

Orwell, the author of the classic book 1984, delighted in organisations being named the opposite of what they actually were.

He would have seen the irony of Trump — the founder of something called the “Board of Peace” — making clear in his very first speech to this new peace organisation that he may give the order for a major new war in the Middle East within 10 days.

“You’re going to be finding out over the next, probably, 10 days,” Trump said in relation to whether he will give the command for the “armada” he has assembled — his word — off Iran to prepare for strikes.

Following the inaugural meeting of the so-called Board of Peace, a key question now stands out more than ever: is this a force of good or is it a Donald Trump vanity project?

Based on Trump’s own speech to launch the board, it increasingly appears to be an unaccountable vanity project that takes the United States even further from its traditional allies. 

Countries including Australia, the UK, France and Canada have declined to pay the $US1 billion ($1.42 billion) fee for permanent membership.

Donald Trump and other leaders pose for a photo in front of a blue wall with the words board of peace.

Trump with (front, from left) Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, Saudi Arabia’s Adel Al-Jubeir, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)

This is not to say that some good may not come out of the board. Supporters say that, in an increasingly precarious world, any forums in which as many countries as possible sit down to discuss global problems are good. 

It certainly beats those same countries killing each other’s citizens.

It would be far preferable, supporters argue, for Ukrainian and Russian officials to be sitting in dialogue and expressing their frustrations and distrust of each other than the current reality in which tens of thousands of young Russians and Ukrainians are dying in the mud and ice of their frontline.

Major questions surround the billions pledged for Gaza

Critics of the board say it is an attempt by Trump to make the United Nations irrelevant and to give him full control over a new global organisation. 

They argue that it says everything you need to know that authoritarian regimes such as Belarus and Saudi Arabia are members but democracies, including Australia, the UK, France and Canada, are not.

There’s some merit to that argument, but surely it’s a good thing that, in an increasingly-fractured and violent world, countries not normally listened to on the world stage feel that they now have a voice.

Trump used the launch to announce that the US would contribute $US10 billion to the reconstruction of Gaza. And several other countries said they would contribute a total of $US7 billion.

Trump makes flurry of pledges for Gaza at first ‘Board of Peace’ meeting

A group of nations will provide billions of dollars and thousands of troops to rebuild Gaza, according to pledges made at the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”.

This is also a good thing. After two years of Israeli bombardment, Gaza is now essentially unlivable. But when and on what will that money be spent? 

How will it be administered, now that Israel has effectively blocked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from having a major role in aid distribution or any rebuilding of Gaza?

Israel continues to block foreign media from entering Gaza, so the full extent of devastation is not yet known to the world. Israel’s ban means foreign journalists cannot fully report direct personal accounts of the war from the perspective of Palestinians.

This amounts to censorship of one of the world’s biggest stories.

But the extent of the devastation can be derived from various other sources, including UNICEF, which has attempted to compile statistics on the number of children in Gaza who have been killed.

Based on publicly available figures, UNICEF says that, in the first 21 months of the war, more than 17,000 children were reportedly killed in Gaza and 22,000 were injured.

“An average of 28 children have been killed each day — the equivalent of an entire classroom,” UNICEF’s executive director Catherine Russell said.

“Consider that for a moment. A whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years.”

That devastation is unlikely to be quickly redressed, despite Trump’s speech to the Board of Peace. Any money is likely to be contingent on Hamas completely disarming, which is unlikely to happen quickly.

Talk of ‘stars’ visiting Gaza suggests hazy plans

Trump’s speech to the Board of Peace suggests any plan for Gaza is still very hazy and undeveloped.

For example, he said the world football organisation FIFA was planning to help by “doing fields and getting stars to go there”.

Anybody who follows the humanitarian crisis in Gaza knows that new soccer fields and the appearance of some football stars is the last thing the place needs — incubators for premature babies, tents for people to sleep in, blankets, anaesthetics for operations, clean water, a sewerage system that works and rebuilt hospitals and schools are a much higher priority.

It’s this sort of “getting stars to go there” that could leave this Board of Peace open to suggestions it is flaky and unfocused.

A drone view showing destroyed buildings spanning kilometres.

Much of Gaza has been bombed or flattened since the war began in October 2023. (ABC News)

Initially, the Board of Peace was framed by Trump as an organisation specifically to deal with the rebuilding of Gaza. 

But since then he has expanded its role, as was apparent in his speech to the inaugural meeting.

“The Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly,” Trump said.

That phrase will only deepen the concerns of many countries that see the new board as an attempt by Trump to usurp the UN.

Trump’s speech shed no light on opaque Board of Peace

The inaugural meeting was light on detail and heavy on Trumpisms. 

As we know, Trump does not adhere to the conventions of a president but, even by his standards, this speech was not one people would expect at the launch of a body designed to deal with sensitive world affairs.

Trump yet again brought up the fact that he did not win the most recent Nobel Peace Prize — and this after he told the assembled leaders: “I don’t care about prizes”.

He talked about how FIFA gave him a peace award, which he said might well have been FIFA’s attempt to make up for the fact he did not win the Nobel prize.

Trump pointed out that the meeting was being held in the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace — while insisting that he had nothing to do with the naming of it.

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He also insists that he had nothing to do with the changing of the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center. 

If you believe Trump, various independent organisations are simply feeling the need to rename their institutions after him.  

The Kennedy Center, for example, a decades-old arts institution named after a legendary American president, John F Kennedy, decided of its own accord, according to Trump, to add his name to an American institution.

Everything about the Board of Peace is opaque. 

Where does the $US1 billion that each country pays for permanent membership go? 

Is it, in effect, a payment of $US1 billion to get access to the US President? 

How can it be dedicated to the rebuilding of Gaza when Israel — which has essentially destroyed Gaza as a viable community — is a member of the board but there is not a single Palestinian representative on the board? 

And based on leaked documents, how can Trump be its chair in perpetuity?

Unless this Board of Peace quickly begins to focus and genuinely tries to make the world a better place, this may well prove to be yet another monument to Donald Trump.