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Kushner Speaks at World Economic Forum about Board of Peace for Gaza; Trump Hosts Signing of Board of Peace to Oversee Reconstruction of Gaza. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 22, 2026 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[06:00:03]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, those comments continue, and our coverage continues, as well, on CNN THIS MORNING. But for now, I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. Our coverage continues after this break.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish, and we begin with breaking news in Switzerland, where President Trump wrapped up the first meeting of what he is calling the Board of Peace.

Now, this board will reportedly oversee the deal to rebuild Gaza. Fewer than 20 nations were at the signing ceremony, and it included very few European allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The -- they're great. They're friends of mine, I think. Let me see. Yes, every one of them is a friend of mine. A couple, a couple -- let's see, a couple I like. A couple I don't like.

No, I like -- actually, this group, I like every single one of them. Can you believe it? Usually, I have about two or three that I can't stand. Usually, I have two or three that I don't like. I don't find them up here. I like every one of these people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. We're going to bring in the group chat today: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political reporter at Axios; Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director; and Meghan Hays, who was a strategist for the Biden White House, director of message planning.

All right, you guys. Thank you for being with us, because these speeches just wrapped up where the president talked about what the Board of Peace would do.

And I want to pause for a moment, because a person who we've been hearing about a lot in a lot of conflicts, Jared Kushner, is on this board and in fact, is speaking now.

KUSHNER: This health care delivery, the best. All of these things are -- it's not a secret. All this is I.P. that the Board of Peace is going to make public. And we want to encourage all the countries to be able to follow these best practices.

A lot of the things that President Trump is doing in America, if they're working, we should all be copying them. If we find what's working in other countries, we should be copying them, too.

And so, what the Board of Peace will have the ability to do, if were successful with Gaza, is really show how do you do peace implementation, which is something that, when we got this deal done, we didn't really find too much expertise or knowhow on how to do it.

So, as we're creating this system, hopefully, it's something that we can just document these learnings and make them available to all else who want to use them in the future.

So, demilitarization, this is something we're starting now that we have a new government in Gaza. This government will be working with Hamas on the demilitarization to really take the principles that were agreed to in the document to the next phase, and hopefully that will be successful.

Without that, we can't rebuild. So, if Hamas does not demilitarize, that will be what holds back Gaza and the people of Gaza from achieving their aspiration. And that's very important.

So, the next 100 days, we're going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented. We continue to be focused on humanitarian aid, humanitarian shelter, but then creating the conditions to -- to move forward.

So, thank you. Final point I'll just make is this is really only possible because of the work of so many people. And President Trump's great leadership.

But a lot of you have been asking, how can -- how can we help? So, the countries have all been incredibly generous. We'll be doing the first conference where we'll announce a lot of the contributions that will be made in a couple of weeks in Washington.

From the private sector, there'll be amazing investment opportunities. I know it's a little risky to be investing in a place like this, but we need you to come, take faith, invest in the people, try to be a part of it.

And then finally, I'll just talk to people on the media and on the social media, which is this deal only happened because we worked with Israel, we worked with Turkey, we worked with Qatar, we worked with Saudi, we worked with Egypt. I mean, everyone worked together. We worked with UAE. We all worked together to make this happen.

I see a lot of people trying to escalate, you know, criticizing Israel or Israelis; criticizing Turkey or Qatar. Just calm down for 30 days. I think that the war is over. Let's do our best to try working together.

Our goal here is peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. Everyone wants to live peacefully. Everyone wants to live with dignity. Let's put our efforts towards promoting those who are doing the work to build this up, like Ali and his committee. Let's focus on the positive stories, and let's just calm down. Turn a new chapter. And if we believe that peace is possible, then peace really can be possible.

So, we're going to continue to work every day. We need all of your help to do it. And again, I just really want to thank President Trump for his leadership in doing this. This would not have been possible without your commitment to this. Everyone thought it was impossible to end this war. You never gave up. You never stopped.

Every time there was a setback, you told us to try harder. You gave us different ideas. And we've made several impossible things happen just in Gaza to date. And there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to make even more impossible things happen.

So really, thank you for your amazing leadership.

[06:05:06]

CORNISH: OK. That is President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He, along with former real estate developer Steve Witkoff, have been very involved in many conflict deescalations that the White House has pushed forward.

But today, he had a front-row seat and a speaking position in this conversation about the Board of Peace.

Can you talk about, Alex -- I know Axios has paid attention to this -- Kushner's role.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

CORNISH: And as he stood there, he directly said, We are going to be soliciting private investment to make this peace happen.

THOMPSON: Well, Jared Kushner has faced a lot of skepticism, not just from media, not just from other world leaders, but also even sometimes, at times, from his father-in-law.

But the fact of the matter is that Jared Kushner was able to help broker the arrangement that brought the hostages home in Israel late last year, and that earned him a lot of gravitas, not just in among, you know, his father-in-law, but also on the world stage.

CORNISH: Right. Despite not having a formal position in the White House.

THOMPSON: Exactly. And you are seeing him take even a bigger step now.

Now, to your point about private investment. The thing is that you can't even begin to see the end of the potential conflicts of interest that Jared Kushner and his private firm has with a lot of these countries that are on this Board of Peace.

But the fact of the matter is, this is part of a larger mission of Trump trying to really go around the United Nations and trying to find a different sort of international body in order to implement his plan for Israel and the Middle East.

It is also very notable that despite some of these, you know, what Jared Kushner was saying, the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, is in Davos right now, but -- and is supposed to be part of this board, but is not at that meeting right now.

CORNISH: Yes. Can I ask my folks on this side of the table? There aren't European allies here, really, with the exception of Belarus. They have real questions about what the remit is of the Board of Peace, how it's going to work. And then, as you mentioned, Israel not being there.

These things are complicated, but what is the point of the Board of Peace outside of the U.N.?

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Outside of the U -- Well, I think the -- the effort of the Board of Peace, especially as we focus on Gaza here, is really the next step in the -- in the the peace negotiations and the peace plan in Gaza.

So first -- first of all, I think some folks are trying to make this bigger than it is in the sense that it's a competition with the United Nations.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, not to -- I just want to show the audience what the Board of Peace is supposed to do.

It started out specifically about overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza, and has expanded to other conflict zones, ideally. That's what it has sort of broadened out to be. And I think that's part of what's raised some questions for -- at least for some of these European leaders.

DUBKE: Well, if -- there are two -- there are two areas, really, I think, where you have -- where you find yourself being able to deescalate conflict.

CORNISH: Hold on one second, Mike. It turns out Donald Trump is speaking again.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- this all happening. And one of the first things I said when we really got involved in this project -- and it's a big one, but it's very doable. I said to Jared and Steve and some of the other folks, including Larry Fink -- and congratulations on the great success. The two of you have done a fantastic job. This is bigger and better than ever.

We usurped some of your time for a very important reason, and you understand that better than anybody. And we appreciate that you're here very much. Thank you both very much. But I said that, you know, this is a great location. It all begins.

See, I'm a real estate person at heart, and it's all about location. And I said, look at this location on the sea. Look at this beautiful piece of property, what it could be for so many people. It will be so, so great. People that are living so poorly are going to be living so well.

But it all began with the location. That's the vision. They look out on the waters. And very few people are. Very few places are like it.

So, we put together a team that's outstanding, a team that's done it before, a team that I think has done tougher jobs, if you want to know the truth. We've done some tough jobs, and we continue to. As far as the United States is concerned, we're behind it.

And the United States has never been stronger, never been bigger, better. It's doing really well. You see that: building thousands of businesses, plants, factories all over the United States are right now under construction. Nobody's ever seen anything like it.

And this is just an honor to be involved with this and to be involved with the great people in this room and the great leaders that are sitting on stage. We thank you very much.

And we have many others that have signed up, and they all want to be members of the Board of Peace, because it really will be important.

This is not going to be a waste of time. We waste so much time on things that never happened. This will happen, and it's already happening. Thank you very much everybody. It's a great honor to be with you. Thank you. Thank you.

[06:10:08]

CORNISH: OK. President Trump, second round of remarks from him, thanking the crowd that turned out to watch the signing ceremony for the charter of the Board of Peace.

This is a board of which he is chairman, developed by the White House to potentially oversee the implementation of the peace plan in Gaza, as brokered by the U.S. through Steve Witkoff and others.

Some of the people who are present: the leader of Bahrain, the leader of Belarus. Some people who are not: the leader of Israel or any of the other Western nations that just recently fended off a threat, a tariff threat from the president over Greenland.

You can see some of the other members of the Board of Peace: Saudi Arabia, Turkey. I know that was a controversial inclusion for some. Egypt, Bahrain, Pakistan.

We should say that being a part of the board of the -- Board of Peace, which is chaired by the president, it also involves, I think, some upwards of $1 billion to maintain a, quote unquote, "permanent seat." And the president just said that it's about location and that he's a

real estate person at heart. And when he looked at Gaza and looked out on the waters, he saw potential.

I wanted to go to you for a second, Meghan, since you didn't get to speak earlier, this is a very different orientation than a U.N. peace commission.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Right. This has nothing to do with peace. This has something to do with these leaders giving him $1 billion to then invest in real estate for him, because he controls all the money.

So, this is -- it's a charade. It's just -- it's gross. We don't have any of our allies that are there that are willing to sign on. It's just -- the fact that he's doing it at Davos is also another -- raises a lot of questions.

I just think that these things that are chartered by him, that he gets to control all the money, even when he's not the president of the United States, that's not the way this works.

CORNISH: Yes.

HAYS: That's not the way the U.N. works.

CORNISH: I mean, hopefully, we'll have some tape earlier from Marco Rubio, who also got up to speak. Because he said something that a lot of people feel.

The United Nations and its peacekeeping efforts fall short in so many places and in so many conflicts. And they feel like there's an emphasis now on action rather than, as Rubio said, sort of strongly worded speeches.

HAYS: Totally. I don't disagree that we do a lot of talking. That is without fail. We do.

We don't ask people to invest $1 billion that one person controls after they leave office, which to me -- and he's talking about location. And he's already talked about how he wants to have a hotel there.

And so, this has nothing to do with peace in the Middle East. This has everything to do with what Donald Trump can use, whose money he can use to make investments.

DUBKE: Meghan, here's my problem with that. We have been so successful at bringing peace to the Middle East over the last 80 years. You know.

HAYS: I'm not -- I'm not --

DUBKE: I mean, I'm being sarcastic right now. Let's try something new.

There are two things. And this is what I was going to say before.

CORNISH: Please, tell me.

DUBKE: Before the president interrupted.

CORNISH: Well, he actually gave us some clarifying comments.

DUBKE: Yes, but they're -- in my mind, there are two areas in which you can bring lasting peace to an area. One is democracy, and the other is economic development.

CORNISH: Yes.

DUBKE: Very rarely do democracies go to war, and very rarely do countries that have robust economic activity go to war. It just doesn't pay to do it.

And in this -- in this instance, we're really trying, with this Board of Peace, to create both. I think it's worth the try.

So, I hear what you're saying. And I think the woman from Chatham House that was on earlier was really kind of saying the exact same thing, which is amazing to me that all of these institutional international organizations are upset that we're trying something new. Actually, maybe that's an indication that this is on to something, and they're on to something.

CORNISH: Well, we'll see. What we heard from Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law is, Hey, let's pay attention to the next 100 days.

He also asked people on social media. He asked some country leaders to calm down for 30 days. Don't go out here criticizing the Board of Peace while we do our work.

And that work will include soliciting investment from the private sector. I think you heard that, as well.

THOMPSON: That's right.

CORNISH: And I think he said that would happen in Washington.

THOMPSON: He did sort of indicate there was going to be another gathering of the Board of Peace. It's also notable that, you know, Trump could not get the Nobel Peace Prize. So, now he's the honorary chair of his own self-created board.

CORNISH: I wonder if they'll issue a prize.

THOMPSON: I would not be --

HAYS: Just to Donald.

THOMPSON: I would not be shocked.

But it is, I think, telling. You know, the Trump administration's view is that, if you're going to deal with Gaza and Israel, the U.N. is no longer a place to do it. The fact is that the U.N.'s relationship with Israel has become

incredibly -- and so incredibly toxic that it is no longer a forum in which you can do international diplomacy with regards to Gaza.

And so, they are going to try to use this -- you know, this new board as a function.

Now to Meghan's point, are there endless potential conflicts of interest that are, you know, potential dens for corruption? Absolutely.

But Jared Kushner was like, give us some time, give us a chance and we'll see.

[06:15:02]

CORNISH: OK. You guys, sit tight. In a moment, we will be back after the break, because there's a lot to talk about. The president spoke. The secretary of state spoke, and the president's son-in-law spoke at the charter signing for the so-called Board of Peace. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: OK. Welcome back. We're in breaking news as the president was in Davos, where there was the charter signing for the White House's Board of Peace.

[06:20:00]

And just a few moments ago, Trump spoke after that ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you have control of all the building (ph)?

TRUMP: This is a great day. Great day. Yesterday was a fantastic day. Tremendous progress. We'll be leaving in a little while. But this was a fantastic day, and I think the Board of Peace is going to be very.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you have control of all of Greenland, Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many countries -- how many countries --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what's your message to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) now.

TRUMP: Take over 50. Take over 50.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your plans for Ukraine, Mr. Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you want to do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your plan for Ukraine? What would you say to Volodymyr Zelenskyy today?

TRUMP: Well, I meet with Ukraine, as you know, today. I meet with the president. And we'll be discussing it. We're meeting with President Putin today or tomorrow.

And some people are going over, and I think they're getting close. A lot of people are being killed. We've got to get it done. We don't get that done, it would be a disgrace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

CORNISH: OK. Giving you an update there. 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 and governance, 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 is still -- the U.S. is still interested in working on that particular -- 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 -- 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, Meghan, 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?

THOMPSON: Yes. 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 -- you know -- you know, giving him the Nobel Peace Prize, for not --

CORNISH: And for not putting in money to NATO, not building up their own militaries.

THOMPSON: Exactly. 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 Europe, 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 they -- that the relationship, as it currently is, is worth it for the United States.

CORNISH: 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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 -- 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, very unique for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We don't know what "in conjunction" means, given that the White House has pulled out of many U.N. organizations and aid organizations. What are you going to be looking for, Meghan?

[06:25:04]

HAYS: I mean, I think that he's not wrong, that sometimes the U.N. 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.

CORNISH: 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? HAYS: Well, 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 don't -- 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 $1 billion.

So, I just think that it's just an interesting -- I don't think we can create our own U.N. 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 U.N.'s mission is and goal is, and try to make it less bureaucratic.

CORNISH: Can I play one more thing for you guys? Because this is a conversation happening without any kind of representation, really, from Gaza; and apparently, Israel wasn't there either.

And this all hinges on the demilitarization of Hamas. Not exactly some sort of working partner here. This is what the president said when he, at least at one point, finally referred to Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And then we get on to other things, and we're committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed, and beautifully rebuilt. It's going to be a great plan. And that's where the border piece really started. And I think we can spread out to other things as -- as we succeed with Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Can you succeed with Gaza on investment alone? Or will the security question always be the underlying issue, not just for Israel, but for the U.S., if it wants to be involved there?

DUBKE: So, the security question will always be an issue. And I think what we're forgetting or maybe -- excuse me -- not forgetting; that we need to put a little bit more attention on.

Beyond the fact -- and Alex brought this up, I think, during the break -- that -- that Jared Kushner and others took advantage of the -- Israel's overreach when they bombed or tried to take out Hamas leaders in Qatar. That was one aspect of it.

But one part that we're not talking about, that we should focus a little bit more, is the United States taking out of the nuclear facilities in Iran; that that action of -- of basically -- of Israel demilitarizing Hamas, or de --

CORNISH: Yes. Cutting off its proxy support. Yes.

DUBE: Yes. The fenestration, whatever the word I'm looking for that I can't find right now, on Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah in Lebanon. And then Iran being shown, Tehran being shown to be a paper tiger. I

think that did more to create peace and the potential of peace in Gaza than anything else that has happened over the last 20 years.

CORNISH: Yes.

DUBKE: And one final point on this. I know we -- we don't have Europeans at the Board of Peace. But look at every other country that will be important to securing peace in Gaza that is there. All of the Middle Eastern countries that are on that list. They need to be at the table, whether Israel wants them there or not. It is very important that they're there. And I think we're forgetting that point.

CORNISH: See, well, I think there's going to be some -- some questions about that, Israel or not. Gazans or not. There's a lot of questions here.

You guys stay with me, because I'm going to be later bringing in a reporter who's in the region, Oren Liebermann. He's got a lot to share with us. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)