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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump To Host Signing Ceremony For "Board Of Peace"; Trump Speaks At Signing Ceremony For "Board Of Peace". Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 22, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:28]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Thursday, January 22nd, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And at any moment now, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to host a signing ceremony in Davos for his so-called Board of Peace. An administration official says that about 35 countries are expected to attend. Obviously, we will take you there once we see him at the podium.

The committee is set to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, but there is some concern among some officials that the board could attempt to replace the work of the United Nations. Dozens of countries, including Russia, have been asked to join President Trump's board, and so far, at least 20 have accepted the invitation. But European allies are not among them. And we've just learned that the U.K. will not sign the board's treaty because of concerns about Russian involvement.

President Trump says that Vladimir Putin has accepted the invite, but on Wednesday, the Russian leader did not commit to joining the board and said that his foreign ministry would, quote, study the documents.

Let's go to CNN's Oren Liebermann, who is following the developments and joins us now from Jerusalem.

Oren, obviously, once we see the president, we will cut through and go to the president. But appreciate you being here.

Let's just start with where you were leaving off in your last in the last hour and just sort of Israels perspective about some of the other members who may be joining the board. It's a very broad invitation in terms of the countries who've been invited.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, it's not just Israel's perspective and concern about who else is on this board. That's a concern we're seeing from European allies of the United States and from many other countries. This is something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flagged as well.

It looks like the U.S. and that is to say, President Donald Trump basically invited everybody. That includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, of course, invaded Ukraine back in 2022, a war that's still ongoing and that they're trying to at least make progress on in Davos, Europe's last dictator, the Belarusian President Lukashenko and others. China, for example, in terms of who is actually accepted.

When you look at the list here, it's a list of effectively Middle East monarchies. Europe's last dictator, as I pointed out, and several other countries. Europe has looked on this with skepticism, including countries from NATO and other countries, pointing out that Vladimir Putin has been invited to this Board of Peace here. And it's not just that. It's the fact that Trump himself is the indefinite leader of the Board of Peace.

According to the charter of the board, which was obtained by CNN, that it's three-year membership and then you can effectively buy permanent membership for $1 billion and that the charter for it has nothing to do with the example for which it was created. And that is Gaza reconstruction and making progress there. The charter itself doesn't mention that specifically. Instead, it's much broader.

And Trump himself acknowledged that it might be used to replace the United Nations here. So, there are plenty of red flags and reasons for concern in terms of what Trump and the U.S. have said is the reason for its existence, as well as the members and the countries that have committed to participating in this.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will accept the invitation to be on the Board of Peace. But he is not at Davos. Instead, it is Israel's head of state, President Isaac Herzog. And it's not even clear that he will participate in the signing ceremony.

So, we'll have to see how this all plays out. As you pointed out, a senior administration official from the U.S. says some 35 countries will be participating in the signing ceremony, where we will also hear from Trump.

SOLOMON: Yeah, it's an interesting point, Oren, about the charter. I mean, it doesn't mention Gaza, as you mentioned out, but what it does say is it's an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.

Talk to us about the implications for the United Nations or the concerns about the implications and the future of the United Nations. If a board like this were, in fact, to be installed.

LIEBERMANN: Well, that wording, if you were to go back to the U.N. charter, is very similar to the reason the U.N. was created, to establish a rules based international order for effectively the entire world and the countries that participate with the United Nations Security Council, United Nations General Assembly, and of course, all of the myriad agencies under the united nations that carry out that mission around the world.

Trump's charter for the Board of Peace effectively says the same thing, perhaps not in as many words, but it seems clear that that is the intent here behind this. Trump has long expressed -- expressed skepticism over the United Nations. [05:05:01]

Many of his administration officials have openly criticized the U.N., and it simply looks like he's trying to create a parallel system, independent from U.N. oversight, that if you look at the charter, seems to answer in the end and indefinitely, only to him here. And that's why you see that level of concern that Trump is simply trying to create, not only its own system or another system, but his own system to try to solve international conflicts in the first place.

We see it being put into effect, at least in terms of a concrete example, is right here in Gaza with the U.S.-brokered and Trump-backed 20-point peace plan that the U.S. said is now moving into its second phase, even with all of the problems and struggles that process has in trying to keep moving forward.

SOLOMON: Oren, in the last hour, I spoke with former Ambassador Dennis Ross, who made the point that there are real questions about what this would look like in terms of logistically on the ground. Also questions about the money that might be raised, how that will be used.

Give us a sense, just in terms of the reporting, that we've already been able to gather what we know about what this will mean logistically moving forward.

LIEBERMANN: Well, there's two questions there. One, first is, is specific to Gaza, and we are waiting, frankly, for progress there. The international stabilization force that's supposed to be deployed to Gaza, that was supposed to come into place weeks ago, we're still waiting to see that, even though the U.S. has announced who the commander will be.

In terms of money for reconstruction, there's no question that that, that, that that will be there when the process moves forward here. But countries are waiting to see if Hamas will give up power or be demilitarized.

In terms of the broader board Of Peace, where that charter doesn't mention Gaza at all, the billion dollar pay-to-play part of that, for example, Russia has floated the idea that its frozen assets around the world could be used to pay that $1 billion entrance fee for the Board of Peace.

So, a lot of questions about how this all plays out essentially the focus is on Trump here to lay out the details here and try to make some sort of progress here, something concrete that can -- that can affect the plans and the lofty goals that it has and that it states in its charter.

SOLOMON: Oren, you know, we really appreciate you being here with us this morning. You have a lot of experience, sort of, obviously in that region of the world, but also just tracking the president.

Give us a sense of what you would expect to hear from the president in a speech like this with so much attention around the world, focused on what he will say, what it will mean, what are you going to be listening for? I mean, do you expect real sort of concrete details or something different? What are you going to be listening for?

LIEBERMANN: Real concrete details would certainly be nice. I'm not quite sure I expect them, especially after Trump's previous comments where he said, effectively, sometimes you need a dictator.

So, I'm not sure were going to get any real concrete details about how this board of peace is supposed to work, when it will meet, what the different roles are, how there are voting decisions made, does it require unanimity? Right? These are the sorts of details we need to be able to see how this is expected to function. I expect these are the sorts of details that Europe is waiting to find out.

Also, what kind of say does, for example, Russia have if Vladimir Putin decides that he wants to be on or China? Trump has admired the strength of dictators and monarchs around the world. Does he give them more influence? How does this function?

There are a lot of questions around the board of peace. We'll see how many of those are answered here. Or is this Trump simply basking in the spotlight, surrounded by, at least according to the U.S., some 35 world leaders who have said they'll take part in this.

So, I'm very curious to hear what he says here, how long he speaks for, and what more we learn.

It will also be very interesting to see. Does he talk broadly about the charter and future goals here, or does he give real details on where the Gaza process stands and what that looks like going into its second phase?

He hasn't been the head of that effort. That's been his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have really led that on the ground. There's now the former U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, who is the director there, although he has been fairly quiet to this point.

So, there are effectively lower level managers leading the Gaza process. Let's see how much we hear about it today in terms of, again, the first concrete example of the board of peace trying to make something happen.

SOLOMON: And, Oren, as we look at what's happening on the stage here, what I think we're seeing are different leaders from around the world. I believe we see the leader of Argentina there. I believe we saw the leader of Belarus there. But my monitor is very small. You might have a bigger monitor than I do, Oren. So take what I say here, just with a grain of salt.

But give us a sense, Oren, of how we got here. I mean, this is not an idea that necessarily just came out of thin air. Back in November, the United Nations security council did back this plan.

Give us a sense of just sort of how we got here.

LIEBERMANN: So, the Board of Peace was part of Trump's plan to end the Gaza war. [05:10:01]

And many here, and perhaps many around the world, will tell you that he was the only one who could have done so, because he was the only one who could have put the necessary pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to end the war. Now there is a ceasefire, although the Israeli government and Netanyahu have not officially acknowledged an end to the war.

But Netanyahu -- but Trump here has very much taken the credit here and used that 20 point ceasefire plan brokered by his envoys as effectively a blueprint to try to move this forward and expand it. And that's where we saw the Board of Peace go from something specific to Gaza to this broader international charter that doesn't even mention Gaza. That's supposed to be able to, at least from what we see, be applied to different conflicts around the world as lead indefinitely by Trump himself.

So that's sort of the quick version of how this escalated so quickly into something that involves world leaders. You're absolutely right. The Argentinian president has agreed to join the board, as has the Belarusian president. So they are two of those who have agreed here.

In terms of where this goes from here, there are invitations out to many other leaders, some of whom have said they're considering it, some of whom have simply outright rejected it. And now it's -- and now it\s time to put this to the test and see if it actually works.

Trump obviously wants it to. He has trumpeted it -- trumpeted it as, as a way of solving conflicts around the world and again, suggested it might replace the United Nations, which is supposed to play that very role.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Oren, I always think it's interesting sometimes with alliances like this or groups like this, who agrees to be part of it, but also, and maybe more importantly, who declines to be part of it.

I mean, how much does it threaten the legitimacy of this board if, in fact, it is implemented if you have major allies who are opting out?

LIEBERMANN: It's not even clear the board would start being legitimate in the first place. It's telling that the bulk of the NATO countries in in Europe have not agreed to join this yet. I believe Turkey has. So, there is a NATO country who has agreed to take part in this.

But if it\s all Middle East monarchs, the Argentinian president, Europe's last dictator, and perhaps Vladimir Putin and China, that's not an internationally legitimate organization to try to use not only in the immediate term, but in the long term to try to fix the world's problems and maintain an international order of peace and stability. It just won't ever have that that legitimacy.

You're right. It's not only who's part of it, it's who's not part of it. And the countries that have been the U.S.'s closest allies for decades now are not exactly jumped on board for this process. SOLOMON: Oren -- let's listen together. President Trump is at the

podium.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Many countries have just received their notice, and everybody wants to be a part of it. And we'll work with many others, including the United Nations.

But I want to thank you all for being here.

Yesterday, we had a incredibly successful visit with many of the world's top business leaders. The best, the biggest, most successful -- and foreign heads of state. And now, we have one of the most important meetings of all the official formation of what is known as the Board of Peace.

I want to thank the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and their extraordinary work, and they have done an amazing job. We have peace in the Middle East. Nobody thought that was possible.

We've settled eight wars and I believe another one is coming pretty soon. You know what that is, the one that I thought was going to be an easy one. It's turned out to be probably the most difficult.

Last month, 29,000 people died, mostly soldiers -- Ukraine, Russia. Think of that, 29,000 -- 27,000 in the month before, 26,000 in the month before that. It's terrible.

But we have meetings and we think we're making a lot of progress.

Thanks as well to Secretary Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick and Chris Wright, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. They're all doing such an incredible job.

Ambassador Callista Gingrich, who is here doing a fantastic -- really fantastic work. Thank you, Callista, and many other members of my administration who are so committed to peace. And they're also committed to great success.

Very importantly, let me recognize the very first group of distinguished members of the Board of Peace. They will be introduced by name in just a moment. Karoline will be doing that introduction.

And each and every one of you, we are truly honored by your presence today.

[05:15:03]

Leaders of countries, in most cases, very popular leaders, in some cases, not so popular. But that's the way it goes in life.

Thanks as well to President Karol Nawrocki of Poland, who's fantastic man. He just won a very big election. Very proud of him. Amazing.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Along with former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. Thank you, Tony, for being here. We appreciate it.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And members of the Board of Peace executive board, great group.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of my second inauguration as president. No administration in history has achieved such a sweeping turnaround in 12 months time at home and abroad. We have a tremendous mandate. We won the popular vote by millions. We won every -- every swing state. The seven.

They were saying, can he win all seven? Is it possible? Because it's not done and we won all seven. We have a great mandate back at home.

As I said yesterday, the U.S. economy is booming with virtually no inflation. It was 1.2 percent for the last three months, and we inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. And we have economic growth now of 5.4 percent, looks like, and I think that number can double and triple if we do the right things.

And if we change thinking so that if you announce good numbers, the markets go up instead of if you announce good numbers, the market goes down because everybody tries to kill it by lowering or raising interest rates, depending on the situation.

When America booms, the entire world booms, and we have secured commitments for over $18 trillion in new investment coming into our country, which is a record by many times over, not just by a little bit, by many times. There's no country ever in history that's gotten anywhere near that number.

Slashed our trade deficit by 77 percent. This is in one year. Yesterday was one year, and signed historic trade deals with nations from all over the globe.

Today, the world is richer, safer and much more peaceful than it was just one year ago. We put out all those fires -- a lot of people didn't know, including me, that some of those wars were going on, and some of them were going on for, in one case, 32 years, and another case, 35 years, and another one, 37 years.

We were very happy to stop the war that had started with India and Pakistan, two nuclear nations. And I was very honored when the prime minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved 10 and maybe 20 million lives by getting that stopped just before bad things were going to happen.

As president, I ended those eight wars and nine months, including Cambodia and Thailand. And by the way, many of the leaders are here. Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia. We're working on that right now.

I met yesterday with a very good general and a very good leader of Egypt. We're working on a dam that was built, which precludes the Nile River from getting water. That was -- it's a little tough situation, but we'll get that settled.

I really had it just about settled in my first term. And then we had a rigged election. Took me out of commission for a little while, but here I am back. We'll get it settled.

But it's a pretty tough situation. A dam was built and the water doesn't come down to the Nile. When I think of Egypt, I think of the Nile, but I think of the Nile with water in it.

Armenia and Azerbaijan -- I mean, a lot of these leaders have become my friends. They become my friends. They're here.

And of course, the war in Gaza, which is really coming to an end, we have little fires that will put out, but they're little. They were giant, giant, massive fires, and now they're down to little fires. We can put them out very easily.

We have 59 countries that are involved in peace in the Middle East, many of them not in the Middle East. They're near the Middle East, but they're not in the Middle East.

And many have said that if Hamas doesn't do what they promised they would do, and I think they probably will, but they were born with rifles in their hands, literally born the first day they had a rifle put into their hands.

[05:20:05]

But they have to give up their weapons. And if they don't do that, it's going to be the end of them. But many countries have told me we want to go in and do it, and they really aren't countries that you traditionally think of as being involved in that. But that's a fire.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, we have to do something about that. But these are, I call them, remnants, small remnants compared to what it was before. It was massive, large, powerful countries fighting each other.

And another great victory for the ultimate goal of peace. In June, we obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity with operation -- we call it Operation Midnight Hammer. It was. It was midnight. It was dark. No moon.

And every single one of those bombs from the B-2 bombers hit the air shafts and went deep into the earth and totally obliterated everything that they were doing. They were two months away from having a nuclear weapon. We can't let that happen.

And Iran does want to talk, and we'll talk.

We've also hit ISIS in Syria. And very strongly, as you know, in my first administration, I took out al Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, and he was trying to start it up again because due to the tremendous talent of General Razin Caine, as I call him, he wiped out ISIS in a period of three weeks in my first term.

You know, we had a great first term. But the second term is, I think, blowing it away, actually.

But we took out ISIS and we hit -- it was -- it was gone. But during the Biden administration, it formed again a little bit. We hit it very hard in Syria.

And Syria, by the way, I spoke with the president, is making a lot of progress, tremendous progress, actually. We're very happy about that. We took off all sanctions, which gives them a chance to breathe.

And he's -- he is working very, very hard. And I think he's going to put it all together.

So many things are happening, many good things -- threats to Europe and America, the Middle East and other places are really calming down. It's a lot different than it was just one year ago.

Just one year ago, the world was actually on fire. A lot of people didn't know it.

And in Nigeria, we're annihilating terrorists who are killing Christians, we've hit them very hard. They've killed thousands and thousands of Christians. What's that all about?

Much of this unprecedented success is possible because I rebuilt our military in my first term, and now, we're making it even stronger. We have a budget of over $1 trillion this year, and next year we're going to $1.5 trillion.

Our country has never done better economically. We're taking in numbers that we've never taken in. Not only the fact that the investment is at $18 trillion plus, but we're our jobs numbers.

Everything is, I think, maybe better than ever before. I think you're going to see some -- a lot of you are investing in our country, I think you're going to be extremely happy with your investments. I think you'll see numbers like you haven't seen before.

I also secured commitments from virtually all NATO allies to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.

Everybody but Spain. I don't know what's happening with Spain. Why would they not do that? They want a free ride, I guess, huh?

Every country but Spain increased to 5 percent. I don't know why. We're going to have to talk to Spain.

With America's renewed attention to security of the Western hemisphere, I've stopped the invasion on our southern border and designated the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And you probably saw that we've stopped -- virtually stopped, almost 100 percent, all drugs coming in by water.

Now we're going to stop them on land. The land is easy. The water is tough.

But that's down now, I said, I heard it just last night. It was 97. Now it's 98.1 percent. And we're trying to figure out who are the two percent that are willing to get onto those boats. I don't think they watch television or the news, but we've taken out almost 100 percent of all of the drugs coming into the United States by water.

And now, we'll, I think, very easily stop them on land. That's the easy part. We wanted to wait until the other was taken care of.

And earlier this month, thanks to the unrivaled skill, power and might of the U.S. military, we have the most powerful military in the world by far. We captured the outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro, and the people of Venezuela are very happy about it.

And we're having great relationships with the leaders of -- the new leaders of Venezuela.

[05:25:04]

The relationships have been good. We're opening up the country to our giant oil companies, and it's going very well.

We've already taken out -- think of this -- 50 million barrels of oil and a lot of that's going to go back to Venezuela. They'll do more income with us in a short period of time than they did in years, because as much oil as they have, and they have a lot, just about the most. After us, there's a couple of countries that are in that category, but we have the most actually, and they're second between Venezuela and us.

We have 62 percent of the world's oil, but they have very little production, so they'll have a lot of production. All the oil companies, we had meetings you probably saw all the oil companies want to go in. They want to go in immediately. We're already -- they're already touring the sites.

But our military was amazing. That strike was amazing. We had a second wave coming. We didn't need it.

They said, no second wave. We don't want a second wave. The first wave was enough.

And of course, we're working to end the horrible killing in Ukraine, a war that should never have happened and would have never happened if I were president. That was not going to happen. I used to speak to Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, and it was the apple of his eye, but he would never have ever done it. You can't do that, Vladimir.

As part of this historic record of major peace initiatives, today, we're announcing more details regarding the Board of Peace. So important. This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created. And it's my enormous honor to serve as its chairman. I was very honored when they asked me to do it.

We had an idea to do it, and then they came. They said, you be the chairman. And -- but I -- I take it very seriously. We have a great group of people and incredible young people that are leading it from within. It's running beautifully, started already.

And every country, just about every country wants to be a part of it. And we just sent out the letters a couple of days ago. And these are just the countries that are here. They happen to be in Davos. So, we said, we'd be honored if you wanted to join us up on the stage. And it's really great.

Friends of mine, I think. Let me see. Yeah. Every one of them is a friend of mine.

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.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: 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. No, they're great people.

They're great leaders. And the Board of Peace is composed of leaders. The top leaders in the world, actually.

Last October, we released a plan for the permanent end to the conflict in Gaza. And I'm pleased to say that our vision was unanimously adopted by the United Nations Security Council late last year.

Under phase one of this plan, we have painstakingly maintained that Gaza -- and we're going to have it very strongly, and it's what we have -- maintained the Gaza ceasefire, delivered record levels of humanitarian aid. We've given aid.

You know, you used to hear all the people were starving and it was terrible. Now we have -- you don't hear that anymore. We've delivered record levels of humanitarian aid.

I want to thank the United States, but I want to thank some of the countries, some of the countries that are sitting right up here because they've sent great aid, great aid also in the form of money, where we go out and purchase food. And you don't hear those stories anymore with people starving.

And secured the release of all 20, you know, we secured the release of all 20 living hostages. Now, I want to thank Steve Witkoff and Jared and everybody for doing -- working so hard. They work so hard. But there were 20 remaining living hostages.

Now, we got hundreds out, but the last 20, I said, boy, that's going to be a tough one. I said that a year before and it was a tough one, but we got them, got all 20, every one of them.

And we had also about 28 that were dead. But the parents wanted them just as though they were living just as much. In some cases, it almost seemed more. It was amazing, actually, the love and -- but their boy had been

killed. In just about all cases, young men, their baby, their boy had been killed, and they wanted the body of their boy and it looked like it couldn't be done.

And with the exception of one and we're close on the track of that, we've got them all. Every single one of them, which is amazing. It's a rough job. That was a rough job.

And I've been very clear that Hamas must return that last remaining deceased hostage as well, and that will be the full commitment. 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 Board of Peace really started.

And I think we can spread out to other things as we succeed with Gaza. We're going to be very successful in Gaza. It's going to be a great thing to watch, and we can do other things. We can do numerous other things.

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, 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, and 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.

It's for the world. This isn't United States. This is for the world.

As everyone can see today, the first steps toward a brighter day for the Middle East and a much safer future for the world are unfolding right before your very eyes.

Together, we are in a position to have an incredible chance. I don't even call it a chance. I think it's going to happen -- to end decades of suffering, stop generations of hatred and bloodshed, and forge a beautiful, everlasting and glorious peace for that region and for the whole region of the world because I'm calling the world a region. The world is a region.

We're going to have peace in the world. And boy, would that be a great legacy for all of us. Everybody in this room is a star or you wouldn't be here. There's a reason that you're here and you're all stars.

You're the biggest people, the most important people in the world, most powerful people in the world. And when you use that genius that you have, that very unusual, very inspired genius, when you use that for peace, the opposite of peace has no chance.

So, I just want to say it's tremendous to be with you. And I think this is something that we're -- we're doing that's very important. This is the most important. I was so looking forward to being here.

And yesterday was a tremendous success. A lot of good things happened, but this was something that I really wanted to be here and do. And I could think of no better place because so many people were together.

And now to bring the board of peace into full force, I ask Sheikh Isa of Bahrain and Foreign Minister Bourita of Morocco to join me in signing and ratifying the Board of Peace charter.

Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)