LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip were the focus of the first ever meeting of President Trump's initiative known as the Board of Peace.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And while the president's team unveils ambitious plans for high-end condos and skyscrapers along the coastline, some world leaders are raising concerns that the Board of Peace could upend world order.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is here to talk about the high stakes involved and what it means for Trump. Good morning.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So how much is the Board of Peace about Gaza? Because the mandate appears to be growing and raising concerns.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, I'd say the discussion was mostly about Gaza, and we've been obviously reporting about the $10 billion the U.S. is committing to reconstruction efforts and the stabilization force being put together for security. But Trump is not hiding the fact that he has a bigger vision for this board, and he's casting it as a signature part of his administration, boasting that it will not only be a vehicle for rebuilding Gaza, but could also be used for any number of global conflicts.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This is something very special, and we're going to straighten out Gaza. We're going to make Gaza very successful and safe. And we're also going to maybe take it a step further where we see hotspots around the world. We can probably do that very easily.
ORDOÑEZ: And it's that idea that has raised concerns because some leaders see this as a potential rival to the United Nations. I mean, this is a system that's allowed smaller nations to have a voice in major international decisions. But this board is going to be run by Trump and those he hand-picks.
FADEL: OK. So that's why countries like France and the U.K. and Sweden didn't show up for these meetings, right? Concerns about the charter?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. Trump has made no secret of his dislike for the U.N and international organizations. I spoke to Ivo Daalder, who served as ambassador to NATO in the Obama administration. And he called the Board of Peace a vanity project for Trump, but one that is also raising legitimate concerns among world leaders. I mean, they're watching the biggest power in the world and the largest contributor to the United Nations set up this alternative system.
IVO DAALDER: To see someone like the United States walk away from the U.N. system represents a fundamental reversal of the last 80-some years of global politics. And people are worried about that. They're worried about the general direction of American foreign policy.
ORDOÑEZ: But Trump and his team argue that the old way of doing things is just not working and specifically could not do what they have done in Gaza and reaching, you know, the so-called ceasefire.
FADEL: OK. So speaking of that, the U.N. Security Council met just before the Board of Peace, where it raised concerns about ongoing violence in Gaza. I mean, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire. How would that impact this board's goals?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, a lot. I mean, this week, Israel said Hamas had just 60 days to give up all its weapons or Israel would resume military operations, which would just blow up Trump's already fragile ceasefire.
FADEL: Are there political implications with the midterms ahead?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. The timing is very delicate. I mean, we could be talking about an entirely different situation in a few months as campaign season kicks in, and that's not even accounting for the potential for military operations in Iran. I mean, Republican allies are already worried that this effort could end up tying the administration into another Middle East crisis. And that's the very kind of conflict that Trump's pledged to avoid. And Trump, of course, has already been facing criticism for spending too much time on foreign policy and not enough time on the issues he was elected on, which, of course, is immigration and reducing inflation.
FADEL: That's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thank you, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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