Watch Trump Try to Defend $1 Billion Price Tag on His “Board of Peace”

President Trump is selling permanent membership spots on his new “Board of Peace” for $1 billion—and he won’t tell us what the money is for. 

“On the Board of Peace, some of the countries … I think the permanent members contributed a billion dollars,” a reporter asked Trump on Thursday night aboard Air Force One. “Is that money supposed to be for Gaza?” 

The “Board of Peace” was initially a post-ceasefire reconstruction plan for Gaza, hence the reporter’s question. But now it seems to have evolved into a Trump-controlled dupe of the United Nations.

“Some of the countries have already put up much more than that,” Trump responded. “Much more than that.” 

“What’s that money for?”

“That’s a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to the value of peace,” Trump said, completely ignoring the direct question. “It’s so destructive for everybody when you have wars.” 

This is an incredibly dubious answer, especially from a president who has spent so much of his tenure personally enriching himself and his family. Is the membership fee for a chunk of real estate in Jared Kushner’s abhorrent “New Gaza” plan? Or is it going straight to Trump’s pocket via some offshore bank account based in Qatar? We may never know.  

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s rising global popularity has cost him a seat at Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace.”

“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday evening. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.

The sudden revocation came hours after a heated back-and-forth between the neighboring leaders regarding Carney’s scathing address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he marked the finale of Pax Americana and the end of a “rules-based order.”

“Every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry,” Carney said Tuesday. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.

“The middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

The speech was phenomenally well met—except by Trump, who proceeded to warn Carney online that “Canada lives because of the United States.” Then he pulled the plug on Canada’s invite to his supposedly coveted “Board of Peace.”

Trump initially floated his “Board of Peace” idea back in September, as part of a 20-point peace plan to control Gaza, promising to include major heads of state as well as former world leaders, such as former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But the board’s charter, as circulated to dozens of nations last week, makes little mention of Gaza. Instead, its goals appear to be as lofty as they are broad, seeking to “promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

The concept came under new scrutiny over the last week in light of Trump’s escalations toward Greenland and NATO. Trump has also invited leaders of nations with terrible track records on human rights, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, to join.

Longtime U.S. allies warned that the “Board of Peace” could upend world order, with several, including France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Slovenia, refusing to join the board at all.

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob told reporters Wednesday that he had declined on the basis that such a body “dangerously interferes with the broader international order.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dragged a half-naked elderly grandfather out into the snow in handcuffs while on a manhunt—but the person they were looking for was already in custody.

The Department of Homeland Security tried to justify dragging ChongLy “Scott” Thao out into the snowy streets of St. Paul, Minnesota, over the weekend by claiming that ICE had been conducting a “targeted operation” to arrest two convicted sex offenders who were “AT LARGE.”

But Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell revealed Thursday night that one of the targets of that operation, Lue Moua, who was allegedly wanted for assault of a minor, was already in custody.

“He is in fact in prison and subject to a detainer,” Schnell said, during an interview on CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett. Schnell said ICE had previously been notified that Moua was not actually “at large.”

Schnell explained that while ICE’s coordination with local law enforcement was “long-standing,” ICE was not well coordinated with state law enforcement. “This is happening at a much higher level, a political level, and I think that’s part of the challenge here,” he said.

Clearly, DHS has been using the alleged presence of undocumented immigrants with heinous criminal records to justify countless cruelties in Minnesota, but the stories it’s spinning are simply fiction, and the so-called criminals it’s looking for aren’t even on the streets anymore.

Earlier this week, DHS demanded that leaders in Minnesota give it access to county jails and state prisons in order to deport an alleged 1,360 inmates who may be subject to deportation. The Minnesota Department of Corrections said the number of inmates DHS had actually identified was closer to 300 people—who would historically be released to federal officials after they’d finished serving their sentences.

Vice President JD Vance is claiming that the ICE violence in Minneapolis is the fault of leaders there.

Speaking to reporters while visiting Minnesota, Vance was asked what he would say to Minnesotans who say that ICE’s increased presence and harsh tactics are making them unsafe. Vance blamed local authorities for refusing to cooperate.

“I’d say that we’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature, and we would like federal and local—excuse me, state and local officials to meet us halfway,” Vance began, before NBC reporter Maggie Vespa interjected.

“Are you saying that they’re not perceiving it correctly? Are you saying that they’re not seeing that it’s the tactics or the presence of the officers that are—” the reporter asked before Vance cut in.

“I’m sure that there are people that are seeing a lot of things that would make any member of our national community feel very upset, but I also think that if you understand this in context, this is the inevitable consequence of a state and local government that have decided that they’re not going to cooperate with immigration enforcement at all. In fact, they’re going to aggressively not cooperate,” Vance said.

Vance’s remarks are alarming, as he just glossed over the murder of Renee Good earlier this month, which touched off much of the protest in Minneapolis against ICE, as well as the many striking headlines from the area since then, including the use of a 5-year-old boy as bait Tuesday to arrest his father.

The vice president is basically saying to the people of Minneapolis to “tell the police to work with us, or else.” While Vance claims to want to lower the temperature, the longer he speaks, the more he doubles down in defense of ICE’s actions. If this is the Trump administration’s stance, it seems like things are only going to get worse.

Vice President JD Vance seems to believe that Black and brown U.S. citizens in Minneapolis being pulled over by ICE did something to deserve it—including the cops of color being targeted.

“Earlier this week, local law enforcement accused federal agents of racial profiling,” a reporter asked Vance at a Thursday press conference in Minneapolis. “Why are there so many U.S. citizens being caught up in this operation?”

Vance blamed those getting arrested instead of the agents.

“Well, I think your question assumes something that’s not necessarily in evidence, which is that when there are American citizens who have been caught up in some of these enforcement operations, very often it is people who have assaulted a law enforcement officer,” Vance said, ignoring that nearly 200 Americans nationwide were detained, dragged, and beaten by ICE last year.

“They’re not being arrested because they violated the immigration laws, they’re being arrested because they punched a federal law enforcement officer,” Vance claimed without evidence. “That is a totally reasonable thing.”

But as that’s precisely the opposite of what Minnesota residents—and Americans everywhere–are claiming. Plenty of U.S. citizens have been detained for simply “looking” or “sounding” like an immigrant.

“Now to the accusation of racial profiling, it’s something that we take very seriously. We will take accusations of racial profiling back to Washington, we’ll certainly look into them as they come up,” Vance continued. “But this is not a group that’s going around and looking for people who violated the law based on skin color. They’re looking for people who violated the actual law—the law of our immigration system.”

Earlier this week, a local police chief warned that federal agents’ racial profiling is so pervasive that many of his cops are being targeted while off-duty. But when asked about that warning on Thursday, Vance was again dismissive.

“I saw one story about this from one local police officer who said this, and look … is it a concern? Absolutely. The first thing we have to figure out is whether it happened or not,” he said. “Many of the most viral stories of the past couple weeks have turned out to be at best, partially true.… We’re not gonna prejudge people.”

While the statement Vance is referring to was delivered by “one cop,” it involved multiple reports of racial profiling from the local force.

“As this went on over the past two weeks, we started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off-duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happen to them,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said on Tuesday. “We know our officers know what the Constitution is, they know when right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted,” Bruley continued. “If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.”