President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace will be receiving $1.25 billion from the U.S. State Department, taxpayer funds that had been designated for international disasters and peacekeeping, Semafor reported in an exclusive.
Trump’s Board of Peace has drawn criticism for its highly centralized structure, under which Trump serves as chairman for life and controls who succeeds him. He also wields unilateral control over the organization’s actions, including where and how it spends its funds.
U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is introducing legislation that would redirect $1 billion of the $1.25 bill to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
“Instead of giving President Trump a $1 billion blank check to fund a ‘Board of Peace’ that has offered no transparency about how it is investing its money, let’s focus on helping American families afford their monthly power bill,” Cortez Masto told Semafor.
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Trump has pledged the U.S. will provide the Border Patrol of Peace a total of $10 billion.
Trump has sole discretion on which nations are invited to join, and he is requiring a $1 billion payment to the Board of Peace for permanent membership. The president rescinded his invitation to Canada after its prime minister indicated Canada would not pay the $1 billion fee.
According to reports, the organization could be filled with authoritarian leaders, and it is being seen as a possible rival to the United Nations.
“The Board of Peace has had a rough landing,” reported Bloomberg News’ UK political editor Alex Wickham in January, noting that “it’s been criticized by Israel, questioned by Europe and has Russia’s friends celebrating.”
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