Trump Played ‘YMCA’ at the End of His Male-Dominated Peace Board Meeting

Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” convened for the first time at a roundtable in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, and dozens of diplomats, heads of state, and businessmen from more than 40 countries showed up to discuss the next steps for Gaza. But there were hardly any women and zero Palestinian delegates. Plus, half the countries Trump asked to join said no. Sounds dovish to me! 

About 28 countries, including Hungary, Israel, and Turkey, joined Trump’s United Nations-shaped vanity project since he began inviting members in September. While the details of the charter are not yet public, one unnamed U.S. official told the Associated Press that membership requires a $1 billion contribution. The money raised, they explained, would go towards rebuilding Gaza. (It’s worth noting that in 2024 alone, the U.S. funneled more than $15 billion in military funding towards Israel.)

At one point, the president also announced he’s appropriating billions of taxpayer dollars towards “bringing lasting harmony” to the region.

“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” Trump said at the meeting. “[The amount] is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war.” Unless we’re all missing something, Trump never received any congressional approval to finagle around billions of taxpayers’ dollars—so that’s… just not allowed.

This is illegal as hell! https://t.co/XvhJVvyAdD

— Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (@malcolmkenyatta) February 19, 2026

While various world leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, and Pope Leo turned down Trump’s invite (which he has not taken kindly to), he’s had no problem filling it with people lacking diplomatic credentials, such as businessman Marc Rowan (yet another billionaire with ties to Epstein); America-curious FIFA President Gianni Infantino—who was earlier this week accused in the International Criminal Court of aiding and abetting war crimes in Gaza; and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, is the only woman on the board. The other few women who were there (albeit not a formal part of the board) included Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Mediterranean E.U. Commissioner Dubravka Šuica, who was sent as an “observer.” There were no women at the actual roundtable, however, and no, Kushner does not count as a “woman,” even if he was once registered in New York to vote as one.

There is not a single woman at the inaugural board meeting of the Board of Peace.

Not a single female voice representing US diplomacy, or the Middle East region in which women are 50% of the population. https://t.co/M1VkllB6xW

— Jasmine El-Gamal (@jasmineelgamal) February 19, 2026

While all this seems like the Emmy-award-worthy makings of an Armando Iannucci script (Trump literally played “YMCA” as the meeting ended), it still gets more bizarre. “Someday I won’t be here, the United Nations will be, I think, is going to be much stronger,” Trump told attendees. (Someday could not come sooner.) “The Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly.”

The peace board is part of Phase 2 of Trump’s 20-point peace plan—which he laid out in October—or part of his desperate bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize. While the plan began with a ceasefire deal brokered between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian death toll has continued to rise. At the beginning of February, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 19 more Palestinians, most of whom were women and children.

The reopening of Rafah, Gaza’s main border crossing next to Egypt that’s been shut since May 2024, was also a key requirement for Phase 1 of the peace plan, but its implementation has been flawed, falling miles short of Israel’s original promise to allow 50 people to move either way, each day, since February 2. So far, several returning to Gaza have shared horrific accounts of abuse, humiliation, and mistreatment.

Trump has hated the U.N. since his first term in office, during which he removed the U.S. from the Human Rights Council in 2018. But since the beginning of Term 2, he’s gone scorched-earth on the organization after he had to walk up the stairs at its headquarters; claimed it pushes a “globalist migration agenda” that “fund[s] an assault]” on the West; and, most recently, withdrew from various U.N. agencies dedicated to the advancement of women’s rights, family planning, maternal and child health, and preventing sexual violence in conflict. “Lasting harmony,” indeed.

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