Trump’s Board of Peace faces funding questions, trouble in Gaza

President Trump’s highly publicized Board of Peace is facing new questions over the sources — and destinations — of its funding, even as its flagship project, the U.S. peace plan for Gaza, stalls in the face of numerous obstacles.

At an inaugural signing ceremony for the board in February, Trump touted a U.S. pledge of $10 billion for Gaza’s reconstruction and said he’d had received commitments of more than $7 billion more. 

The World Bank estimates Gaza’s reconstruction will cost more than $70 billion. 

But The Financial Times reported in May that an account set up by the World Bank had received no money, and that countries had instead preferred depositing funds into a private JPMorgan account. 

A Board of Peace official told The Hill in a statement that the organization has collected “hundreds of millions of dollars,” far short of that $17 billion initially pledged. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week in the face of questions from Democrats that no U.S. funds have flowed to bank accounts set up to receive donations. 

Rubio, under questioning from Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), said that Congress will “ultimately” have oversight of the funds flowing to the Board of Peace, especially the U.S. dollars. 

“While I appreciated learning some new details, the Secretary’s response raised more questions than it answered,” Rosen said in an emailed statement to The Hill.

“I hope Secretary Rubio will follow through with his commitment to provide us with the contact information and a briefing.”

At the hearing, she asked Rubio if the money in the JP Morgan account could be used to compensate Trump or his family or anyone directly tied to the president. 

“No one’s talking about doing that,” Rubio said. 

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), another Democrat scrutinizing the funding, introduced legislation in March to block the State Department from transferring $1 billion in fiscal year 2026 funds to the Board of Peace and instead redirect that money to low-income housing and energy assistance. 

“The Trump Admin. has driven costs through the roof, and instead of doing anything about it, they’re creating slush funds for themselves,” Cortez Masto said in a statement at the time. 

“I introduced a bill to redirect Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ slush fund toward cutting power bills for working Americans.”

Who’s running the show?

Trump created the Board of Peace in November as part of the deal to end the war between Israel and Hamas and implement a 20-point peace plan in the Gaza Strip. 

Endorsed by the United Nations, Trump expanded the board’s mandate in January to address conflicts across the........

© The Hill