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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Speaks At Signing Ceremony For "Board of Peace." Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 22, 2026 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In just about all cases young men -- their baby -- their boy had been killed, and they wanted the body of the boy, and it looked like it couldn't be done. And with the exception of one -- and we're close on the track of that -- we've got them all -- every single one of them, which is amazing. That's a rough job. That was a rough job. And I've been very clear that Hamas must return that last remaining deceased hostage as well, and that will be the full commitment, and then we get on to other things.

And we're committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed, and beautifully rebuilt. It's going to be a great plan. And that's where the Board of Peace really started and I think we can spread out to other things as we succeed with Gaza. We're going to be very successful in Gaza. It's going to a great thing to watch.

And we can do other things. We can do numerous other things. Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do, and we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations. You know, I've always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential and has not used it. But there's tremendous potential in the United Nations and you have some great people at the United Nations. But so far, it hasn't.

You know, on the wars that I ended I never spoke to the United Nations about any of them and you would think that I should have. You would think they could have done those eight wars, but they couldn't have. And they tried, I guess, in some of them, but they didn't try hard enough.

But there's tremendous potential with the United Nations and I think the combination of the Board of Peace with the kind of people we have here, coupled with the United Nations, can be something very unique for the world. It's for the world. This isn't United States; this is for the world.

As everyone can see today, the first steps toward a brighter day for the Middle East and a much safer future for the world are unfolding right before your very eyes. Together we are in a position to have an incredible chance. I don't even call it a chance.

I think it's going to happen -- to end decades of suffering, stop generations of hatred and bloodshed, and forge a beautiful, everlasting, and glorious peace for that region and for the whole region of the world. Because I'm calling the world a region. The world is a region. We're going to have peace in the world and boy, would that be a great legacy for all of us?

Everybody in this room is a star or you wouldn't be here. There's a reason that you're here, and you're all stars. You're the biggest people, the most important people in the people. The most powerful people in the world. And when you use that genius that you have -- that very unusual, very inspired genius -- when you use that for peace, uh, the opposite of peace has no chance.

So I just want to say it's tremendous to be with you and I think this is something that we're doing that's very important. This is the most important and we're so looking forward to being here. And yesterday was a tremendous success. A lot of good things happened. But this was something that I really wanted to be here and do, and I could think of no better place because so many people were together.

And now to bring the Board of Peace into full force, I ask Sheik Isa of Bahrain and Foreign Minister Bourita of Morocco to join me in signing and ratifying the Board of Peace charter. Thank you very much, everybody -- appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

(Applause)

Board of Peace members signing agreement.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: OK.

(Applause)

LEAVITT: Congratulations, President Trump. The charter is now in full force, and the Board of Peace is now an official international organization.

(Applause)

LEAVITT: We will now continue the signing ceremony.

[05:35:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've just been watching President Trump there in Davos, Switzerland as he signs the Board of Peace charter.

But he spoke before that for about 20 minutes. He started at about 5:13 Eastern. Just a few takeaways from his comments and then I'll welcome in Oren Liebermann again.

His comments began with what sounded a bit like victory lap -- what he called unprecedented success, pointing to conflicts around the world that he says he either brought an end to or, at the very least, calming down.

He talked about this week being the one-year anniversary of him returning to office. He said, "The world is richer and safer because of me. A year ago the world was on fire."

On Ukraine and Russia he seemed to suggest that he was on the cusp of ending that war. He -- I believe he said next month. He seemed to indicate that he could be bringing that to an end next month. And he repeated his claim that the war would never have happened if he were president.

He did also repeat some familiar falsehoods. He claimed that the 2020 election was rigged.

On the issue of the Board of Peace, he said, "Look, every country wants to be part of it. These are just the countries that are here." I should say that our CNN reporting suggests that this event was attended by fewer than 20 nations, none of which included European allies.

He also said, "We're committed to beautifully rebuilding Gaza. We're going to be very successful in Gaza." And critically, he said, "We will do it in conjunction with the U.N. They have tremendous potential. They have not used it."

Let me bring in -- back into the conversation our Oren Liebermann who has also been following all of these comments and developments and joins us live this morning from Jerusalem. Oren, give us a sense of your takeaways from what we just heard there.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: I mean, look, that was a tired, rambling speech that for the most part was all over the place.

Right at the beginning, as you point out, he touted the accomplishments of the Board of Peace or how big it's going to be, and said, "Everybody wants to be a part of it." One of the most important meetings of all occurring at Davos. And he also said he'll work with many others, including the United Nations. That's how he started it off.

As you pointed out, CNN's reporting is that there are a number of countries who haven't even responded and have talked about what they see as the red flags of the Board of Peace. And yet, he continued to tout it anyway.

He also went on to say that he was very honored when he was asked to lead the Board of Peace. Well, it is a White House-U.S. invention -- a creation. So it's not surprise that President Donald Trump was asked to lead the board that was created by the White House.

He then effectively hit a whole bunch of different topics. Crucially, although he talked a bit about the war in Ukraine and said there might be a resolution there -- and we have reported that they are making progress and are dealing with what they're calling, effectively, the last big issue there.

He also talked about the war in Gaza and the Board of Peace's efforts there. But there were no new details in how it's supposed to function. He said, "The Board of Peace has delivered record levels of humanitarian aid, secured the release of 20 living hostages." Those that were the last living hostages held in Gaza.

He did point out it's where the Board of Peace started and from there it will expand. So that's sort of the concrete example of where they're trying to put it into effect and then have it work on other conflicts from there.

And then he rambled on a number of other topics, including Spain's defense investment, Christians being targeted and persecuted in Nigeria, the southern border, drug trafficking, Venezuela, the Nile River, and a few other topics there.

In terms of the meat of what we were looking for -- concrete details about how the board would function or what its next steps are in Gaza -- that was very much lacking here, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And so -- I mean, effectively, Oren -- I mean, how much farther along are we today than we were yesterday, beyond just the signing of the charter?

LIEBERMANN: That's the big step here today. The charter is signed. We have seen the new members here -- Middle East monarchs, the last dictator of Europe in the Belarusian president, and several other countries. We saw the Argentinian president there. He was smiling when they pulled out on that wide shot when Bahrain and Morocco became the first to officially sign the charter of the Board of Peace.

But crucially, Europe -- European countries are fundamentally lacking here. What have traditionally been the U.S.' closest allies in Europe have raised their own voices of skepticism about this.

In terms of Gaza, it was U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who was a crucial part of the Gaza effort, who said it's on to the second phase of the ceasefire.

And we have seen, effectively, the management structure for the next phase of the -- of the Board of Peace's efforts in Gaza. Now we need to see how they take that management structure and put it into action on the ground to begin reconstruction. To demilitarize Gaza. To disarm Hamas. Those are the next big questions and those don't have answers yet.

SOLOMON: Oren, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you, Oren, live for us there in Jerusalem.

[05:40:00]

I want to welcome into the conversation Laurel Rapp, director of the U.S. and North America Programme at Chatham House. Laurel, do I have you?

LAUREL RAPP, DIRECTOR, U.S. AND NORTH AMERICA PROGRAMME, CHATHAM HOUSE: Yes. Good afternoon.

SOLOMON: Good afternoon.

Your takeaways from what we just heard from the president there in that 20-minute speech.

RAPP: Well, President Trump's speech at Davos yesterday really nailed a -- hammered a nail in the coffin of any transatlantic unity that remains at this point.

We did hear a little bit of news on Greenland and that the president would not be using military force against NATO allies. But at the same time, very few details here on what the next steps will be on Greenland. Their perilous road ahead there -- very norm-breaking moves.

More antipathy towards Europe broadly. The president said yesterday that Europe was not on the right direction. Look at migration. Looked at excessive government spending on social services, on social issues. These are not words that will make U.S. allies across the Atlantic feel like there is much left here to build upon.

Also, on Ukraine, President Trump said basically not our problem. Ukraine is far away and the Europeans need to deal with it. A very different message from what we heard from the NATO secretary general that said we shouldn't take our eye off Ukraine as everyone looks to Greenland.

SOLOMON: And yet, today, just a few moments ago, he said on the issue of Ukraine and Russia that he was on the cusp of ending that war next month.

Your comments or thoughts from what we just heard from him moments ago.

RAPP: So it's a bit unclear how the U.S. plans to do this. We've seen shifting attention -- jumping from Venezuela to Greenland to Iran, back to Greenland. We haven't yet seen a concrete plan for a sort of U.S. framework for how a resolution here will protect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. And so we may see more in the weeks ahead as President Trump seeks to put economic pressure on Russia, potentially supporting additional sanctions that are going through the U.S. Senate right now.

But the president has been quite inconsistent on Russia-Ukraine and hasn't really seen it as a big priority other than getting a deal done, getting the headline, and moving on.

SOLOMON: And you've critiqued the structure of the Board of Peace. Trump is the chairman -- a billion dollars buy-in.

As we look at the stage here and as we look at these world leaders who have appeared -- and we should say that Trump has said that everyone wants to join. Our reporting suggests otherwise. What are your thoughts as you -- as you look at the leaders who are signing the charter and we think about those who have declined to participate?

RAPP: So look, the Board of Peace, which would be composed of a U.S. -- this U.S. president potentially sitting for life with billion- dollar buy-ins with no U.S. allies currently signing up -- countries like Hungary. Orban has praised this Board of Peace. This is not the composition or structure that will be able to meaningfully address major conflicts to peace and security.

There's an underlying issue here that there has long been questions about the U.N.'s ability to deliver big peace resolutions. The Security Council's paralysis and other peacebuilding bodies in the U.N. -- they have been challenged in the past years to deliver huge peace arrangements. That's also a function of the member states that are involved in it. Major power who have really fundamental disagreements right now.

The other challenge here with the U.N.'s effectiveness is when a major -- one of the biggest donors to the United Nations and the host of the U.N., the United States, divests from it in many ways, it really undercuts its ability to work effectively.

And so instead of looking at alternative bodies -- you know, looking within the U.N. and strengthening it. Looking at reforming the Security Council. Looking at reinvesting in this Peacebuilding Commission, which the U.S. pulled out of just last month -- these are some measures that would bring in a broader cohort of countries that are not just more on the authoritarian-leaning side of the ledger.

SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting because before the president's speech there, there were some real questions, and those questions may still exist, about whether this Board of Peace was attempting to serve as an alternate U.N. or sort of what the real sort of intention behind the group was.

I mean, the president, for his part, just said a few moments ago that they will do it in conjunction, meaning peace -- they will do it in conjunction with the U.N. "They have tremendous potential and have not used it on the wars I ended. They did not try hard enough to end those wars."

[05:45:00]

Do you -- do you buy that this Board of Peace entity would be working in conjunction with the U.N.? Do you buy that?

Actually, hold that thought, Laurel.

RAPP: The U.N. works with a lot of -- the U.N. works with a lot off --

SOLOMON: Hold that thought. Let's listen to the Secretary of State for just one moment.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: And sadly, many of the institutions that have served us well, in many cases, for the last 70 years, were unable to do anything about it.

But President Trump had the vision and the courage to dream the impossible. To believe that it was doable and to pursue it with all of his heart. And he is in that capacity assisted by an extraordinary team, and I think both Jared and Steve deserve a tremendous amount of credit -- Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff -- for all the work they've put in,

(Applause)

And all of our partners here today.

And now we have this Board of Peace who I believe its possibilities are endless -- obviously, with a focus first and foremost on making sure that this peace deal in Gaza becomes enduring. And I know this president has it as his highest priority and will give it everything he has to make sure that this is successful.

I also want to acknowledge the extraordinary leaders that are here today. This is not just a Board of Peace; this is a board of action. Just like President Trump is a president of action.

A lot of times people like to give speeches. I've been to many of these forums and they're not useless and they're not -- you know, not -- they have utility in many cases. But oftentimes in international affairs we often find ourselves at events where people are reading these scripted statements -- these strongly-worded letters that they put out, but on action. Nothing happens.

This is a group of leaders that are about action, and the President of the United States is a president of action -- of getting things done. And today is the beginning of that -- of a new era and a new stage that we think is so important as a model to the rest of the world of what is possible.

And clearly, the focus is right now on Gaza and making sure that the plan that's about to be presented to you here today -- this vision for the future of Gaza -- this vision for the future of the region is not just possible and promising, it is our destiny if we put the time and the effort that it requires, as I know this board will do.

But I also think it will serve as an example of what's possible in other parts of the world. Without losing focus on what's before us now this is what's possible for other places and other conflicts that seem impossible to solve right.

So I want to -- on behalf of the United States and on behalf of the team that worked so hard on this, thank every single one of the leaders that are here today and all the countries that have committed to joining, and many others who are going to join. You know, others either are not in town today or they have to go through some procedure internally in their conscious -- in their own country because of constitutional limitations. But others will join. Many want to be a part of this effort because it is going to be a successful effort.

And you see it reflected here today among countries of different backgrounds from different parts of the world -- majority Christians, some; majority Muslim, others -- who have come together. In fact, former adversaries who have joined here as part of this Board of Peace. And all was possible -- and I want to acknowledge this again -- because of the vision and the drive of the President of the United States.

So thank you all for joining us here today. We appreciate it very much. (Applause)

SOLOMON: All right, Laurel. I want to bring you back into the conversation as we continue to keep one eye on the stage there for any future speakers.

But Laurel, the question that I was asking is did you buy that this entity -- this group of leaders would working alongside the U.N. -- in conjunction with the U.N., as the president said, as opposed to potentially in place of the U.N.

RAPP: So look, the U.N. has a long track record of coordinating with regional bodies, of many lateral organizations. Sometimes there are arrangements crafted in these smaller groupings and then brought to the United Nations for resourcing, for a broader buy-in across the full 193 U.N. member states. So there is a model broadly for the U.N. to work with organizations like this.

But the U.N. also is guided by universal principles that all member states have signed onto. And there are major questions about this Board of Peace. What are the guiding principles? Are these just the U.S. very hard-nosed interests, as President Trump defines it, who may be the chairman for life or is it something that will evolve into having broader purchase across the membership to look at how the sort of just resolution of conflicts, basic principles of not invading one country over another, of some basic protection of human rights?

This is how the U.N. works, so this was how it was designed to work 80 years ago. It's very unclear at this stage if there's any alignment on those values with this Board of Peace.

[05:50:00]

And, you know, we just heard Secretary Rubio say that other countries will be joining. That may be true. I think there's a question here about whether this will be a coerced participation. Concern about retaliation if you don't join. There were the threats President Trump made to the French about their kind of unlikeliness that they would be joining this board, as well as some of the Nordic countries.

And so not a great starting point if you are going to coerce countries to join something instead of having it be a cooperative institution in which countries see value -- inherent value in it being a place to bring problems to the table and solve major issues of peace and security.

And so for these reasons, this seems very unlikely to succeed and it is a -- you know, potentially may also -- requires a lot of attention and requires a lot of investment from the United States. And it's unclear if this administration, at this stage is willing to both launch something in a big headline fashion but then really follow it through with a lot of the hard work at the staff level across the U.S. federal bureaucracy to get this done.

SOLOMON: Yeah, it's an interesting point. I mean, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there, "This is not just a Board of Peace; it's a board of action." To your point, it's not just sort of the headline- grabbing event but it's everything that comes after that action.

Laurel Rapp, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL)

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Switzerland, and we will get to that in just a moment. But first, we want to take you back to Davos. Let's listen together.

STEVE WITKOFF, U. SPECIAL ENVOY: And I am so honored, Mr. President, to have worked on this on your behalf.

I'd like to thank some people here -- who are here with us tonight who have done so much -- done indispensable work to bring this deal together.

Sheik Mohammed, my good friend from Qatar, and Ali Altowati. Hakan Fidan and Ibraham. General Hasson and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. And, of course, President Sisi and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Former special envoy Ron Dermer and Michael Eisenberg for all that they did.

I would also like to thank our core working group and members of the Board of Peace who have been working nonstop on behalf of this incredible noble effort around the clock for months on end, sacrificing time with their families and their own personal lives because they believe in the mission and the vision that the president has set out for us.

[05:55:00]

I'd also like to thank -- and those people include Tony Blair, Yakir Gabay, Josh Gruenbaum, Aryeh Lightstone, Lauren Tuchman, Admiral Cooper, General Frank. And I probably have forgotten some along the way.

And then perhaps most importantly, I want to thank our administration. We have an incredible team. It's amazing to work for this administration. I think you see the results that we get on behalf of the president because he inspires us so much. So I'd like to thank the Vice President of the United States JD Vance for all of his help and guidance, our treasury secretary. Of course, the Secretary of State who we work hand-in-glove with. And a special thanks to our chief of staff Susie Wiles who is always available to us for consultation, for steering, and for all else that she does. Thank you.

(Applause)

JARED KUSHNER, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW: Thank you, Steve. And I have to say one of the great honors for me of being able to work on this has been working with Steve, who really is -- as brilliant as he is, his heart is tremendous. He's a lot of fun to be with. And, you know, even in some of these very difficult moments were we didn't think things would happen, working together really was an amazing treat.

I'm going now today just through a couple of quick slides just to show you the progress that's been made in the last couple of months.

It was just over 100 days ago that we got the final deal done and everyone was celebrating and joyous about the hostages coming home and the end to this long war that nobody thought was possible. And Steve and I were panicking, saying, "What do we do next?" You know, how do you implement peace? And as you guys know, peace is a different deal than a business deal because you're changing a mindset.

And in Israel, there was two years of very intense war. For the people in Gaza, there was more than just two years of war. They had 20 years of hopelessness being ruled by a terrorist organization. For the people on the Middle East, their hearts were pulled by this. And throughout the entire world it really was weighing on us.

And so we needed to think about what do we do next? How do we change the habits? How do we change the behaviors? And we really got to work right away. And the team that Steve thanked, including the White House team and the team that volunteers, it's really an incredible effort -- very entrepreneurial. And we really did it in the way --

I've been working now with President Trump for 10 years on politics and what continues to amaze me is that he always takes the first principles approach and says what's the most optimal outcome? Aim for that. Whereas, politicians are always focused on the downside or what could go wrong, or how to make it a little bit better. He always says aim for the best possible and, you know, do your best to get there. And if everyone thinks it's impossible that's even more reason why you should aim for it.

And so, really, thank you for the leadership and the inspiration for doing this. And I think you'll see today we've achieved more than thought was possible and our ambition is still to go for something I think better than most people think is possible as well.

So let's see if these things work. They never usually work -- good.

So quickly, I'll go through this two-year war. Ninety thousand tons of munitions. There's over 60 million tons of rubble there and tens of thousands of fatalities.

Through the ceasefire we were able to get to the 20-point plan ceasefire, the release of hostages. Getting the U.N. resolution passed was a huge, huge effort. Really, thanks to Mike Waltz and the whole team there. They did an incredible job.

And we then, with the help of the -- of the U.N. -- we worked very, very well with them. This is why you need a new organization like the Board of Peace to work with the U.N. I want to thank Tom Fletcher. He did an incredible job of really getting it going. We've done historic humanitarian aid. Going forward the number one thing is going to be security. Obviously, we've been working very closely with the Israelis to figure out a way through de-escalation. And the next phase is working with Hamas on demilitarization, which I'll talk about in a second.

But without security nobody is going to make investments. Nobody is going to come, you know, build there. We need investments in order start giving jobs. We want to take these people -- 85 percent of the aid of Gaza -- 85 percent of the GDP of Gaza has been aid for a long time. That's not sustainable and it doesn't give these people dignity. It doesn't give them hope.

And so we want to use free market economy principles -- a lot of what President Trump spoke about that he's doing in America. We want to bring these same mindsets and this same approach to a place like Gaza to give these people the ability to thrive and have a good life.

Let's see. So on the aid, I mentioned the U.N. So now people are talking about famine. One hundred percent of the -- of the -- of the food needs are met and that's an overabundance. The cost of goods have gone down tremendously. Over 55,000 trucks have gone in and over 1.4 million pallets.

So it's been the largest humanitarian effort done into a warzone that anyone's been able to tell us about. This really has been a great joint effort that everyone's been able to do. And so, it's a great thing.

We all just heard from Ali (PH). We have been so impressed. Steve and I were speaking to him and the entire committee. Such bravery of these people to step up. And we've worked with the Palestinian Authority who has been helping us as well.

But this committee is the first time a technocratic apolitical committee. I really want to thank the Arab partners for helping us select the right people to do this. And we just need to believe in them and support them.

[06:00:00]

I put this up here. It's probably a little too small for me to read. But this is really important.

SOLOMON: OK. We've just been listening there to Jared Kushner who continues to speak. Of course, son-in-law of President Trump. Before Jared we heard from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff speaking there at Davos at the World Economic Forum.

Those comments coming after the signing of the Board of Peace charter, an entity that is meant to help rebuild Gaza after the war in Gaza. Of course, those comments continue and our coverage continues as well on "CNN THIS MORNING." But for now, I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Our coverage continues after this break.