Trump Invites Putin to Pay-to-Join Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ Ahead of Davos Launch

Personalistic, pay-to-play diplomacy is not new: in 1920 the San Remo Conference effectively auctioned Middle-East mandates among the victors of World War I, and in 2003 Washington tried a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ model where political backing was traded for aid and access. Trump’s invitation to a still-warring Putin, and the $1 billion buy-in, signal a continuation of the century-long trend toward ad-hoc clubs that bypass treaty-based bodies like the UN (founded 1945) in favor of leader-driven coalitions. Whether the scheme succeeds or fizzles, it highlights three forces reshaping the system: the erosion of post-1945 multilateral norms, the commodification of international legitimacy, and the rise of strong-man transactionalism. If such models displace the UN, historians in 2126 may view this moment—when a U.S. president openly monetized peace stewardship and invited an active belligerent to co-manage conflicts—as an inflection point in the slow retreat from rules-based order; or, if the board collapses like many vanity initiatives, as a historical footnote underscoring the resilience of established institutions.