Trump is uniting autocracies under the banner of ‘peace’

Donald Trump has started a new members-only club that demands a high entry fee. But instead of being situated in southern Florida or the rolling hills of New Jersey, this one is virtual. And instead of adopting a gaudily romantic name, this one is just called “the Board of Peace.”

The president rolled out this new initiative in an event held during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He’d already offered some public details — member countries were asked for $1 billion in contributions; its focus would be on rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza — but the Davos event was the official launch party. Representatives of several of the countries that had already signed up to participate were there, including United Arab Emirates, Hungary and Pakistan.

You will notice that those countries are not traditional allies of the United States. That’s telling, given that some are concerned that the Board of Peace might be intended to be a center of power that exists in opposition to the United Nations.

In fact, nearly all of the countries that agreed to work with Trump’s Board of Peace are ones that are rated relatively poorly on an important metric: adoption of democracy.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index assesses the strength of each nation’s commitment to democracy (or lack thereof). In 2024, the average score across the world — on a zero-to-10, least-democratic-to-most scale — was 5.2. The score among the identified founding members of Trump’s Board? 4.5 points. That includes the U.S.; removing our country drops that average to 4.3.

The EIU’s analysis slots countries into one of four categories, ranging from authoritarian to full democracies. Nine of the countries that signed up for Trump’s Board fall into the “authoritarian” group. None — including the U.S. — are considered full democracies.

Given that the focus is ostensibly on Gaza, you might assume that the imbalance above is a function of regional partners, non-democratic Middle Eastern countries wanting to invest. But it isn’t. It’s a panoply of weak democracies and autocracies that span the globe.

Why does this matter? In part because the U.S. has traditionally sought to participate primarily with international actors that share our political values. Trump appears to be building a pay-for-play alliance that gives bad actors access to American power, perhaps with an eye toward aggregating power to contravene the existing convening international body, the United Nations.

Put another way, this matters because these are not historically the sorts of partners that America has sought out. But, then, Trump is not historically the type of president we elect.

Below, the trend in the EIU’s index by country over time.

Photo: Donald Trump at an event in December. (Flickr/The White House)