Stephen Colbert Slams Trump’s $1B ‘Board of Peace’ Fee as a “Steep Price for Obedience”
Stephen Colbert slammed President Donald Trump’s $1 billion fee to join his vague new “Board of Peace," likening the price tag to Paramount's controversial donation to the president.
On Thursday, Jan 22, Trump, 79, was joined by a small group of world leaders as he signed the charter for his “Board of Peace,” a new international body to address global conflicts, with the president personally working as the board’s inaugural chairman.
The ceremony took place at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump gave little detail on what the board plans to do but said, “it would work with the United Nations to ensure peace in the Middle East and hinted at wider ambitions,” CBS News reported.
Joining the charter reportedly requires a lofty $1 billion membership fee, though it remains unclear what the money will be used for, according to multiple outlets.
Few Western nations have expressed interest in joining the new group, which is mostly made up of countries in the Middle East, Asia and South America.
Nations who have accepted Trump's invite, according to CNN, include Albania, Argentina, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The executive board has been filled out with appointed members: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, billionaire businessman Marc Rowan, World Bank Group president Ajay Banga and U.S. deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.
The board will be indefinitely chaired by Trump.
On Thursday, Jan 22, during his monologue on The Late Show, Colbert, 61, called Trump’s billion-dollar entry fee for the Board of Peace “a little steep,” then taking a jab at his own employer by saying that CBS agreed to “obey” the president for far less.
“Why, you may ask, is this even happening? Good question, me,” Colbert prefaced his roast. “Especially because the Board of Peace’s mission would overlap with the United Nations’ aim of maintaining international peace and security. So, Trump is literally just doing model UN.”
“Now, admittedly, the idea of paying a billion dollars to obey Donald Trump seems a little steep," the comedian added. "After all, CBS got to do it for just 16 million.”
Colbert has previously been critical of CBS' decision to settle a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million, which will be donated to his future presidential library.
Three days before CBS made the shocking announcement that The Late Show would be canceled after its current season, Colbert criticized the network’s parent company for agreeing to settle a lawsuit with Trump. The president had accused journalists at 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a 2024 interview with his election opponent, Kamala Harris.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s 'big, fat bribe,' " Colbert said on The Late Show last July.
Later in the week, Colbert revealed his show would be retired, with CBS insisting it was “purely a financial decision.”
Trump celebrated the news of Colbert's ousting on Truth Social soon after, writing, "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired" before saying, "I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next."
