Trump’s Board of Peace Is a Faux Pact

When we assess President Barack Obama’s assaults on the Constitution’s framework, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, ranks high on the list. Yet the JCPOA has nothing on President Donald Trump’s farcical “Board of Peace” — a faux multilateral pact that is key to Trump’s ill-conceived, unconsummated 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Of the perils to republican governance, the Framers feared none more than the enticements of foreign powers, often disguised as benign agreements. They worried that a corrupt president might scheme with hostile regimes, leveraging executive power for his own enrichment or in such a regime’s interests. In the late 18th century, the survival of the nascent American republic, still threatened by more powerful European regimes, including some on its borders, was no sure thing. The existential peril portended by foreign subversion of the presidency was not an abstraction; it was a palpable vulnerability.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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When we assess President Barack Obama’s assaults on the Constitution’s framework, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, ranks high on the list. Yet the JCPOA has nothing on President Donald Trump’s farcical “Board of Peace” — a faux multilateral pact that is key to Trump’s ill-conceived, unconsummated 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

Of the perils to republican governance, the Framers feared none more than the enticements of foreign powers, often disguised as benign agreements. They worried that a corrupt president might scheme with hostile regimes, leveraging executive power for his own enrichment or in such a regime’s interests. In the late 18th century, the survival of the nascent American republic, still threatened by more powerful European regimes, including some on its borders, was no sure thing. The existential peril portended by foreign subversion of the presidency was not an abstraction; it was a palpable vulnerability.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.