In freewheeling Board of Peace address, Trump reaffirms preference for strongmen, young women

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump repeatedly went off-script during his 47-minute address to the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington on Thursday, making a number of eye-raising comments amid serious remarks about Gaza and Iran.

In a rambling speech, Trump denounced domestic opponents, highlighted stock market gains and endorsed the political fortunes of several leaders on stage, including populists Viktor Orban of Hungary and Javier Milei of Argentina.

“You know, I’ve had a very good record of endorsing candidates within the United States, but now I endorse foreign leaders,” he said, pointing to Orban, who was seated on stage. He also said that Milei, sitting nearby, had been “a little behind in the polls” until Trump endorsed him, and then “ended up winning in a landslide.”

Trump noted that many wouldn’t be happy with his endorsement of Orban, the leader frequently at odds with most of his European counterparts, who view him as leading a democratic backslide during his 16 years in power.

There was no hint of the criticized human-rights records of some attendees. It was only those who did not attend the inaugural meeting of the board in Washington who received an ominous warning: “You can’t play cute with me,” Trump said.

Trump also singled out some of the “tough” leaders on his Board of Peace, including the leaders of Albania and Azerbaijan, who recently ended decades of conflict.

“These are two tough cookies,” Trump said, pointing to Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “You think that was easy? It wasn’t easy. These are two tough people, good people, but tough people.”

He recounted getting the two leaders to soften in the Oval Office, “We made a deal, they hugged, they signed, and we had peace, two very important countries, and I’ll never forget it.”

Israel is slated to hold a national election this year, and Trump has publicly heaped praise on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including repeated demands that he be pardoned in his ongoing criminal trial. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, however, averred in an interview last month that “I don’t think the president is going to get involved in the [Israeli] elections.”

Turning to address Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña on Thursday, Trump called him a “young, handsome guy.”

“It’s always nice to be young and handsome. It doesn’t mean we have to like you. I don’t like young, handsome men. Women — I like. Men, I don’t have any interest,” Trump said during his speech, as those present chuckled nervously.

“I don’t like young handsome men. Women I like.”

Trump introducing Paraguay’s leader Santiago Peña, who is 47 years old. pic.twitter.com/QgpzRdTEvZ

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No women were among the nearly three dozen speakers on Thursday, other than the event’s emcee, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump also told stories in which he portrayed himself as having coerced leaders into doing what he wanted. He told the crowd how he had used threats of tariffs to pressure some countries, such as India and Pakistan, into ending conflicts. India has firmly rejected this assertion.

The Board of Peace event had the feel of a Trump campaign rally, with music blaring from his eclectic playlist that included Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys. Participants received red Trump hats.

As leaders huddled for a group photo, the event’s soundtrack set the tone, as James Brown’s 1966 song, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” blared overhead.

Trump also appeared to use his speech to fuel the rivalry between the two members of his administration considered the front-runners to replace him as the GOP’s next presidential nominee: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump described Vance as “a fantastic man” and a “fantastic talent” before running through the highlights of the vice president’s education and marriage and noting that Vance “gets a little bit tough on occasion.”

The president then pivoted to Rubio, calling his leadership style “the opposite extreme… Marco does it with a velvet glove, but it’s a kill.”

Trump then praised Rubio’s performance at the Munich Security Conference this week, joking that if he did his job any better, he’d be fired for outshining him: “Don’t do any better than you did, please. Because if you do, you’re out of here.”

He also heaped praise on envoy Steve Witkoff, whom Trump has dispatched to conflicts around the world.

He said he brought Witkoff — a real estate developer with zero diplomatic experience — on board because “everybody loved him. All these developers, and they’re tough, you know, New York developers tend to be on the tough side.”

“And, you know, most of them hate each other. Like a lot of the people in this room hate each other, you know, sort of natural, I guess,” Trump added. “But we’re bringing love back into the room, like the old days. But everybody loves Steve. Every developer, the worst, most evil people, horrible human beings, actually. And they love Steve.”

The US president also spoke at length about the United Nations, amid fears from many world leaders and diplomats that the Board of Peace is an attempt to eclipse the UN Security Council. But Trump attempted to assuage those concerns, saying that the US will “work again with the United Nations and, bring it back to health.”

He added that his administration plans to “fix up even the building.”

“I like to see beautiful buildings. I like to see buildings fixed up physically, not look like they are in disrepair,” Trump said. “We don’t like that. So we’re going to do a job with the United Nations.”

Trump said he had a positive relationship with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, “other than in my last speech, they did turn off my teleprompter.”

That, he said, was after the escalator he was traveling on in the building stopped abruptly — which the UN said was triggered by an American videographer.

“Lucky my movie star first lady was in front of me, ’cause I put my hand on a certain part of her body, and I was able to stop my fall,” Trump said on Thursday. “So I said, that was strange. I’ve been in a lot of escalators. It’s never happened before. Usually, it stops very slowly. This was just, boom. But our first lady was right in the proper location for me.”

The US president also made some curious comments about a trip to China he made during his first term in 2017, where “President Xi, he treated me so well, he gave me a display.”

“I never saw so many soldiers, all the same height, exactly the same height, within a quarter of an inch… everybody was within about one eighth of an inch the same height,” Trump said. “I said, If they put their helmets down, you could have played pool on the top of their heads.”

And the US president couldn’t help but comment on one of his favorite topics — the fact that he has still not received his long-coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump said he was excited to announce that Norway had agreed to host a Board of Peace event.

“I thought, when I saw this note… I thought they were going to say that they’re giving me the Nobel Prize,” he said. “Oh, this is less exciting.”

Trump said his first thought when seeing that Norway had an announcement was “finally. Finally, they got it right. But I don’t care. I don’t care about Nobel Prizes. I care about saving lives, just so you understand.”

In total, the president used the term “beautiful” at least 14 times in his speech to praise his administration’s work and the event space, which was named after him.

He said it was Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s idea to “surprise” him by renaming the US Institute of Peace, where Thursday’s event was held, in his honor.

“I didn’t know the surprise,” Trump said, “I thought maybe they were going to give me a lot of money or something, maybe cash.”