Brazil’s Lula says Trump is attempting to ‘create a new UN’

Lula’s comments come as Trump invites war crimes suspect Netanyahu to join ‘Board of Peace’.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has accused his United States counterpart Donald Trump of wanting to create “a new UN”, days after the US president launched his new “Board of Peace” initiative in Switzerland.

“Instead of fixing” the United Nations, “what’s happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner,” Lula said in a speech on Friday.

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Speaking in Rio Grande do Sul, Lula also said that Trump “wants to run the world through Twitter”.

“It’s remarkable. Every day he says something, and every day the world is talking about what he said,” Lula said, according to Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs and warned that “the UN charter is being torn”.

Lula’s remarks come a day after he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who urged his Brazilian counterpart to safeguard the “central role” of the UN in international affairs.

His comments also come as the White House withdraws the US from dozens of UN bodies and Trump launches his “Board of Peace”, while imposing his “America First” agenda on global politics and trade through tariffs and military threats to such a degree that allies of Washington question whether they can now trust the US.

Trump launched the board with a signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, during the annual summit of the World Economic Forum, another international body that has increasingly presented itself as an alternative to the UN system.

Members of the board include Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court and whose forces have killed more than 300 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in Gaza.

The US originally said that the “Board of Peace” would oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged enclave, but the board’s 11-page charter does not mention Gaza, suggesting its interests may have expanded in scope.

The UN, which was created in the wake of World War II, has said it is experiencing funding shortfalls for its humanitarian and human rights activities, as the US and other Western countries redirect funding away from international aid towards military spending.

The world body operates on a regular budget of about $3.72bn annually, of which the US was required to contribute $820m in 2025, although it has fallen behind on payments under the Trump administration.

By contrast, the draft charter of the Board of Peace says that countries would be required to pay $1bn if they wish to remain members for more than three years.