Matt Ortega, Democratic candidate for California’s 14th Congressional District, issued the following statement on the signing of Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace.”

As an American and a student of history, I am appalled at Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”—a poorly disguised, corrupt real estate deal to enrich himself and those around him off a genocide in Gaza.

Functions typically entrusted to the United Nations are now claimed by this sham organization built around one person: its chairman Donald Trump.

This grotesque monetization of death and suffering is a dark, watershed moment in the region’s struggle for peace. It will stand as a bold face event in history books that I fear will only serve as a vector for extremist recruitment and continued violence in the region and against the United States.

For American national security and out of basic decency, it must be dissolved at first opportunity.