Trump calls Epstein case a 'witch hunt', urges Maxwell cooperation with DOJ
'I think it's time to hear everything. It's a witch hunt against the wrong people. Let's get to the truth,' Trump said in the Oval Office, referencing public pressure from his supporters to unseal additional Epstein case records.
The remarks came as the Justice Department confirmed it had asked Maxwell's legal team whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying he expected to meet with her 'in the coming days'.
Maxwell, a British socialite and former associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls for abuse.
'President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,' Blanche posted on X, formerly Twitter. 'If Ms Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and DOJ will hear what she has to say.'
JULY 29 DEADLINE SET
Two federal judges in New York on Tuesday gave the Justice Department until Jul 29 to provide detailed arguments justifying its request to unseal grand jury records tied to the Epstein and Maxwell cases.
They also instructed parties in the case, including Maxwell, a representative for Epstein, and alleged victims, to submit their positions on the matter by Aug 5.
In a statement, Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus confirmed they were in talks with prosecutors. 'Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.'
Maxwell did not testify at her trial and is appealing her conviction to the US Supreme Court.
BACKLASH OVER LIMITED RELEASE
Attorney General Pam Bondi has come under fire from Trump supporters after walking back earlier promises to release extensive Epstein-related records, including names and flight logs.
After only a partial release, the FBI and DOJ issued a memo stating there was 'no incriminating client list' and no evidence of blackmail tied to Epstein's activities, findings that Trump supporters have rejected.
Trump allies have since demanded broader disclosure, with calls for Bondi to resign unless the department reopens the inquiry and grants Maxwell immunity to testify before Congress.
In a recent interview with Fox News, attorney Alan Dershowitz, who once represented Epstein, said grand jury transcripts were unlikely to contain the names or documents Trump supporters are seeking. He urged the DOJ instead to release FBI interview reports with victims.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. The official ruling was suicide, but the circumstances of his death have long fueled conspiracy theories, particularly on the American right.
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Business Times
8 minutes ago
- Business Times
As Trump's tariffs bite, investors should ensure the companies they own have strong fundamentals
[SINGAPORE] It seemed like Groundhog Day again when US President Donald Trump unveiled revised reciprocal tariffs on imports from dozens of countries last Thursday (Jul 31). The adjusted rates came just one day before the previously announced reciprocal tariffs were due to kick in; the new duties will take effect only on Aug 7. To me, it initially appeared that Trump was once again delaying the full implementation of his tariffs while maintaining pressure on America's trading partners to open their markets. Some observers think Trump might be reaching his endgame on the country-specific tariffs, though. This could be good news. The revised tariff rates for many countries are, with a few notable exceptions, below the rates announced on Apr 2. For instance, the reciprocal tariffs on the European Union, Japan and South Korea are now all down to 15 per cent, from 20 per cent, 24 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. India is down to 25 per cent from 26 per cent. Closer to home, reciprocal tariffs on Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia are now all down to 19 per cent, from 49 per cent, 32 per cent, 24 per cent, respectively. The reciprocal tariff on the Philippines is now also 19 per cent, although this is up from the 17 per cent announced on Apr 2. Vietnam is down to 20 per cent, from 46 per cent previously. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The bad news, however, is that these revised tariffs would still add to the squeeze on global trade when they are implemented. By some estimates , the revised tariffs will push the average US tariff rate up to 15.2 per cent – from 13.3 per cent currently, and from only 2.3 per cent back before Trump took office. The economic impact of higher tariffs was blunted in the first half of 2025 by US importers front-loading their orders. Market sentiment has also been buoyed by massive investment in the artificial intelligence field. The remaining months of the year will probably be tougher for investors. Trump's tariffs are likely to create a demand shock in Asia, resulting in slower growth and deflation. On the other hand, the US could suffer a supply shock that results in slower growth as well as higher inflation – leading to politically charged policy dilemmas. Politics and policymaking Last week, Trump ramped up his campaign to oust Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for refusing to cut rates, insinuating during a visit to the Fed's headquarters that the cost of renovating its buildings was out of control. Trump also fired the commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last week, after US job numbers for July came in weaker than expected . The BLS said on Aug 1 that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by only 73,000 last month. Adjustments for the previous two months were also larger than normal. Revised data showed US employers added only 19,000 jobs in May and 14,000 jobs in June, versus the previously reported 144,000 jobs and 147,000 jobs, respectively, for the two months. These political overtones could make it all the more complicated for investors to navigate the markets in the months ahead, as the full impact of Trump's tariffs is felt on growth, inflation and corporate earnings. At its policy meeting on Jul 29-30, the Fed decided to hold the target range for the federal funds rates unchanged, at between 4.25 per cent and 4.5 per cent. Two members of the 12-person rate-setting committee – Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller – preferred a 25-basis-point cut and voted against the decision. This was reportedly the first time since 1993 that two members dissented at a single meeting. A third member, Adriana Kugler, was absent and did not vote. On Aug 1, the Fed said Kugler had submitted her letter of resignation to Trump and would step down on Aug 8. She has served as a governor of the Fed since 2023. Tariff impact in 'early days' Powell said during the post-meeting press conference that the impact of the tariffs on inflation is not only uncertain, but is probably still in its 'early days'. 'What we're seeing now is substantial amounts of tariff revenue being collected, on the order of US$30 billion a month,' he said, adding that most of this is currently being paid by companies that are 'upstream from the consumer'. Powell went on to say that many companies have indicated their intention to eventually push the cost of the tariffs onto their customers. 'But, you know, the truth is they may not be able to in many cases.' The state of the US labour market is also something of a puzzle. While the pace of job creation has been weakening, the unemployment rate in July was little changed from previous months, at 4.2 per cent. 'What that's telling you is that demand for workers is slowing, but so is the supply,' Powell said. He added, 'Because of immigration policy, really, the flow into our labour force is just a great deal slower.' This suggests underlying weakness in the seemingly robust US economy. 'I think you've got downside risks in a world where unemployment is being held down because both demand and supply are declining. And, I think that it's worth paying close attention to it,' Powell said. Less forgiving markets These macro concerns do not appear to be hurting the US corporate earnings for now, though. On Aug 1, financial data provider FactSet said 82 per cent of the S&P 500 companies that have reported their results for Q2 2025 delivered positive earnings-per-share (EPS) surprises. Also, 79 per cent achieved positive revenue surprises. The market is, however, rewarding positive surprises slightly less than it has in the past, and punishing negative surprises more severely. S&P 500 companies that have reported positive earnings surprises for Q2 2025 have seen an average stock price increase of 0.9 per cent over the period spanning two days before their earnings release and two days after. This is below the five-year average of a 1 per cent increase. On the other hand, S&P 500 companies that reported negative earnings surprises for Q2 2025 have seen an average price decrease of 5.6 per cent – versus a five-year average price decline of 2.4 per cent. Among the notable losers last week was Apple, which saw its shares tumble 5.4 per cent despite reporting financial numbers that topped expectations . The S&P 500 ended last week 2.4 per cent lower. The Nasdaq 100 was down 2.2 per cent. The Singapore market was equally unforgiving last week, with the Straits Times Index suffering a 2.5 per decline. Among the notable losers was Seatrium – which ended last week 5.4 per cent lower, despite reporting sharply higher revenue and earnings for H1 2025 and drawing a line under its past involvement in a corruption scandal in Brazil. Singapore Airlines fell 9.9 per cent during the week, after reporting a steep slump in earnings for the quarter to Jun 30 that seemed to catch analysts off-guard and sparked a wave of 'sell' recommendations . Then, there was OCBC – the first of the three local banks to report financial numbers for H1 2025 – which suffered narrower net interest margins as interest rates sank. OCBC ended last week 2.3 per cent lower. DBS and UOB, which are both scheduled to report their H1 2025 numbers on Aug 7, ended last week down 3 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. As Trump's tariffs begin to bite, investors should carefully parse the financial statements of companies in their portfolios to ensure their micro fundamentals are strong enough to weather the tough months ahead.
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Trump is winning his trade war, but Americans will pay the price
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox All indications are that Americans will pay more for nearly all the goods they consume when the effects of all of US President Donald Trump's tariffs kick in. - Judging from the air of concession wafting across world capitals from Tokyo to Brussels, United States President Donald Trump is prevailing in his trade war. The White House is in a celebratory mood. Almost every day, press conferences and statements catalogue the many supposed benefits flowing from Mr Trump's strategy. The strategy has brought trade partners to the negotiating table, is catalysing trillions in foreign investment commitments, protecting America's strategic industries and generating billions in revenue. So much winning, in Trump-speak. If success, however, means more jobs, more trade and a stronger economy, the evidence is more suspect. All indications are that Americans will pay more for nearly all the goods they consume when the effects of all the tariffs kick in. The universal baseline tariffs of 10 per cent have already been in effect since April and will remain in place for around 100 nations with no trade deficits with the US, like Singapore and Australia. Effective from Aug 7, more than 70 nations will face 'reciprocal' tariffs , ranging from 10 to 50 per cent. The concept of reciprocity seems questionable as Mr Trump's strategy from the start has been to exert pressure on trade partners rather than strictly mirror their tariffs. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore LTA, Singapore bus operators reviewing Malaysia's request to start services from JB at 4am Singapore Despite bag checks and warnings, young partygoers continue to vape in clubs in Singapore Singapore President Tharman meets migrant workers who saved driver of car that fell into sinkhole Singapore Now flying solo, Acres CEO Kalaivanan Balakrishnan presses ahead with wildlife rescue efforts Opinion The charm – and drawbacks – of living in a time warp in Singapore Business UMS Integration becomes first SGX company with secondary listing in Malaysia Singapore Ong Beng Seng to plead guilty on Aug 4, more than 2 years after trip to Qatar with Iswaran Business Decoupling to save on tax? You may lose right to property if ties go awry For those nations running a trade surplus with the US, the rate is at least 15 per cent. It is higher still for others, where geopolitics and personal vendettas sharpen the blade. Brazil, for instance, has no trade surplus with the US. Nevertheless, it has been slapped with a rate of 50 per cent at least partly because Mr Trump has an issue with the government prosecuting former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro on coup charges. India, at a 25 per cent rate , also faces an unspecified penalty for its import of Russian energy and arms. The US has also caught on to transshipping, the sly rerouting of goods through lower-tariff nations. This practice now invites a 40 per cent penalty. More deals are to come, if the President wants them, according to Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in an Aug 1 TV interview. It is not clear what kind of deal will be struck with America's near peer rival . China poses a peculiar problem and the US is still alternating between confrontation and pressing for an advantage. 'Their economy and ours are like a square peg and a round hole, they don't really fit together very well,' Mr Greer said. But what is crystal clear is that America has just executed a major turn, reshaping the post-World War II economy to reflect Mr Trump's priorities of preserving American dominance in all spheres, from military might and manufacturing to energy. And the man is just six months into the job. Costs are more tangible than benefits As Mr Trump is never tired of pointing out, the threat of tariffs has persuaded the European Union and Japan to commit to investing US$600 billion (S$774 billion) and US$550 billion in the US, respectively. Combined with earlier investment commitments, including from Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump has touted the figure of US$12 trillion. Tariff revenues now make up 5 per cent of federal revenues, much higher than the historical average of 2 per cent. The figures are impressive – US$150 billion was collected in mere months, with projections of 'several hundred billions' by the year end. And American companies can now sell their goods – beef, rice, cars and other items – with zero tariffs in many more nations. Key American industries are sheltered through sectoral tariffs enacted in auto, steel, aluminium and copper industries. Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are next in line. But plenty of fine print applies. Analysts caution that many pledges from foreign partners may be delayed, only partially fulfilled, or merely symbolic. Foreign investments in the US usually flow in tandem with dollars earned by companies from exports to the US. If tariffs penalise these exports, investing more dollars is challenging. The actual inflow of foreign investment will likely surpass the levels seen in recent years, say analysts at the Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE) in Washington. Just not, they add, by the large margins claimed publicly by Mr Trump. Dr Marcus Noland, an international trade economist at PIIE, found a clear example of the impact of Mr Trump's tariffs right in his own kitchen. The granola he has for breakfast is made by an American company with a plant in Ontario, Canada. Due to higher tariffs, the price of this granola has risen more than 40 per cent. 'Shortages and higher prices, there's no good here,' he maintains. Experts have tallied the costs. The average US tariff rate in the first quarter was 2.4 per cent, but climbed to 10 per cent in June. The latest levy announcements are set to bring that to more than 18 per cent, according to analysts at Gavekal Research. The median US household stares down an extra US$1,270 in expenses for 2025, a number projected to reach US$1,619 next year. Economic growth slowed from near 3 per cent in 2024 to about 1.2 per cent over the first half of 2025 and may be zero for the rest of the year. Some models predict wages will fall and leave scars that will stay raw for a generation. A recession now appears 'very, very likely', to quote Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, who has been warning of this outcome since Mr Trump made his 'Liberation Day' tariffs announcement in early April. Corporate bottom lines tell a similar story. Apple's June quarter results dazzled, but only because buyers rushed to beat tariffs. The 25 per cent levy on India – where the company now produces its smartphones for the US market – darkens the next quarter. Amazon says inventories are its buffer now. But the future is 'impossible to know', says its chief executive Andy Jassy as supply chains in China, where the e-commerce giant sources its vast array of products, are in the crosshairs. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers increasingly report paying higher prices for the goods and services they buy and are slowly beginning to raise the prices they charge their customers, says the US Chamber of Commerce. Higher tariffs will directly punish the domestic manufacturing industry given that approximately 56 per cent of US imports are composed of raw materials and intermediary and capital goods. These will especially hit the small businesses which operate on thin margins and will find it harder to absorb the tariffs. Defined as those with fewer than 500 employees, they account for over 40 per cent of the country's economic activity. Industry insiders are also sceptical of Mr Trump's push to expand access for American products. 'I don't know that we wanted zero tariffs on American goods,' said an analyst who advises American businesses operating in South-east Asia. 'The more important things are the non-tariff barriers.' Hoover Institution economist David Henderson narrowed in on the impact of tariffs on the most important actor in the US economy – the consumer. 'For some countries, notably those in the European Union, tariff rates will be lower than they were before Trump began. That is a victory. But we should be clear about whom it's a victory for,' he noted in a July 31 commentary. 'The main gainers are European consumers, and the secondary gainers are US exporters. The big losers, though, from the high US tariffs, are US consumers and producers who use the tariffed items as inputs, and the secondary losers are foreign exporters,' he said. He noted that while US consumers will pay a 19 per cent tariff rate on goods from the Philippines and Indonesia, and a 20 per cent on those from Vietnam, their consumers will pay a zero per cent tariff on imports from the US. 'Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that people in those three countries, almost all of whom are poorer than the average American, will get the benefits of one-way free trade,' he said. 'But I feel bad for Americans, who will pay higher taxes,' he said. The deals, although heralded as victories by the Trump Administration, have not been struck in the traditional way. No formal texts bind them; and there seem to be differences in how they are regarded in Washington and overseas. In his quest for a 'good' deal, nation by nation, Mr Trump may have squeezed out some advantages. But will a refusal to consider the reality of an interdependent world come back to bite America in ways not yet apparent? And no monetary or symbolic victory can be counted as a 'good deal' if it results in squandering a precious asset that took the US years to earn – global goodwill. Can America afford to arm-twist the very same countries whose help it needs in its geopolitical rivalry with China? And if tariffs continue to be applied in purely mercantilistic terms, they may have the effect of transforming America First into America Alone.
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Opec+ agrees in principle another large oil output hike: sources
OPEC+ agreed in principle to boost oil output by 548,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, two Opec+ sources said on Sunday (Aug 3), as the group finishes unwinding its biggest tranche of production cuts amid fears of further supply disruptions from Russia. A decision is expected at a meeting scheduled to begin at 11 am GMT, amid fresh US demands for India to stop buying Russian oil as Washington seeks ways to push Moscow for a peace deal with Ukraine. Fresh European Union sanctions have also pushed Indian state refiners to suspend Russian oil purchases. Opec+, which consists of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies, pumps about half of the world's oil. It has been curtailing production for several years to support the market. But it reversed course this year to regain market share, and as US President Donald Trump demanded Opec pump more oil. Opec+ began output increases in April with a modest hike of 138,000 bpd, followed by larger hikes of 411,000 bpd in May, June and July and 548,000 bpd in August. If the group agrees to the 548,000 bpd September increase, it will have fully unwound its previous production cut of 2.2 million bpd, while allowing the United Arab Emirates to raise output by 300,000 bpd. Opec+ still has in place a separate, voluntary cut of about 1.65 million bpd from eight members and a two million bpd cut across all members, which expire at the end of 2026. Sources have said previously the group had no plans to discuss other tranches of cuts on Sunday. REUTERS
