Trump shifts ground on Epstein
When Mr Trump returned to the White House, MAGA supporters expected he would make good on his promise to “drain the swamp” after claiming Epstein kept an incriminating client list of prominent people, particularly Democrats. The new administration, he said, would have “no problem” publishing it in full. That fell apart last week when the administration changed tack. After claiming there was a trove of videos, suddenly there was, according to Attorney-General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, “no incriminating client list”. There was nothing to see and nothing more to say, Mr Trump declared as he lashed out at podcaster Joe Rogan, who had helped him win in 2024. “They’ve got videotape and all of a sudden they don’t,” Rogan raged.
Faced with the outcry among MAGA backers, including house Speaker Mike Johnson, Mr Trump has relented. He has ordered Ms Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony” relating to Epstein. That is as it should have been from the start. Mr Johnson got it right when he said “full transparency” over Epstein was imperative. “You should put everything out there, let the people decide it,” he said.
Mr Trump should heed that advice over a controversy doing serious damage to his administration and his credibility. Full transparency, not specious and diversionary legal action that is likely only to prompt further questions, is imperative if the President is to get out of the hole he is in.
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The August productivity roundtable has potential to open the way to greater prosperity. After much neo-Keynesian government intervention, redistribution and regulation in Labor’s first term, some supply-side thinking would enhance our future.
Japanese election harms region
‘Japan First’ isolationism is on the march, just as the country’s role in helping deter China in the East and South China seas has never been as important.
Donald Trump has himself to blame for the mess he’s in over his pedophile former friend Jeffrey Epstein, as the President’s MAGA base demands answers. For years, Mr Trump peddled conspiracy theories on just about every conceivable issue. In September 2024, it was that illegal Haitian migrants were barbecuing people’s domestic pets. Long before that, it was that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and ineligible to be US president. Among Mr Trump’s claims was that top Republican senator Ted Cruz’s father was linked to president John F. Kennedy’s assassin. Neither did Mr Trump’s supporters have any problem believing him when he claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen.