Trump’s Epstein problem

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Deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein might seem like an unusual topic for the US president to broach.

In reality, a growing controversy surrounding the disgraced financier threatens to become the most serious challenge yet to Donald Trump's grip on the Republican Party.

In a lengthy post to his Truth Social platform yesterday, Trump railed against what he called his "PAST supporters" who were perpetuating a "Hoax" about Epstein, saying it was "all these people want to talk about."

It was yet another attempt by Trump to move his base on from a lightning-rod issue that energizes the conspiracy theorists among them.

Trump, left, and Epstein, second from right, at the Mar-a-Lago club in 2000. Source: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls. Both a medical examiner and an investigation by the FBI determined that it was suicide.

The alternative version is that the authorities knew more than they let on, and that there was a top-level cover-up over his purported client list. Elon Musk is among those to have called on the Trump administration to release the "Epstein Files."

Yet last week Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced that there was no more information to release. Many Trump supporters reacted with fury. Congressional allies are calling for greater transparency and Democrats have joined the hunt. Polls suggest voters aren't satisfied.

In short, there seems little appetite to move on.

Trump himself proceeded to fuel speculation over Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell's fate with comments later yesterday that stole the spotlight — for now.

There's still no getting away from the fact that Trump's remarkable political success stems from his fervently loyal base, and the increasingly ugly Epstein dispute threatens to fray that chord.

The question is whether Trump can assuage the anger, or if the MAGA tide turns against him at the midterm elections. — Alan Crawford

A protester with an image of Epstein in front of the federal courthouse in New York in July 2019. Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Global Must Reads

Trump plans to send letters to more than 150 countries notifying them their tariff rates could be 10% or 15%, as he forges ahead with his bid to revamp global trade. Meanwhile, in a move to help domestic producers, Canada will reduce the amount of foreign steel importers can bring into the country tariff-free, while UK officials indicated they're optimistic the Trump administration will soon agree to modify the domestic-production requirements holding up a trade agreement to lower US tariffs on British steel.

Ukraine is undergoing its biggest government shake-up since Russia's invasion amid a pressing need to find more money for its defense following failed diplomatic efforts to end the war. Lawmakers are meeting today to approve the cabinet overhaul and have backed Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko as the new premier after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy nominated her citing "her extensive experience in supporting Ukrainian production."

Yulia Svyrydenko. Photographer: Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg

Trump has dialed down his confrontational tone with China in an effort to secure a summit with President Xi Jinping and a trade deal with the world's second-largest economy, sources say. He's now focused on cutting purchase deals with Beijing — similar to one he forged during his first term — and celebrating quick wins instead of addressing root causes of the trade imbalances.

Trump said he's not planning to fire Powell, capping a hectic few hours that took his pressure campaign against the Fed chief to a new level and sent markets into a shortlived nosedive. Read our explainer here on what might happen if the president dismissed Powell, which would be a first in US history and almost certainly trigger a landmark lawsuit ultimately decided by the Supreme Court.

Israel struck Syria's military headquarters in Damascus yesterday and moved more troops to the border in a bid, officials said, to prevent attacks against the Syrian Druze community. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said all the parties involved in the clashes between Druze, Bedouin groups and Syrian troops had come to an agreement to stop the violence, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates has killed at least 360 people.

Germany rejected the European Commission's proposal to increase the EU's seven-year budget to €2 trillion ($2.3 trillion) as unacceptable, pointing to the battle ahead for the bloc's executive as it tries to get backing from member states.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will sign a new Anglo-German treaty in London today that includes a commitment to assist each other in case of armed attack, part of a wider reset of post-Brexit ties.

Bangladesh's interim government imposed a curfew and deployed the army to contain violence in the political stronghold of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party after attacks on a student-led rally.

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Chart of the Day

Public perceptions of China have improved over the past year, while those of the US have dimmed, according to a new survey for the Washington-based Pew Research Center. More respondents expressed confidence in President Xi than in his US counterpart — the first time that has happened since Trump's first term.

And Finally

Every morning, hundreds of visitors making the trek up to Peru's Rainbow Mountain pass a cross that marks the site of a violent killing. Last year, a local man — Flavio Illatinco, perhaps the biggest champion of the tourist destination — was ambushed, kidnapped and stoned to death there, allegedly by a mob of his own neighbors. It's the reason why some in the local Indigenous community now see the world-famous site, with its layers of colored minerals, as a curse.