Editorials: 21-July-2025

 

The Hindu Editorials

​​Republican rumblings: on Trump and the Epstein files

Donald Trump is facing pressure from within his own support base

July 21, 2025

President Donald Trump, under pressure from a segment of his support base, has instructed his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to request a court to unseal grand jury transcripts related to sex offender and former friend of the President, Jeffrey Epstein. While Mr. Trump had vowed, even during his presidential campaign, to unveil the files, in recent days he has faced mounting pressure to supply all relevant and new information pertaining (1) to the case. The latest turn in the murky (2) saga relating to Mr. Trump’s prior association with Epstein, the former financier who died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, came after a report claimed that Mr. Trump, in 2003, sent a “bawdy (3)” birthday letter to Epstein with references to a shared “secret”. Mr. Trump has filed a libel (4) lawsuit against the newspaper and its publisher Rupert Murdoch.

He went on to post, on the Truth Social platform, “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent (1) Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated (5) by the Democrats, should end, right now!”.

Mr. Trump’s publicity woes regarding Epstein have been compounded (6), however, not due to any action by Democrats, but the fact that far-right MAGA groups, including conspiracy theorists such as QAnon, who believe that the U.S. government, media, and financial worlds are controlled by elites associated with a global child sex trafficking operation, have been applying pressure on the administration within Republican circles.

Even prior to the latest report linking Mr. Trump and Epstein, the President had said that some “stupid Republicans… have fallen into the net” in asking for more information to be released. Now, it is possible that lawmakers in the House of Representatives will have the opportunity to vote on the decision to release the documents relating to the prosecution (7) of Epstein, relying on a legislative mechanism known as a “discharge petition”.

A bipartisan (8) team, led by Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, has proposed this petition under the moniker (9) of the “Epstein Files Transparency Act”, which, if it is passed with 218 signatures, could require the Attorney General to “make publicly available … all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice…” relating to Epstein.

Mr. Trump may soon discover that while it helps his policy agenda to have a federal government trifecta (10) and a sympathetic Supreme Court, his political prospects ultimately rest upon his support base, and it is one that is capable of abruptly turning the tide against him.

​A long list: on the U.S., designation of The Resistance Front group

The designation of TRF as a terrorist group should put more pressure on Pakistan

July 21, 2025

The decision of the U.S. to designate The Resistance Front (TRF) group that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a development that should undergird (1) the global fight against terror. The Ministry of External Affairs has called it “a timely and important step”. For one, the U.S. State Department has acknowledged the severity (2) of the Pahalgam attack. It also names the TRF as a “front and proxy (3)” for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which Pakistan claims it has rendered “defunct (4)”.

Even though the U.S. added groups such as the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad to its FTO list in 2001, they have masterminded (5) attacks in India since then. The U.S. has also partially made amends (6) for the TRF’s name having been kept out of the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution condemning the Pahalgam attack, apparently at Pakistan’s behest (7), but with the concurrence (8) of the U.S. and other P-5 members. It is hoped that the designation will now help India’s case in designating the TRF at the UNSC, under the 1267 Committee for sanctions, also strengthening the trans-national legal pursuit of those behind the attack.

While this is a positive step, it is necessary to put the Trump’s administration’s other actions since the Pahalgam attack into perspective (9). After India launched Operation Sindoor, the U.S. has countered India’s narrative on the four-day conflict on several occasions. Mr. Trump, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have repeatedly made the claim that the U.S. negotiated the India-Pakistan ceasefire, and averted a nuclear conflict by using trade ties as leverage — an equivalence (10) which Pakistan has been happy to endorse.

Mr. Trump’s unprecedented White House lunch and praise for the Pakistan military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, came hours after the government had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cleared the picture with Mr. Trump, and brings into question just how much pressure the U.S. is willing to put on Pakistan to act against terrorism. The Trump administration had held out the promise of doing more to support India in its fight against terrorism by fast-tracking the extradition, in April, of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was wanted by India for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. It is hoped that the TRF’s listing means that the U.S. is recommitting to that objective. Given that the real challenge lies more in credibly ending Pakistan’s support to these groups, New Delhi must focus on its efforts, diplomatic as well as legal, to ensure justice for the victims and to prevent further terrorist acts.

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