President Donald Trump has denied a magazine report that he had spoken disparagingly about fallen US military personnel buried in Europe and declined to visit an American cemetery during a trip to France because he thought it unimportant.
The Atlantic reported that Mr Trump, a Republican who is running for re-election and who has touted his record helping US veterans, had referred to marines buried in an American cemetery near Paris as "losers" and declined to visit in 2018 because of concern that the rain that day would mess up his hair.
"To think that I would make statements negative to our military and fallen heroes when nobody has done what I've done" for the US armed forces, Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday. "It's a total lie ... It's a disgrace."
The president said he did not go to the cemetery because weather prevented a helicopter flight. The alternative, a long drive, would have meant going through very busy areas of Paris and the Secret Service objected, he said.
"The Secret Service told me, 'you can't do it.' I said, 'I have to do it. I want to be there.' They said, 'you can't do it,'" Mr Trump said.
However, a senior Defence Department official with first-hand knowledge of events confirmed Mr Trump's reported remarks to The Associated Press, saying the president made the comments as he begged off visiting the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of November 10, 2018.
Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Mr Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Mr Trump responded by saying he did not want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers”, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is leading Mr Trump in national polls ahead of the November 3 election, emphasised his own commitment to helping members of the military in a response to the report.
"If the revelations in today's Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States," Mr Biden said in a statement released by his campaign.
"And if I have the honour of serving as the next commander in chief, I will ensure that our American heroes know that I will have their back and honour their sacrifice – always."
As a presidential candidate, Mr Trump made negative comments about now deceased senator John McCain for having been captured during the Vietnam War.
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured," Mr Trump said in 2015 when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination.
Mr Trump said on Thursday he disagreed with McCain but still respected him.
"I was never a fan. I will admit that openly," he said. "I disagreed with John McCain. But I still respected him."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
