Asian Investors Seek US Exposure Despite Trade Tensions, Cantor Says

Despite the Trump administration's combative stance toward trading partners, Asian investors continue to seek exposure to the U.S., according to Eric Cantor, vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company.

Speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia," Cantor said, "I do think that most of the countries in Southeast Asia,...North Asia and Japan, Korea, they want to be a partner, they want to invest in the United States."

Cantor said investment flows still have "so much" allocation to the U.S. because investors recognize that the country continues to offer the protections of the "rule of law."

"They realize their rights as investors, but they also want to see a U.S. presence in this region, because the opaqueness, the opacity that comes out of China is very difficult for businesses to wrestle with," he added.

In Singapore, Cantor said investors are focused on maintaining dialogue with the Trump administration while looking past political rhetoric from Washington.

The small city-state was subject to the Trump administration's baseline tariffs despite running a trade deficit with the U.S.

Cantor said Singapore has "a real affinity" for the role the United States has played in its development, as well as the financial commitment U.S. interests have made in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said in 2025 that the U.S. is Singapore's largest foreign investor, with around 6,000 American companies operating in the country.

U.S. investment in Singapore has almost doubled from 292 billion Singapore dollars in 2018 to 574 billion Singapore dollars in 2022.

"I think they are interested in continuing to see the ability to have dialogue with the Trump administration, the ability to be able to sort of filter out some of that noise," Cantor said, referring to Singapore investors.

When asked about the trade relationship between Washington and Beijing, including U.S. export restrictions on advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, Cantor said trade remains central to the U.S.-China relationship from Washington's perspective.

In a speech on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that "economic security begins with national capacity," adding that the U.S.' economic strength is derived from what we can build, for the nation that cannot produce what it needs is not truly secure."

"It all goes back to sort of some of the lessons that we have learned during Covid," Cantor said. "The American people woke up and said, 'Wait a minute, we've got supply chains, we've got critical supply issues that we didn't realize had gotten that bad.'"

The former Virginia congressman said that realization has fueled a broader reassessment of U.S. reliance on China and other foreign suppliers for critical goods.

"I think a lot of the back and forth between the high-performance chips, rare earths, all that is playing out in this relationship," he said.

Cantor, who was the Republican House Majority Leader from 2011 to 2014, said he expects the Republican Party to retain control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections in November.

Republicans currently hold a 217-212 majority in the House, with five vacancies and one independent.

His view comes despite some opinion polls showing the Republican Party has a higher disapproval rating. The average unfavorability rating for the party was 55.3%, according to Real Clear Politics, compared with a favorable rating of 38.6%.

"If the Democrats manage to take over the House, ... they will be in such a slim margin, they will be very, very dysfunctional," Cantor said.

The deciding factor will be turnout, he said, pointing out that Trump does not lack support among his core base. Cantor said the key question is whether low-propensity voters who have been attracted to the Republican Party will turn out.