Friday, July 3, 2026

Today in Politics, Bulletin 411. 7/3/26

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Today in Politics, Bulletin 411. 7/3/26

Ron Filipkowski

Jul 3

∙

… The DC Trump Fair was forced to close for the entire afternoon today after multiple people had to go to the medical tent for heat exhaustion. Drop Site News’ Julian Andreone: “Great American State Fair POSTPONED because multiple attendees passed out due to heat stroke. I was there filming and I personally witnessed 3 people pass out. The number is likely higher than 7 total.”

… Andreone to event staffer:

Q - “What’s going on? Staffer: Right now there’s a heat wave going on. People were passing out.”
Q - “How many people did you see pass out? Staffer: 7 people passed out in the last hour. “
Q - “Do you think they were well prepared for this? Staffer: I don’t know.”
Q - “Did anyone go to the emergency room or hospital. Staffer: A lot of people went. A lot.
Q - “Did your bosses prepare you for this? Staffer: I mean, not really.”

… Fox reporter Bill Melugin out at the Trump Fair at 1:00 PM: “The National Mall is closing and The Great American State Fair is postponed until 5pm for what we believe are heat related reasons. Everyone is being asked to go to the exits. It is miserably hot and humid today, genuinely feels like a sauna when you step outside.”

… Rolling Stone reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez: “Email from Freedom 250 informing July 4 guests attending the afternoon celebrations on the Mall that security screening reopens at 5pm, and that everyone must be inside by 6pm… so one hour.”

… MS NOW host Jen Psaki: “In order to put on this celebration, Trump is using $68 million of taxpayer money to a company called Event Strategies Inc. It’s run by a group of Trump allies. So far, that money has paid for a janky ferris wheel plagued by power outages, a couple of tents with chairs in them, a temu version of Trump’s arch, which appears to be falling apart and seems like it’s being held together with a slapdash sealant job, and some bizarre entertainment - half of which seems to just be Trump officials sitting on stage, basically filling the time.”

… “So how much of that $68 million actually went to the state fair, and how much to Event Strategies Inc. did they get to keep for themselves?”

… WaPo: “What does DC have in common with desolate stretches of Africa’s Sahara, deserts in the Middle East and China’s Gobi Desert? It has lots of hot air, of course. So much hot air, in fact, that DC will find itself in the top 1% of the planet’s hottest places on Friday, when high temperatures will soar toward 105 degrees. Only a few, far-flung places will be hotter.”

… Fox’s Pete Doocy: “Trump is teasing a marathon speech for July 4th as crews finalized preparations around the National Mall for America’s 250th birthday, with fireworks barges moving into position and road closures already underway.”

… My friend, a historian who runs the anonymous X account Spiro Agnew’s Ghost: “President Zachary Taylor fell ill after attending a July 4th ceremony in scorching heat at the Washington Monument in 1850. He consumed large quantities of iced water and cherries on a very hot day. He developed a severe gastrointestinal illness and died 5 days later. Historical records and the WH cite the intense heat exposure as a primary factor in his death.”

… Probably just a random thought from Spiro today.

… July 3rd DC Trump Fair military flyover schedule:

… 4th of July DC Trump Fair military flyover schedule:

1:14 PM - NASA F-5 Flyover
1:24 PM - NASA Fleet Review
1:44 PM - USCG Helo Flyover
1:54 PM - USCG Fixed Wing Flyover
2:09 PM - Golden Knights, Leap Frogs
2:29 PM - Army Helo Flyover
2:44 PM - USAF Fleet Review - Wave 1 - Heavies
2:54 PM - USAF Fleet Review - Wave 2 - AFSOC
3:04 PM - USAF Fleet Review - Wave 3 - Fighters
3:29 PM - Executive Rotary Wing Airlift
3:39 PM - USMC Fleet Review - Wave 1 - Rotary
3:49 PM - USMC Fleet Review - Wave 2 - Fixed Wing
3:59 PM - USN Fleet Review - Wave 1 - Rotary
4:09 PM - USN Fleet Review - Wave 2 - Fixed Wing
4:19 PM - USN Fleet Review - Wave 3 - Fighters
4:21 PM - USN F-18F Demonstration
4:59 PM - USN Blue Angels
5:26 PM - USMC MV-22 Osprey Demonstration
5:44 PM - USAF Fleet Review – Fighters
6:02 PM - USAF Tri-Bomber Formation
6:05 PM - USN F-35C Demonstration
6:25 PM - USAF Thunderbirds Demonstration
7:03 PM - Air Force One Flyover
7:07 PM - USAF Thunderbirds Delta Break
7:17 PM - HUGE 1 Flyover Led by the Newly Renovated Air Force One
7:38 PM - U.S. Stealth Airpower Flyover
7:39 PM - F-22 Raptor Demo
7:53 PM - F-22 Raptor in Afterburner
7:59 PM - B-1 Flyover
8:07 PM - B-1’s in Afterburner
8:11 PM - HUGE ONE Fly Over Review
8:22 PM - Golden Knights Twilight Jump
10:36 PM - B-1 Afterburner Night Pass

… NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani did something today that many Democrats have been calling on party leaders to do for the past 18 months - counter-program Trump. He did it by giving his own Independence Day speech which subsequently dominated Fox programming for the remainder of the day as they melted down over it.

… Excerpts from Mamdani’s speech:

“There is a term so often used to describe our nation and those who have shaped it: American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little more free, is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West, is why children in far away lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And yet the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional.”
“For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best. It sent Puritans and Sikhs and Quakers and Muslims and Jewish people who were banished for praying the wrong way, worshipping the wrong Gods, angering the wrong people. It sent peasants and serfs from who were treated as less because they hardly owned clothes, let alone land. It sent immigrants for whom power was something someone else had.”
“We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place. The frontier may be closed, we may have walked on the moon, but the work of fulfilling the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence - that work endures, my friends, and it belongs to us all.”
“It belongs too to our newest Americans, those standing here with me today, all of whom were recently naturalized. Nearly a decade ago, I too felt what you feel— the joy of no longer being just a New Yorker, but an American too.”
“There are some who respond to those who ask for more from America with a simple refrain: Love it or leave it. But patriotism has never been about pretending our nation is without flaws. Patriotism is every act of righteous dissent. It is every march led under the heavy sun. It is every protest held a decade before its time. It is precisely because we love this nation, that we will not leave it.”
“At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Today, too many of our leaders do not believe in a vision of this nation as an asylum for the persecuted, but rather as one that persecutes those seeking asylum.”

… Fox host Emily Compagno: “This morning, many New Yorkers were outraged after Democratic Socialist Mayor Mamdani said this about America. What horrifying commentary to make ahead of our nation’s 250th Independence day celebration.”

… Fox host Shannon Faulkner: “He is not my mayor! I wouldn’t have had him. I don’t know what the impetus is for dividing us for Mamdani, I would imagine the list is long, it is about power and money and whole host of things.”

… Fox host Kayleigh McEnany: “We need more Fettermans and fewer Mamdanis. It makes me angry. It makes me angry to see someone who took advantage of the American dream—Mamdani and his family came to this country and he is mayor of the greatest city in this country. We have the Statue of Liberty right behind us. They are failing to understand liberty.”

… Former speaker Newt Gingrich on Fox: “Socialism takes power from you. They take care of the powerful. They take care of the guys with connections. And they rip off the rest of us.”

… Good thing this isn’t happening now under our current system.

… NBC: “Investment accounts owned by Trump engaged in more than 300 previously undisclosed stock purchases on April 8, 2025, one day ahead of his surprise announcement that he would pause a number of his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.”

… “Despite a 45-day deadline to report financial transactions, none of the 327 stock purchases on April 8 had been disclosed before Tues. Instead, the trades are scattered throughout a spreadsheet-style document that runs more than 900 pages, dwarfing the disclosure reports of Trump’s predecessors.”

… “Those purchases represented just a fraction of the stock trading that the president’s accounts have engaged in since he returned to office. But their disclosure - more than 14 months after they occurred - is the latest in a cascade of revelations about the president’s personal assets that, taken together, are fueling calls from both Republicans and Democrats for greater scrutiny of his financial interests.”

… Turns out Trump’s market manipulation with a series of tariff announcements and pauses that tormented American businesses was done to enrich himself, then he refused to comply with the law and disclose it while it was all happening. Who could’ve predicted it?

It was good timing that the Mamdani and Fox duel just happened because Anthony and I had previously planned to film a special addition of Uncovered on Sunday afternoon to talk about the Mamdani and Dem Socialist phenomenon, their ideas, the pushback from the Dem establishment, and the meltdowns from Republicans about the commies taking over.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Thank you to everyone for subscribing to support my work and the work of many others at Meidas.

… Axios: “Trump’s $2.2 billion financial disclosure is a 927-page roadmap for the coming investigations, itemizing every known venture that made 2025 the richest year of his life. A crypto business that barely existed when Trump took office minted him roughly $1.2 billion - eclipsing, in a single year, the real estate empire he spent decades building.”

… “His biggest single payday was $635 million in royalties from the $TRUMP meme coin, which has crashed roughly 95% from its inauguration-week launch - destroying billions for the small investors who bought in. Trump also reported tens of millions from legal settlements with major media and tech companies, plus new income from branded watches, sneakers, Bibles, fragrances and foreign licensing deals.”

… “For Democratic investigators, the ripest targets are the people around Trump: family, appointees and allies who, unlike the president, can be compelled to testify under oath. World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture launched by the Trump and Witkoff families, has become a magnet for foreign money, including a secret $500 million investment from a senior Emirati royal.”

… A NYT investigation found that Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the sons of Howard Lutnick have ties to at least 14 companies seeking $8.9 billion in federal support for critical-minerals deals. Jared Kushner has raised billions from Gulf govts while leading Middle East peace talks. In Albania, Kushner’s firm won ‘strategic investor’ status for a $1.4 billion luxury resort on a protected island - igniting mass protests.”

… WH spokesperson Anna Kelly: “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public - which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media. There are no conflicts of interest.”

… Karoline Leavitt and Fox host Jesse Watters said that younger generations only complain about affordability because they are lazy and don’t want to work:

Watters: “Some of these kids have never had real jobs and are complaining things are expensive. Things are expensive when you don’t have a real job. Do you think that’s getting traction? Complaining?”
Leavitt: “Unfortunately I do because this generation, my generation, Gen Z and those younger than me have been raised with just silver spoons in their mouths.”
Watters: “Is it laziness? Leavitt: A little bit. Watters: If they misbehave, make them join the Army. Leavitt: Send them to Cuba. Send them to Iran.”

… Leavitt’s father owned a car dealership and other businesses, she went to exclusive private schools, and then she married a much older, wealthy Trump crony. Watters’ grandfather was the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and his great-grandfather was the publisher of The Saturday Evening Post. He also went to private schools. Neither served in the military.

… Orlando Sentinel: “FL Intl Univ is threatening to withhold students’ diplomas unless they record a 2-minute video apologizing for a silent protest they staged against ICE actions on campus. Such is life in the ‘Free State of Florida’ where courts and judges - many quite conservative, keep ruling that DeSantis and GOP lawmakers keep trying to run roughshod over the Constitution. And spending gobs of your tax dollars to do so.”

This was a long week with some big Bulletins and podcasts so I am looking forward to tomorrow. It will not be a restful day off, but hopefully a fun one. We are going to Naples, ME - which is basically a causeway between two lakes - for the block party, parade, and hot dog eating contest. Then taking kayaks out on lake. Then dinner and the fireworks over the lake.

… Gizmodo: ”As a brutal heat wave hits much of the central and eastern US this week, the Dept of Energy wants power-hungry data centers to help ease the strain on the grid. The Energy Dept issued an emergency order earlier this week allowing PJM, the grid operator for 13 states and DC, to require data centers and other large customers to use their own backup power.”

… “The order comes as the National Weather Service has warned that a heat wave will hit states across the US through the July 4 weekend, with temperatures ranging from 95 to 105 degrees. As millions of people crank up their air conditioners to stay cool, the power grid is expected to be pushed to its limits.”

… “It also arrives as the AI boom has led to a wave of data center projects across the country. These facilities require massive amounts of electricity to power and cool the servers used to train and run AI models, cloud computing, and other digital services.”

… Daily Beast: “Trump has a habit of posting on social media late into the night, but his schedule is almost clear of public appearances in the morning. An analysis of the last 3 months reveals that Trump, who turned 80 last month, was only seen in public three times in DC before 11 AM in the entire month of June. The analysis showed that the president’s official schedule listed ‘Executive Time’ starting at 8 AM on 26 of the 30 days of June. Any public policy meetings or appearances took place later in the day, if at all.”

… Trump was also not seen in public before 11 AM on most days in May. He had designated ‘Executive Time’ on 26 mornings in May and every single day of April at 8 AM, according to his public schedule. Since returning to office, the president has repeatedly posted, and reposted, on Truth Social at all hours of the night. He often appears to doze off during public events in the late afternoon, including in the Oval Office, at round tables and during Cabinet meetings at the WH.”

… “Trump’s bizarre nocturnal habits and use of ‘Executive Time’ to catch up on sleep in his second term were exposed in the book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by WH Correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

… “Occasionally, aides couldn’t reach him during the hours between 8 and 10, when they soon came to realize meant he had stayed up all night, on the phone or watching TV or both, only to finally catch some sleep around 4 or 5 in the morning. On one such late morning, no one had heard from Trump and his team was unable to reach him. In the end, an aide checked on the President only to find that he was still asleep in the residence.”

… Former special prosecutor Jack Smith gave a rare interview to MS NOW:

“I’m very concerned of what’s going to happen in the next election, absolutely. I think the state AGs have a tremendous role to play here. They can make sure the rule of law functions in their state. And I would also say that I think a thing that all of us can do is support election workers and election officials. The last time around, we saw that those people stood firm and they were, in many cases, the difference.”
“From my perspective, I’ve seen a number of cases, James Comey, Letitia James, Jerome Powell. There’s not criminality here. I mean, seashells? So the only reasonable explanation is the president has it out for these people. And he has people who are his former personal lawyers who are going to do what he says, regardless of the facts of the law.”

… WSJ: “Pete Hegseth planned to drop a bombshell at a recent NATO meeting - the US was going to withdraw troops from Europe. But then he shared his plan with Marco Rubio and others at the WH - and the plan got nixed. Hegseth then announced a force posture review instead.”

… The incident suggests the admin isn’t yet settled on the pace and scope of potential cuts. Hegseth spokesman Sean Parnell: “Hegseth ensured his message was aligned with the president’s objectives and agenda, and he did not want to impede upon the president’s decision space.”

… Pretty scary to think that this almost happened with one drunken moron Defense Secretary reversing 85 years of US foreign policy that has kept us out of world wars and widespread conflicts. It may still happen yet.

… WSJ: “CQ Brown, the retired general forced out of his post as the nation’s top military officer last year, has provided his most direct critique of the Trump admin’s handling of the US military, questioning the deployment of troops in US cities and warning against tainting the armed forces’ service with politics.”

… “Brown cautioned that sending the military into American cities for ‘politically contentious missions’ like fighting crime risked compromising its traditionally apolitical role and diverting it from its combat mission. His essay in Foreign Affairs followed an appearance the previous week when he voiced concerns about the Pentagon’s moves to strike officers from military promotion lists and push high-ranking personnel into retirement.”

… Brown: “What is starting to happen now, it is not about merit. All of these people who are being removed are very well experienced.”

… Energy Secretary Chris Wright: “I'm thrilled to report that after 35 years, on July 4th, we will end the subsidies for new wind and solar projects. Wind and solar take a lot of land and materials like steel and cement. What do we get for that? A small amount of low value energy. We’re going to drive electricity prices down.”

… Biggest winner: China, as the US under Trump cedes the critical renewable energy sector to rivals in exchange for a return to complete dependence of fossil fuels. Chris Wright is a former oil company executive and many of Trump’s biggest donors are Big Oil companies and executives.

… New Fox poll on the GA senate race: Jon Ossoff (D) 56%, Mike Collins (R) 43%.

… WSJ: “Maria Machado and aides were stunned when the pilot turned the plane around. They believed senior Trump officials had given them sufficient assurances that she could make the journey home to Venezuela. Thinking there was a mistake, she texted a senior US official from the plane.”

… “Dutch authorities, who handle Curaçao’s foreign affairs, initially believed the Trump admin backed Machado’s trip but withdrew permission for the plane to land after Washington made it clear it wasn’t supportive.”

… She did her photo ops with Trump, her Fox interviews, praised Trump, gave him her Peace Prize medal, and thought he wanted to have freedom and democracy for Venezuelans. Apparently she didn’t realize he only wanted to steal their oil, and Machado returning to Venezuela after Trump has gotten into bed with the former Maduro regime is inconvenient for the Mob Boss.

… Florida’s Voice: Florida Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez are urging the Trump admin to redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 2,200 people. Salazar: “The law is clear. Congress specifically included earthquakes as a basis for granting Temporary Protected Status.”

… Good luck with that. Give Stephen Miller a call. Salazar and Gimenez were also the leading members of Congress who were cheerleading the Trump kidnapping of Maduro, along with Rick Scott, claiming it would result in immediate free and fair elections with the Maduro regime swept from power. They say what they need to say to fool their Venezuelan-American constituents into thinking Trump cares about them.

… CBS: “Trump is poised to pardon a slate of people convicted of emissions and clean air-related violations, and is still discussing other potential acts of clemency, including for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs or several other well-known figures. The president was scheduled to have a meeting Friday afternoon on the topic of pardons and planned to decide based on recommendations from advisers.”

… “Lobbying for pardons for people in legal trouble has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks. Combs is serving a sentence of just over 4 years in the federal prison in Fort Dix after he was convicted last year of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which were the more serious charges against him.”

… MS NOW: “Dozens of intelligence officials began receiving notice of their terminations under Bill Pulte, the new acting DNI. An intelligence official told MS NOW that the individuals being removed by the Trump admin are officials ‘who they believe are deep state.’ Intelligence leadership alleges that the fired workers have not provided complete pictures of available intelligence, the official said.”

… “The moves come after Pulte’s elimination last month of 6 political appointees who served under Tulsi Gabbard. 4 former senior intelligence officials told MS NOW that they had never heard of intelligence officials withholding information from officials above them:

One official: “The premise is absurd.”
Another: “I have a real question of how he would know this. This isn’t a guy who is familiar with intelligence. How is he going to get to the bottom of this and rely on any information with a matter of fidelity? It would be like me taking over a hospital and firing dozens of surgeons in a matter of days.”
Another: “The intelligence community is comprised of committed professionals. This is a fantasy. It only hurts US national security, and it’s helpful to Russia, China and Iran.”

… Podcaster Joe Rogan might be one of the dumbest people in America with a huge following: “People are pointing out that right now it’s one of the rare times where no rap music is on the charts. And they’re saying, how does this coincide with USAID? Was USAID, like, actively promoting rap music? Was that one of the reasons why rap music was so popular?”

… Colorado TV host Kyle Clark interviewed the new Republican nominee for governor, Victor Marx. Marx runs All Things Possible Ministries that claims to rescue women and children from other countries where were being sex trafficked.

Q - “You claim that your abusive stepfather forced you to kill a man when you were 7 years old - is that the only person you’ve ever killed? Marx: (very long pause) Well, I would say I’ve been in other situations where possibly people and other persons died while I was defending myself in other countries.”
Q - “Do you think you’ve killed people as an adult? Marx: Does it matter? Clark: Yeah, I would say so. Marx: Why? Clark: Killing somebody is a very weighty thing. I’m just asking you how many other people you’ve killed. Marx: Well, if I did, I wouldn’t be telling a reporter. Q - Would you tell voters? Marx: There’s no need. I don’t think that’s important.”

… Clark: “Victor Marx performs exorcisms, commanding demons to be cast off. Marx says he doesn’t charge for exorcisms, but instructions appeared in a $99 ‘Spiritual Warfare Guide’ on his website.”

Q - “Do you understand why so many of your critics think you’re a con man? Marx: No.”

… Yes, this is MAGA. Have fun tomorrow and be safe!

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OUR NEW POLL IS TRUMP’S WORST NIGHTMARE (did you hear the big news yet? NORTH CAROLINA DESERVES FIGHTER WHO WILL SPEAK OUT FOR HIS CONSTITUENTS!

THE LATEST POLL IS IN → As Richard would say, it’s big f*cking deal.

Richard is TIED!

In a district Donald Trump won by more than 15 points.

New polling just came back showing this race is within two points. HURRY: Can you donate $5 our campaign to guarantee we flip this seat?

That number should scare the hell out of Richard Hudson!

⏰ It means our midnight deadline just became the most important deadline of this campaign.

🚨This isn't just ANY battleground...We are facing off against the chair of the NRCC — the man RESPONSIBLE for MAGA holding the majority — and he is now in the fight of his political life!

HERE'S THE TRUTH: Richard didn't spend 24 years in the United States Army — fifteen of those at Fort Bragg, right here in North Carolina — to come home and watch a rubber-stamp politician sell this district out to Donald Trump and his billionaire donors. So please, rush $1, $5, or anything you can afford before our midnight deadline and help Richard hold this lead.

Sappers Clear the Way, Airborne All the Way!

Major (Ret.) Richard Ojeda
Candidate for Congress, NC-09

Paid for by Ojeda for NC

Ojeda for NC

P.O. Box 35
Aberdeen, NC 28315

Friday Afternoon News Updates: Trump Fair Suddenly Shuts Down – 7/3/26

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Friday Afternoon News Updates: Trump Fair Suddenly Shuts Down – 7/3/26

Your Friday midday updates

Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network

Jul 3

∙

Hi all, Ben here. It’s Friday, and there’s a lot to get through, so let’s dive in.

Here’s what we’re tracking today:

BREAKING: The Great American State Fair shuts down and evacuates the National Mall for “heat related reasons,” hours after opening to nobody
Trump attacks NATO allies over defense spending
Trump’s bizarre Oval Office “storytime” interview circuit with Usha Vance
Mamdani’s America 250 speech
US Ambassador to Canada makes more threats
Strait of Hormuz tanker data undercuts administration’s shipping claims
International delegations pay respects at Khamenei’s funeral, notably including Saudi Arabia
Trump’s approval among independents craters to a new low
Jobs numbers revised down again, for the 14th time in 17 months
DOJ asks for a two-month delay releasing more Epstein files in Meidas host Katie Phang’s case
Karoline Leavitt says Gen Z complaining about affordability should be sent to Cuba or Iran
Newsom rips Trump over the housing bill, talks 2026 strategy
Record heat to continue in DC ahead of Trump’s outdoor speech

Before I go any further, if you haven’t yet joined as a paid subscriber, consider doing so now by clicking here to support our work. This is how we grow. It will give you access to all recaps like this, our exclusive Ask-the-Editor series, and more. Plus, it is the best way to help support the growth of this network.

Now let’s get into it.

The Fair Nobody Came To Just Shut Down Entirely

Let’s start with the most fitting image of the week. Fox’s Bill Melugin posted breaking news just now that the National Mall is closing and the Great American State Fair has been postponed until at least 5 PM, with organizers citing heat. Everyone was told to head to the exits. The sign posted at the venue reads “EVENT POSTPONED, WE WILL REOPEN AT 5PM,” sitting behind empty barricades on a stretch of grass with, notably, still nobody around.

Here’s the thing though. This fair had already been sitting empty all morning before this closure happened. Fox’s own live shots from the National Mall showed the same thing: an empty field where a celebration was supposed to be happening. So the “heat related” closure of an event that already had zero attendance feels a little bit like shutting the doors on an empty restaurant. Plus, it’s not the first time this has happened this week. Nor the second.

This is the same energy we’ve seen from this regime over and over. Big declarations, empty rooms, and a state regime media apparatus desperately trying to convince you otherwise.

Trump’s NATO Tantrum

Trump broke the silence with a rant about NATO, posting a graphic claiming the United States spends $999 billion on defense while allies like the UK, France, Italy, and Poland spend a fraction of that, and complaining the relationship “is not reciprocal.” He capped it off with “They were not there for us!!!”

Trump keeps pushing the false narrative that NATO is a one-sided rip-off sucking America dry, but the facts show otherwise. The US military budget of roughly $1 trillion funds global operations protecting American interests far beyond Europe. Meanwhile, NATO allies, the EU, and democratic partners are ramping up to nearly $1 trillion in combined defense spending, stepping up burden-sharing as Europe hits record highs above 2% of GDP.

But that NATO tantrum wasn’t even the strangest. After that, the regime dropped a prerecorded interview between Trump and Usha Vance? And Trump genuinely looked and sounded unwell.

Usha Vance asked him a simple question. Does he ever read for fun? His answer was that he mostly reads news stories about himself. Then, he starts flipping through a children’s history book and rambling about past presidents. He tells Usha Vance that William Taft was “a large man, very large,” our heaviest president, and that he has to be careful not to “supersede” that record himself. Then he pivots to Obama, says he doubts Obama is a good basketball player, insists Obama’s real sport is golf, and says that he won’t be playing in the Masters anytime soon. From there it’s Nixon, whom Trump says got “into trouble” through no fault of his own. Then he moves to JFK, calling him “a great guy, handsome,” calling him the second most good-looking president in history. He rambles about horseback riding, saying he’d like to try it but is scared of falling off. And then, he says he actually likes Bill Clinton, that Clinton’s a nice guy, and that he still does. Hmm.

I have thoughts about why Donald Trump might be thinking about Bill Clinton and depositions and Jeffrey Epstein all in the same week, and I’ll get into exactly why in a minute. But first, here’s what’s actually happening underneath all of this.

Trump’s Fourth of July speech is tomorrow night, and by his own admission, he’s promising to make it a long one, in what he says will be roughly 107 degree heat, just to prove that he can. His people are terrified nobody’s going to show up, and given what happened at his own state fair just hours ago, they have every reason to be nervous.

Mamdani Delivers His America 250 Address

While Trump’s fair sat empty, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani delivered a powerful speech for America 250. Predictably, it sent the right-wing media apparatus into a tailspin. You can watch the full speech right here on the MeidasTouch YouTube channel.

Mamdani talked about what American exceptionalism has actually meant throughout our history, about the generations of immigrants this country was told were not its best, and about how the real story of America is that nothing here is fixed in place, that the work of living up to the values in the Declaration of Independence belongs to all of us, including the newest Americans standing beside him that day. He didn’t shy away from naming the contradictions either, pointing out that we’re the richest country in the history of the world while children go to bed hungry, while a small handful of oligarchs hoard more wealth than entire generations before them ever touched, and while masked agents drag away undocumented neighbors whose cooking half these same critics happily eat at restaurants across the city.

Fox News, naturally, framed this as Mamdani attacking the country. Former Trump press secretary turned Fox host Kayleigh McEnany said it made her “angry,” and claimed we need “more Fettermans and fewer Mamdanis,” expressing outrage that someone who benefited from the American dream would now be mayor of the country’s biggest city. Harris Faulkner declared “he is not my mayor.” Here’s the thing: most Americans actually agree with what Mamdani said. Just not the oligarchs who happen to own the network covering it.

Canada Gets Threatened by U.S. Over Oil

Meanwhile Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada, took a shot at our neighbors to the north this week again, warning that if Canada decides to ship its oil elsewhere instead of to the US, that’s Canada’s call to make, but that America “is not going to wait” and will simply find oil somewhere else. This comes as Alberta is unveiling a new proposed pipeline route to the West Coast. It’s the same bullying posture we’ve come to expect.

The Hormuz Numbers Don’t Add Up

I want to spend a minute on this, and that’s what’s actually happening in the Strait of Hormuz right now. A US official told Bloomberg this week that oil flows through the strait have surpassed 10 million barrels a day, with American military support supposedly driving a shipping surge. But tanker-tracking firm Kpler’s actual data tells a very different story. They recorded just 34, 48, and 38 tanker crossings over the past three days, compared to a prewar daily average of 125 to 140. Their numbers show roughly 5 million barrels a day exiting the strait in June, which is half of what that official claimed, and only a quarter of the roughly 20 million barrels a day that flowed through before Trump’s war began.

This is the exact same playbook we saw with the soybean deal, where Trump claimed a huge win on Chinese purchases that turned out to be a fraction of what was actually happening and a fraction of what China bought under the previous administration. Say a big number, let the headline run, hope nobody checks the math.

Respects Paid in Iran

Elsewhere, international delegations continued paying respects following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister and delegation showed up, notable because under the old US security arrangement in the region that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir were there too, given Pakistan’s role alongside Qatar in mediating the ceasefire agreement. It’s a real window into how much the regional diplomatic map has shifted.

Unexpected arrival of Saudi Arabia's Deputy Foreign Minister at the funeral ceremony of Ayatollah Khamenei

The Polling for Trump Is Brutal

New IPSOS polling shows Trump’s approval among independents has cratered to 22 percent approve, 76 percent disapprove, a net negative 54 points, described as the highest disapproval ever recorded for him with this group. Not a typo. 22%. Since the start of 2025, monthly jobs numbers have been revised downward in 14 of the last 17 months, totaling more than 700,000 jobs erased from what were originally reported as strong numbers. Applying the average revision pattern to June’s reported 57,000 new jobs suggests the real number could be closer to just 15,000.

The DOJ Tries to Bury the Epstein Files, Again

With mere hours left before the court deadline last night, the Justice Department filed an emergency motion asking a federal judge for a two-month delay in releasing additional Epstein files, in a lawsuit brought by MeidasTouch’s own Katie Phang. My colleague Scott MacFarlane broke the filing down, and the DOJ’s justification is that releasing more material risks exposing victims’ identities, which is rich, considering the Trump regime already did exactly that. And this would not do that.

I read through this filing closely, because I used to handle document review in massive litigation before starting MeidasTouch, and I know what a real privilege log looks like. What the DOJ produced is not that. It’s a vague summary claiming broad categories of privilege, executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, deliberative process privilege, without identifying a single document by name or explaining why any particular record is being withheld. That’s not compliance.

Buried in the filing is something genuinely disturbing. The DOJ argues that some individuals listed as coconspirators in the Epstein files should actually be treated as victims, and that their identities are being protected accordingly, simply because those individuals have claimed victim status themselves. Meanwhile the filing notes that redactions were removed for one associate, Lesley Groff, specifically because she had not claimed victim status. Sit with that for a second. The framework here appears to be that if you were allegedly involved in trafficking and you simply assert that you’re a victim, the DOJ shields your name. The actual, documented victims already had their identities exposed.

The DOJ is also refusing to hand over handwritten investigative notes, arguing they’re duplicative of typed reports covering the same material, an argument that doesn’t hold up under any standard document review practice I’ve ever seen. And they’re trying to argue that Katie’s lawsuit shouldn’t even be allowed to proceed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act at all, insisting FOIA is the only appropriate path, despite previously telling FOIA requesters the opposite.

Great work by Katie on this. We’ll keep bringing you the receipts as this plays out. She’s on Substack too, by there way.

Leavitt Says the Quiet Part About What Trump and the GOP Think About Gen Z

In case you needed a reminder of how out of touch this White House is, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went on Fox with Jesse Watters this week and, when asked about young people complaining about affordability, said her own generation was raised with “silver spoons” in their mouths and suggested laziness is part of the problem. Watters floated sending them into the military if they misbehave, and Leavitt one-upped him, saying send them to Cuba or Iran. This, I guess, is the official position of the White House press office toward an entire generation struggling to afford groceries and housing.

Newsom Keeps Swinging

Speaking of housing Governor Newsom sat down with us yesterday and didn’t hold back on the housing bill, saying bluntly that the only reason Trump would call it a “yawn” is that he can’t claim credit for it, since it wasn’t his idea. Newsom also laid out his read on the Democratic path forward heading into November, arguing the way back isn’t through the center, it’s through the fight, with clarity, conviction, and a real economic message for working families. He also flagged the recent dismissal of the DOJ’s case against Governor Walz, calling the entire effort to weaponize the department against him outlandish. Watch my full interview with Governor Newsom right here.

Stay Cool Out There

One last thing. Washington DC hit record heat this morning, 89 degrees by 8 AM, on track for a high over 100 today, with the heat expected to continue right into tomorrow when Trump gives his outdoor Fourth of July address in what he himself predicts will be around 107 degrees. He’s already said he plans to make it a long speech just to prove he can. Given the fair couldn’t even survive the heat with an empty crowd, I’d genuinely love to know what the plan is for tomorrow.

That’s it for now, everybody. Have a great Fourth. We’ll see you back here later today with more.

Middleboro Review 2

Friday, July 3, 2026