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

Your Friday midday updates

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

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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.