Friday Afternoon Updates: Trump’s Gulf of Tonkin Moment? — 7/10/26

Is Trump manufacturing a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz?

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

Here’s what we’re tracking today:

• Trump has gone dark, canceling all public events at the White House for the next three days

• New satellite tracking shows U.S. aircraft carriers positioned closer to Iran than at any point in this war

• WSJ reports Israel warned the U.S. of a fresh Iranian assassination plot against Trump

• Gas prices are climbing, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is nearing a genuine crisis point

• Diplomatic efforts out of Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are trying to pull everyone back from the brink

• The White House is quietly renovating and scaffolding sections of the building, including near the West Wing

• The West Palm Beach airport was just renamed….after Trump

• A new bridge in Tennessee was unveiled bearing…Trump’s name

• The family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is demanding answers after ICE killed him in Houston, and it’s getting worse

• USDA had to walk back its own beef export numbers by 90 percent

• Rubio is inviting 60 countries to a meeting about antifa, of all things

• New polling shows Trump underwater almost everywhere, including states he just won in 2024

• Pennsylvania has lost food assistance for nearly 100,000 people due to GOP bill

• The White House is bragging about a “Freedom Fuel” gas station, and it is getting torched for it

• Smotrich is quoting Witkoff making a wild comment about Gaza

• And Trump says he won’t sign the bipartisan Housing Bill, out of pure spite

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Okay. Let’s get into it.

Is Trump Manufacturing His Own Gulf of Tonkin?

I want to start with the thing that worries me most, because I think it explains almost everything else going on right now.