$40 TRILLION Dollars In Debt And Counting

Primary season is officially over. 75 days to the midterms.

In Alaska, former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola got more first-round votes than sitting Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in a race nobody thought would be competitive. Alaska is officially a toss-up. In Florida, Democratic Socialist state representative Angela Nixon beat Alexander Vindman — who outraised her 16 to 1 — in the Democratic Senate primary. She ran no corporate or PAC money, led sit-ins at the governor's office with a pink megaphone, got arrested for trespassing, and won. In South Carolina's Republican runoff, Mark Sanford — yes, that Mark Sanford, the one who went hiking on the Appalachian Trail while actually visiting his Argentine girlfriend — is running against Darlene Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, who was booed off her own primary stage when she accidentally admitted she opposed the Iran war.

On the national debt: the US passed $40 trillion this week. It has doubled in the last decade, and economists point to two drivers — the 2017 Trump tax cuts and the Republican pattern of spending more and paying back less under every Republican president since 1980. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the government is buying back US bonds to stabilize the dollar. When asked about the global oil economy directly connected to what he's doing, he said he didn't understand it.

And then JD Vance told a group of young Republicans the US has had it too good for too long as the global currency standard and implied the country should pull back from that position. His mentor and financial backer Peter Thiel, for context, last year couldn't answer whether he thought humanity as a species should survive.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 Primaries are done. 75 days to the midterms. Here's what just happened.

2:00 Alaska: Peltola gets more votes than Sullivan in a race nobody thought was competitive

4:00 Ranked choice voting explained: how Alaska's jungle primary actually works

5:30 Alaska is officially a toss-up: the Sarah Palin through line and what makes Alaska Republicans different

7:00 Florida: Angela Nixon beats Vindman 16-to-1 in fundraising, wins with a pink megaphone and no PAC money

9:00 The DSA wave hits a statewide race: why establishment Democrats are panicking again

10:30 Florida Congressional seat: Cory Mills out, arms dealing and domestic assault allegations explained

12:00 South Carolina runoff: Mark Sanford vs. Darlene Graham, who got booed off her own primary stage

14:00 Sponsor break

15:30 The national debt hits $40 trillion: how it doubled in a decade and who economists blame

17:30 Scott Bessent admits he doesn't understand the global oil economy he's been managing

19:00 Trump wants to claim the Strait of Hormuz as US territory. His own Secretary of State says it's illegal.

21:00 JD Vance tells young Republicans the US has had it too good as the global currency standard

22:30 Peter Thiel couldn't answer whether humanity should survive. He funds JD Vance.

23:30 What all of this means for prices, your mortgage, and your daily life

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