Today in One Sentence. U.S. debt topped $40 trillion for the first time; Trump threatened Iran with “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” and warned of “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences” for any country providing “any type of lifeline to Iran”; the FBI raided former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s Washington home; the Census Bureau published an unsigned analysis claiming that 24,000 noncitizens voted in 2020; Senate Republicans warned AI companies that data center backlash could cost Republicans an Ohio Senate seat; Trump spent 30 minutes showing off his new White House construction projects; Democrats led Republicans by eight points on the generic congressional ballot; and Democrats now view the state of American democracy during Trump’s first term more favorably than they did at the time.

1/ U.S. debt topped $40 trillion for the first time. The Treasury Department said the total public debt outstanding reached $40.047 trillion Tuesday, more than double the level from a decade ago. Interest payments have topped $1 trillion this year and are now the government’s second-largest expense behind Social Security. Meanwhile, the Treasury has doubled the size of its buybacks of long-term government debt after 30-year yields reached their highest level in nearly two decades. The government ran a $432.3 billion deficit in July, the highest monthly shortfall in more than five years, as the deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already passed the total for all of fiscal 2025. Trump, who promised during his 2016 campaign to eliminate the national debt within eight years, has instead added roughly $11.6 trillion in additional debt across his two terms so far. (CNBC / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / NPR / NBC News / Semafor)

2/ Trump threatened Iran with “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” and warned of “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences” for any country providing “any type of lifeline to Iran.” Iran, however, dismissed Trump’s “economic D-Day” as a “diversion from America’s own crisis,” saying that “doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. would announce new sanctions next week, adding: “you are either with us or against us […] it is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision.” (CNBC / New York Times / The Hill / NBC News / USA Today / CBS News)

  • More than 150 wallets on Polymarket may have traded on U.S. military secrets, collectively making $8 million with an average win rate of 97.2%. (Reuters)
  • North Korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea after Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea. South Korea’s military reported that the missiles flew about 185 miles toward North Korea’s eastern waters. (Associated Press / The Guardian / NPR / NBC News / CBS News)

3/ The FBI raided former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s Washington home. Agents also seized an iPhone and MacBook Pro from Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport under warrants as part of a federal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him. Swalwell, however, hasn’t been charged with a crime. He resigned from Congress and dropped out of the California governor’s race in April after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault and sending unsolicited explicit images. Swalwell has denied the allegations, while state and local authorities in New York and Los Angeles are also investigating allegations against him. (CNN / New York Times / Associated Press / Reuters / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News / CBS News)

4/ The Census Bureau published an unsigned analysis claiming that 24,000 noncitizens voted in 2020. The report matched 128 million voter records against federal administrative records but relied on an incomplete commercial voter file that didn’t include Social Security numbers, a key identifier for accurately matching records. The report also didn’t identify which candidates the alleged voters supported. Trump, nevertheless, claimed the analysis “proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally!” and declared, “I WON THE ELECTION!” (NPR / CNN / Democracy Docket)

5/ Senate Republicans warned AI companies that data center backlash could cost Republicans an Ohio Senate seat. In a private memo, the National Republican Senatorial Committee wrote that Democrats had made data centers a “centerpiece” of their campaign against Sen. Jon Husted, warning that if Husted loses and data centers take the blame, “politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one.” Communities, meanwhile, have fought projects over electricity costs, water use, noise, environmental impacts, and fears about AI-driven job losses. 71% of Americans say they would oppose a data center in their area. (Axios / Wall Street Journal)

6/ Trump spent 30 minutes showing off his new White House construction projects. He showed reporters the helipad, new granite driveway, fresh grass, flagpoles, facade work, and planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom, saying “One thing I know how to do is build,” calling the California-mined granite “very special stone,” boasting that he’s “very good at flagpoles,” and that, “If you’re grass, you’re very happy.” At the unfinished 100-foot-wide helipad, Trump signed the underside of a granite eagle that will become part of the presidential seal. Trump also acknowledged ordering crews to redo the landing pad because he thought it had “too much slope,” delaying the project by about a week and a half. “We get the best stuff,” Trump said, adding that the projects “will be here long after we’re gone.” (Washington Post / CNN / ABC News / The Hill)

poll/ Democrats led Republicans by eight points on the generic congressional ballot. Among likely voters, 51% backed the Democratic candidate while 43% supported the Republican candidate, and 6% were undecided. (Emerson College Polling)

poll/ Democrats now view the state of American democracy during Trump’s first term more favorably than they did at the time. In 2020, Democrats gave U.S. democracy a score of 52 out of 100. But, when asked to look back on 2020, they gave it a 60. (Washington Post)

  • Median Strategies admitted that its Los Angeles mayoral poll was “bogus,” claiming it was a “short term social experiment” to test how polling information could spread “without independent verification.” While major poll aggregators rejected the survey over missing methodological details, some local media, Mayor Karen Bass, and social media poll trackers amplified it. (Washington Post)

The 2026 midterms are in 75 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 810 days.