Forty Trillion in Debt, Trump's Iran Squeeze, and a SpaceX Crater on the Moon

MayaMorning, everybody. Welcome back to the Morning Rundown.

DavidGlad you're here. Got coffee? You're gonna want it.

MayaYeah, this one's a lot. We're starting with the debt clock hitting $40 trillion.

David40 trillion, and it's climbing $90,000 a second, so yeah.

MayaThat's wild, right?

DavidWe'll get into what that means for rates, the dollar, and your wallet.

MayaThen we're heading overseas. Trump's threatening Iran with what he's calling a crushing economic operation.

DavidHmm. And meanwhile, Kyiv got hit overnight with missiles and drones. Poland's on alert.

MayaPlus, there's a shift-

DavidMm

Maya... with South Korea worth watching.

DavidAnd on a much lighter note.

MayaOn a much lighter note, NASA just found the crater a SpaceX rocket left on the Moon.

DavidSixty feet wide. Kind of incredible when you think about it.

MayaWow. We'll also talk about a telescope NASA's letting fall back to Earth.

DavidLots to get through. Let's start with the money.

MayaThe $40 trillion question. Here we go. Okay. I saw a number this morning that made me put my coffee down.

DavidWhich one?

MayaThe national debt is climbing about $90,000 per second.

DavidYeah, ninety grand every second while we're sitting here talking.

MayaThat's wild. Like, by the time we finish this sentence?

DavidAnother half million's gone. Reuters had this out today. The US crossed 40 trillion, and it happened faster than forecasters expected.

MayaWait, how much faster?

DavidEnough of the people who track this for a living got caught off guard, and Reuters points out the number roughly doubled across the Trump and Biden years combined. Not one party's doing, both.

MayaDoubled in one stretch?

DavidOne decade. The Washington Post had a piece on this too, noting some of that speed came from lost revenue after certain tariffs got struck down in court.

MayaSo we lost money we were counting on, on top of spending like crazy already.

DavidRight, and follow the money on where it actually goes now. Interest payments alone eat a bigger slice of the budget every year. That's money not going to the military, not going to roads, not going anywhere useful.

MayaSo interest is basically becoming the budget.

DavidPretty close, and neither party has put out a real plan to slow it down. That's the part that gets me.

MayaOkay, but does this actually touch my life, my grocery bill, my car payment?

DavidIt does. Axios reported Fed officials are warning rate hikes could come back if inflation stays hot.

MayaOh, we just got a break from high rates.

DavidRight, and if the Fed hikes again, servicing forty trillion gets more expensive, which pressures rates across the board.

MayaMortgages?

DavidMortgages, car loans, credit cards, all connected.

MayaMm-hmm. And the dollar's not exactly strong either, right?

DavidNo. Reuters reported the dollar sitting at three-month lows, and Treasury is actively trying to hold bond yields down.

MayaWhat does that mean for a normal person?

DavidA weaker dollar makes anything imported pricier, groceries, electronics, gas at the pump, and Treasury managing yields is the government trying to keep its own credit card payments from spiraling.

MayaSo they're managing their own credit card payment.

DavidBasically, yeah.

Maya$90,000 a second is not a normal person number.

DavidNo, and a government that owes $40 trillion still wants to act like the bank for the rest of the world.

MayaMeaning?

DavidMeaning Washington's about to use economic muscle as a weapon overseas. Can a $40 trillion debtor still play banker to everybody else?

MayaSpeaking of economic muscle, Trump's turning it on Iran now.

DavidYeah. Al Jazeera reported he's promising the most crushing economic operation ever.

MayaAnd Tehran's not exactly rattled. CBS News says Iran's calling the threat a doubling down on failed policies that'll only bring further defeat.

DavidNot exactly quaking in their boots.

MayaNo. So here's my question: Does squeezing a country's economy actually change behavior without a single soldier moving?

DavidI mean, sanctions have worked before, or have they?

MayaDepends who's absorbing the pain. Iran's reportedly kept selling discounted oil to China for years, working around exactly this kind of pressure.

DavidSo who actually pays the price at home?

MayaUsually regular Iranians. Fuel costs, inflation, a currency in free fall. Leadership just adjusts and keeps going.

DavidOr it drags out for years, and everyone just adapts to the new normal.

MayaWhich is basically what's happened with Iran sanctions since the '80s. Speaking of pressure with no clean exit, Kyiv got hit hard again overnight.

DavidThe Independent's Arpan Rai reported Putin launched hypersonic missiles and drones at the city, a massive combined strike.

MayaAnd Poland activated its own defenses because strikes were landing that close to the border.

DavidSeparately, Al Jazeera reported a Russian strike killed three people in Kyiv, hitting at least three districts.

MayaWow.

DavidCollapsing buildings, starting fires.

MayaAnd Zelenskyy's under real pressure at home on top of all that.

DavidRough timing for a leader who needs allies staying steady, not stepping back.

MayaWhich is exactly what's happening with South Korea. The US just scaled back joint military exercises there.

DavidThe New York Times talked to experts who say allies read troop and exercise cuts as a signal, no matter how it's framed.

MayaSeems small on paper.

DavidSmall moves add up when allies keep score.

MayaOkay, something else fell out of the sky. This time it landed on the Moon.

DavidWait, what?

MayaA SpaceX rocket stage slammed into the lunar surface, and NASA just released the before and after photos.

DavidOn purpose?

MayaNope, but NASA says it's actually a normal, safe way to get rid of old hardware up there.

DavidA shrug from the Moon too. Let's go see it.

MayaNASA just released the actual crash photos.

DavidWait, they found it? The Moon's a big place.

MayaI know, right? But Gizmodo's got the before and after shots.

DavidWow.

MayaAnd the crater's 60 feet wide, 10 feet deep.

DavidSheesh. From a rocket stage? That's not small.

MayaNope, and the Washington Post points out NASA's calling this an accepted and safe way to get rid of old hardware. So this wasn't some accident nobody planned for.

DavidHmm, convenient framing when it's already happened.

MayaMaybe a little. But okay, the sadder one is Swift.

DavidThe gamma ray telescope?

MayaYeah. CBS News is reporting the rescue mission's officially off.

DavidMm.

MayaIt's just gonna drift down and burn up sometime later this year.

DavidNo boost, no fix, just gone.

MayaArs Technica said the same. There wasn't a viable way to save it.

DavidPut those two stories side by side, and it tells you something.

MayaYeah?

DavidNASA can't scrape together a rescue for a working telescope-

MayaRight

David... but a private rocket stage just casually leaves a crater on the moon. That's who's actually driving right now.

MayaElon's crowd.

DavidBasically. SpaceX flies routine missions near the moon without blinking, and meanwhile, a government science mission just runs out of runway.

MayaIs that a budget problem or a priorities problem?

DavidProbably both. NASA's picking what it can afford, and increasingly, that means riding along with private companies instead of building its own hardware.

MayaSo Swift just falls.

DavidSometime this year, yeah. Nobody's chasing it down first.

MayaOkay, that 90,000 a second debt figure is still stuck in my head.

DavidYeah, and whether tariffs or hikes fix it, that's the real fight ahead.

MayaMeanwhile, a SpaceX rocket leaves a crater on the moon, and NASA can't even save the telescope already up there.

DavidDifferent budgets, same question. Who's actually paying for progress?

MayaAnd your point on Iran sticks with me. Does squeezing an economy change anything without troops involved?

DavidStill an open one.

MayaIf you're enjoying the show, subscribe and drop us a review. It really helps.

DavidThanks for starting your morning with us.

MayaSee you tomorrow.