This weekend, we got the first detailed look at the finances of 2024 presidential candidates, and here’s the biggest takeaway: Ron DeSantis is burning through money like he’s Adam Neumann in 2017. Regulatory filings show that DeSantis’s finances desperately need replenishment if he wants to make up ground against former President Trump, who he’s trailing far behind in the polls for the Republican nomination.

The numbers: The Florida governor raised an impressive $20 million in the second quarter but has spent about 40% of the amount he raised.

One of the biggest reasons for the cash burn is that the DeSantis campaign hired like a tech company that thought Covid would last forever. The DeSantis team had 92 full-time employees on payroll (by far the biggest staff of any GOP candidate) before reportedly firing about a dozen last week to reduce expenses.

And generating revenue will also be a challenge for DeSantis because many of his donors are tapped out: More than two-thirds of his cash on hand is from backers who gave $3,300, which is the biggest check individuals can write in primary elections.

How do the other contenders stack up?

• While Trump, the front-runner, raised less than DeSantis last quarter ($17.7 million), he’s still got twice as much to spend.
• President Biden’s operation looks downright bootstrapped. His reelection campaign spent just $1.1 million in the second quarter and employs just four full-time staff. At this point in Obama’s reelection campaign in 2011, he had spent $11 million, per CNN. This lack of spending, plus a meager haul from smaller donors, is raising some concern in Democrat circles.

Lesser-known candidates are getting creative

When you’re a newcomer to national politics and don’t have a sprawling campaign machine, you’ve got to get scrappy to raise money.

• Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, is handing out commissions to turn his supporters into salespeople. A program he launched last week will give his backers a 10% cut of the money they raise for his campaign.
• Another GOP candidate, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, is leveraging his city’s newest asset: He’s raffling off front-row tickets to Lionel Messi’s first game at Inter Miami to his financial supporters.
• Finally, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is simply handing out cash ($20 in gift cards, to be precise) to anyone who donates as little as $1 to his campaign. Burgum needs to hit a 40,000-donor target to qualify for the first GOP debate next month, but it’s unclear whether this scheme is legal.

Stuck in a perpetual “I’ll do it tomorrow” mindset when it comes to getting your finances on track? You’re not alone. But the market remains challenging and unpredictable—and now’s the time to finally ace your money game.

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Alcaraz topples Djokovic in London. The heir apparent of men’s tennis, 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, defeated Novak Djokovic in a five-set epic for his first Wimbledon title (probably the first of many). With his victory, Alcaraz denied a dominant Djokovic a fifth-straight Wimbledon trophy and his 24th major championship overall. “I haven’t played a player like him ever, to be honest,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz. On the women’s side, Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon.

Extreme weather stalked the globe. At least five people died on Sunday morning in Bucks County, PA, after an estimated 6–7 inches of rain fell in less than 45 minutes, sparking flash floods. As downpours drenched the Northeast and canceled flights, a record-breaking heat wave peaked in the US South and West, but temps will remain sizzling throughout this week. In Southern Europe, a dangerous “heat storm” forced the Acropolis in Athens to close for a second day, and over a dozen Italian cities issued heat advisories. This storm is named Charon after the ferryman of the dead in Greek mythology.

Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation. Bitter gaming rivals Microsoft and Sony reached an agreement that would keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation devices for the next 10 years. It’s a long-promised move by Microsoft to get its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which makes Call of Duty, across the finish line by tomorrow’s deadline (regulators were worried that Microsoft would make Activision content exclusive to Xbox). All Microsoft needs now to close the deal is the blessing of regulators in the UK.

When you step into a Publix, you always witness greatness, but that became even more apparent last week when soccer legend Lionel Messi was spotted at the South Florida grocery store picking up household staples.

The Publix sighting, which went viral on social media, sent the Messi hype cycle into overdrive ahead of the Argentine’s expected debut for his new squad, Inter Miami, on Friday.

Quick refresher: Lionel Messi, one of the best soccer players of all time, left his long career in Europe to join Major League Soccer in the US for a historic deal laden with incentives from brands like Apple and Adidas. The deal was finalized this weekend in what could be a game changer for MLS.

And now that Messi has stocked the pantry of his new South Beach home, Miami is giving its newest resident a hero’s welcome:

• Murals depicting Messi have sprung up on buildings around the city—especially in the Wynwood neighborhood.
• A brewery is selling a Messi-themed beer in a can bearing Inter Miami colors.
• The Hard Rock Cafe released a “Messi Chicken Sandwich,” so you can eat a Milanesa just like Leo.

Looking ahead…tickets for Messi’s expected debut on Friday will look like a steal to anyone who’s been trying to see Taylor Swift: You could snag seats for under $300 on SeatGeek yesterday.

Stat: Well, how about that—Tesla made its first Cybertruck. Nearly four years after Elon Musk introduced the electric pickup in a window-shattering display and two years after its initial planned production date, Cybertruck No. 1 rolled off the assembly line in Telsa’s plant in Texas. No word yet on pricing, but Elon Musk said he’s aiming to make 250,000 of these futuristic-looking pickups a year.

Quote: “My neighborhood where I grew up in Boston, if two people had a disagreement and you had nothing to do with it—you just kept walking.”

The head of the Teamsters and certified Boston Tough Guy Sean O’Brien said yesterday that he’s repeatedly asked the White House to stay out of the contract dispute between UPS employees and the company ahead of a potential strike next month. “We don’t need anybody getting involved in this fight,” he said.

Read: Go inside the offices of Anthropic, the AI startup that’s trying to compete with ChatGPT while preventing an AI apocalypse. (New York Times)

Barbenheimer is here: The movie event of the year, if not the millennium, arrives on Friday when Barbie and Oppenheimer hit theaters. It’ll be interesting to see whether all the hype will inspire people to actually spend money to go see the films.

Earnings season picks up: The Q2 reports will come fast and furious this week from companies including Bank of America, Tesla, major airlines, and American Express. But the most tea is expected to be spilled by Netflix, which will give an update on its password-sharing crackdown and discuss how the Hollywood strikes are impacting its business.

The Women’s World Cup begins: American soccer fans are preparing for early morning wake-ups as the Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday. The youthful US squad plays their first match on Friday in their quest for a third-straight trophy.

Everything else…

• Golf’s British Open tees off on Thursday at Royal Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Make it happen, Rory.
• San Diego Comic-Con starts Thursday, but the festivities will be scaled down due to the Hollywood walkouts.

Athletes being awesome: The WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu put on the best three-point shooting contest performance of all time, and NBA star Steph Curry got a hole-in-one (he’s nasty at golf, too).

Shame for posterity: This has to be the most embarrassing tombstone in history.

Need an emotional pick-me-up? Here’s a bunch of motivational videos on a variety of topics.

Not really sure how to describe this: Blob game?

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Turntable: Mary wants me to let you know today’s Turntable is special because it has five pangrams and an “efghi” letter run. Play it here.

Nutritional facts

You all seem to like this game a lot, so let’s run it back. We’ll give you the ingredient list for a popular food product, and you have to name the product.

Chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite as preservatives, xanthan gum.

Michael and Simmy sold their company. Now they study other young founders and share their startup secrets on Our Future Podcast.

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