The Real State of the Union | Dozens of Democrats are expected to boycott President Donald Trump's State of the Union address tonight, and they're calling on voters to do the same: "Trump is trying to tank our union — the least we can do is tank his ratings," Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said in a post on X. It's quite the pivot from last year's disastrous paddle protest:  Photographer: Win McNamee/AFP Really, we should have initiated a boycott long ago — not for any particular political reason, but because these things take TOO LONG. Presidents of all stripes treat the State of the Union as if it's some sort of endurance sport that's going to land them in Guinness World Records: Last year's address to a joint session of Congress technically wasn't a State of the Union, but it clocked in at a record 100 minutes. In that time, I could have watched Toy Story, seen Oh Mary! on Broadway, recorded and edited a podcast episode, run a half marathon at a 7:38 per mile pace, or learned how to fold six different origami animals. And if history is any guide, a good chunk of it won't even be true. If only there were a way to take an honest look at the country without all the unnecessary flourishes and false bravado. Oh wait. That's exactly what these Bloomberg Opinion columnists did: Their demeanors might not be as cheerful as those on The Brady Bunch, but that's on purpose. These are serious people delivering serious messages about public health, crime and the job market — just three of the dozen metrics they chose to evaluate Trump on. Their analysis, in both text and video (we've gotten so fancy over here that it's almost as if the Bloomberg Terminal has TikTok!) takes a consistent, data-driven approach. Take this chart on wealth inequality from Allison Schrager, for instance. It's a stark contrast to Trump's first term, where low earners saw more robust gains than high earners. The difference, Allison says, has to do with the lackluster housing market. "Real estate was 42% of low earners' total assets in 2025, about the same exposure as higher earners — the 80th to 99th percentile — had to stocks." Fascinating data. But what happens when the data is … murkier? James Gibney notes that in 2025, the federal government's deportation statistics became rather unreliable. "DHS hasn't provided a detailed breakdown of the numerous categories that seem to comprise its reported total of 'deportations.' In fact, the agency has not provided certain monthly enforcement statistics at all," he writes. The anguish and outrage caused by the administration's mass deportation campaign and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis are partly why the president's approval ratings look like this: "The chaotic and, at times, violent mass-deportation campaign has taken a political toll. Now, 59% of voters disapprove of his handling of immigration, which they rank among the most urgent issues facing the country, according to Quinnipiac," Nia-Malika Henderson writes. Those aren't the kind of numbers you want going into a national address, but they can't be fudged. Whether you're boycotting or not, I encourage you to check out the nine other charts in this feature. They'll tell the story better than any obscenely long speech can. Bonus State of the Union Content: - Read: Small businesses reveal the true state of the country. — Matthew A. Winkler
- Watch: What did the biggest moments from Trump's address reveal about him and the Republican Party? Tune in at 8:30 a.m. Eastern for our recap.
Have you heard about the Pentagon Pizza Report? It's an account on X that tracks the pizza ordering activity around the Pentagon. The more pizza orders, the more likely it is that the US is on the cusp of some major geopolitical decision (or so the thinking goes). Matt Levine has called it "alternative data" and, apparently Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knows all about it: "I've thought of just ordering lots of pizza on random nights just to throw everybody off," he said Sunday on Fox News. "Some Friday night when you see a bunch of Dominos orders, it might just be me on an app, throwing the whole system off so we keep everybody off balance. We look at every indicator."
Huh! So, um, what should we make of this, then? Is it a prank? Could Hegseth be heads-down discussing James Stavridis' menu of options for hitting Iran? Or did he merely order some 'za for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who paid him a visit today? I doubt it's the latter — Dave Lee says the meeting was billed as a serious showdown. "To date, Claude has been the only AI model permitted to be used on the Pentagon's classified networks," Dave explains. But Hegseth wants Anthropic to allow the Pentagon to use its technology for "all lawful purposes," which could include mass surveillance. If the tech firm fails to play ball, Hegseth will hit it with severe sanctions. "That could mean not only the cancellation of a $200 million contract awarded last July but also being designated a 'supply chain risk,' a move that would force companies with military contracts to no longer use Anthropic's AI." This afternoon, Axios revealed that Hegseth — who sees the company as too "woke" — gave Amodei until Friday to back down. | 
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