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Much like the US men’s hockey team as they walked into the House Chamber during President Trump’s address, there would have been plenty of “mention” traders celebrating at least a few of the president’s ~10,600 words on Tuesday evening, including “hottest,” “egg,” and “alien.”

Lasting almost 108 minutes, Trump’s speech yesterday officially became the longest State of the Union address of the television age, per Bloomberg, surpassing the previous record of 89 minutes set by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

According to data compiled by The American Presidency Project, Trump’s address was almost double the average length of all recorded SOTU speeches since 1964, which works out as 55 minutes.

The speech also marked what could be a new personal best in terms of length for Trump, beating his remarks to Congress in March 2025 by 8 minutes, though this was not included in the average as, according to the APP, it was not an official “State of the Union” speech.

The APP also calculated a preliminary figure for 2026 in terms of word count, and the current president trumped all other spoken-word SOTU addresses. Some SOTUs, however, haven’t been verbally delivered, and a couple of the written versions have racked up considerably greater tallies — most notably Jimmy Carter’s 1981 written address, which came in at 33,667 words in total.

The ongoing bidding war between Paramount and Netflix for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had some significant news this week that could change the outcome:  

• Things kicked off Tuesday, when WBD said in a statement it would resume talks with Paramount Skydance to consider its best and final offer after Netflix allowed a seven-day waiver. The WBD board continues to “unanimously recommend” the merger with Netflix, while the streaming service will retain its rights to match or exceed any forthcoming offer from Paramount. The negotiation period ends on February 23.

• IndieWire reporter Brian Welk talked to a few experts about whether the new developments bring clarity to the ongoing bidding war. One professor said without Paramount offering its “best and final offer,” the company loses credibility, while another professor said it makes Netflix look even more confident. 

• Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield said on his podcast that Paramount will have to raise its offer to as high as $36 to $37 per share. (The company has stuck to $30.) In comparison, Netflix’s initial offer is for $27.75 a share to buy the studio and streaming service, while Paramount is bidding to buy the whole company. 

• Semafor reported Thursday morning that some Democratic senators are “unhappy” with the fact that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison refused to attend a hearing two weeks ago, and could launch an investigation into the deal if they retake the Senate.

• Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Netflix has “ample cash” and could increase its offer for WBD if Paramount beefs up its own offer, according to sources. 

• Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently appeared on a recent episode of “The Town with Matthew Belloni” to reiterate that he doesn’t plan on ruining WBD’s theatrical business model and promised to keep the 45-day theatrical window for WBD films, which could appease opposition from theater owners.

• Variety reported that there’s been a shift among WBD employees who now support Netflix’s acquisition, though there’s still some skepticism among others.

WBD shareholders are still set to vote on the proposed Netflix merger next month, on March 20. Despite the renewed talks with Parmount, as of Friday at 12:45 p.m. ET, prediction markets speculating on who will ultimately come out on top have recently flipped to give the edge back to Netflix, pricing in a 46% chance over Paramount’s 44% odds. 

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)