Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melburgh on this live State of the Union night, the president

gearing up for this traditional address to the Congress you see here, as well as the nation.

This is a speech that we all know typically begins with the speaker saying the state of our union is,

and it's followed by usually a positive word. I can tell you past presidents have often said

strong, or the state of our union is sound, was a word they would use in earlier eras. Some people,

when they're in tough times and they're president, they sometimes use more grounded words. Like,

when we're in a depression, they don't say

strong because they would sound completely out of touch. I mentioned that tonight at the top of our

broadcast, because as you probably know, President Trump could easily alienate a lot of Americans

if there are overly rosy positive claims that do not match their lived experience. He is speaking

at what is measurably Donald Trump's

weakest moment of a chaotic second term. If you follow the news, you've probably noticed that.

If you happen to watch this show regularly, we went through the terrible numbers for Donald Trump

in a special report just last night, and I have more for you and new stuff for you on that tonight,

because he heads into

this speech, fresh off his biggest court loss on a signature issue, the high court, of course,

rejecting his tariffs. Many are watching to see some of those same Supreme Court justices are in

attendance tonight, the ones, including two of his appointees, who told them he is no king and cannot legislate without

the Congress that will be assembled in this very body tonight. He's also facing new Epstein

files fallout. NPR reporting brand new today the DOJ has, quote, withheld and removed,

some files related to Trump. MS now confirming that those files involve allegations

about Trump assaulting a young girl. Now, I'll say off top, we're going to get to that

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