In today’s edition … What can Trump actually accomplish with the State of the Union? … We answer your question about audience-less congressional speeches … but first …
Tom Steyer would like you to know he isn’t a ‘really rich… arrogant SOB’
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who’s running to be the next governor of California, knows what you think about the ultra-rich.
“Really rich people can be really arrogant SOBs,” Steyer said. “And we have a bunch of famous, rich, arrogant SOBs who are doing stuff that I really don’t appreciate. And I bet a lot of people in the state of California don’t appreciate.”
That has led Steyer, who made his money as a hedge fund manager, to spend a lot of his time on the trail trying to convince people, “that ain’t me and that has never been me.”
His money, of course, helps. It’s powering his campaign and has given him a uniquely privileged life. But it has yet to allow him to break away from the pack in a crowded race full of prominent Democrats who hope to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Former representative Katie Porter, who announced her campaign last year, was seen as an early frontrunner. The entrance of Rep. Eric Swalwell and Steyer, among others, has made the race seem wide open, however, so much so that Republicans are beginning to hope they might be able to return to the governor’s mansion in the generally blue state.
Steyer’s candidacy represents a test of voters’ appetite for getting behind a billionaire at a time when voters have a particularly dim view of the rich. Sixty-two percent of Democrats said billionaires have a negative impact on societyin a 2025 Washington Post-Ipsos poll, while most Republicans said billionaires’ impact is neither positive nor negative.
The one-time presidential candidate is running a notably populist campaign, pledging to raise taxes on billionaires like himself by closing two specific loopholes. He will begin running two new ads in the state this week, we are told, one focused on his plan to launch the “largest effort in state history to build homes” to lower housing costs and “break up the monopolistic power utilities in California” to lower electricity bills by 25 percent.
But when we asked him if he was a populist, he described himself as a “progressive” because he doesn’t “know what the hell [being a populist] means.”
“Working people have been screwed for 45 years,” Steyer said, pointing to national income growth compared with the growth of corporate revenue. “Those are just the facts. I’m standing up for people who are underrepresented and getting screwed.”
Steyer has so far spent around $38 million of his own money (you can search that here) to launch his campaign, far more than his opponents have even raised. When we asked him how much he was prepared to spend, he said, “Damned if I know. I’m not thinking about the money.”
Steyer is far from the first billionaire to seek political power. President Donald Trump’s entire public persona centers on his wealth, including his career as a reality television star. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a scion of the family that owns the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, is widely seen as a top Democratic candidate for president in 2028. And Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, ran for president in 2020 as a Democrat, famously spending more than $1 billion on his campaign.
Dan Kanninen, who worked as states director for Bloomberg’s presidential run, said the key for any rich candidate is being “who you are fundamentally.”
“The attention economy… is great, but if you are doing it in a way that doesn’t feel true to the candidate and true to the brand that they have, then that is going to fall flat with voters,” said Kanninen.
That is why, Kanninen argued, central to Steyer’s run will be convincing voters that he is who he says he is, separate from any campaign.
“Sometimes there is a power in being a so-called traitor to our class on behalf of working people,” Kanninen said.
Steyer’s opponents are clearly trying to question the candidate’s authenticity. Porter has lambasted the amount he has spent on his campaign, often using his self-funding status to attack the billionaire.
“Is that who we are? Are we a state where our democracy can be bought?” Porter asks in a video focused on her average donation compared with Steyer and others.
Tony Thurmond, California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction and one of the Democrats running for governor, said that while he is willing to credit Steyer for his platform, he isn’t sure Steyer can really relate to voters.
“He has a populist platform, no doubt, and I would give him that. And hearing a billionaire say that you should tax billionaires is a surprise, but refreshing,” Thurmond said. “But Californians are struggling to make ends meet. How is any billionaire going to be able to relate to that?”
Steyer seems to know it is his biggest issue.
“The issue for every candidate is going to be what do you stand for and do people trust you,” Steyer said. Of his money, the candidate added, “Do I think it gives me an advantage? I do.” But he said it also frees him from being beholden to anyone else.
“I absolutely have no second thoughts about doing what’s right and standing up for working people,” he said.
Get ready with The Post
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- Armed man shot and killed inside Mar-a-Lago perimeter, Secret Service says, from Mariana Alfaro, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Jeremy Roebuck.
- Josh Shapiro to neighbors: Get off my lawn, from Matt Viser and Sarah Blaskey.
What we’re watching
It’s a big week for President Donald Trump, with his State of the Union address representing a chance for the president to lay out his vision ahead of the critical midterm elections.
It doesn’t look like most Americans are excited to hear from him.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday found that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump, including 47 percent who say they strongly disapprove.
These numbers particularly stood out: “Dissatisfaction with Trump applies to specific issues, as well, with significant majorities saying they disapprove of how he is handling the economy, tariffs, inflation and relations with other countries,” wrote Dan Balz and Scott Clement. “His worst rating is on inflation — 32 percent approve of how he has dealt with the issue. On the question of his handling of the economy overall, 41 percent approve, but while he still gets low ratings on this, the gap between negative and positive assessments has narrowed from 25 points negative in October to negative 16 this month.”
Big moments like the State of the Union matter because they give the president a chance to sell his vision to a large audience.
But what has been remarkable about Trump — and will likely worry Republicans with eyes on the midterms — is how negative the view of the president is right now, and how consistently he has failed to turn public sentiment around.
Take these two findings:
- Trump arguably won the White House by winning over independent voters. But the poll finds 69 percent of that cohort disapprove of Trump, a number that has remained consistent since late 2025.
- “Though his approval rating has sagged from the early months of 2025, it is not statistically changed from 41 percent in October,” a figure that highlights how views of Trump remain fixed.
Shoring up these losses may be difficult, particularly given recent developments in each of the issue areas Americans said they’re most worried about in the poll. On the economic front, there was the news late last week that the U.S. GDP wasn’t as strong as hoped last year. Then Trump announced new tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the centerpiece of his trade policy. And he has moved a large force to the Middle East, readying it for a possible strike on Iran.
All of this raises the stakes for Tuesday evening’s speech — and suggests there is little one speech can do to turn his numbers around.
In your local paper
Honolulu Civil Beat (Hawaii): Lawmakers in Hawaii are considering allowing residents to kill feral chickens. “If you want to go old-school, just break the chicken’s neck, that’s perfectly fine,” said one Democrat.
Columbus Dispatch (Ohio): Ohio State University is facing vocal pressure to remove billionaire Les Wexner’s name from campus buildings due to the retail magnate’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Some have already begun crossing out the W’s on campus signs as a sign of protest.
Gothamist (New York): Does this sound familiar? A major winter storm is bearing down on much of the East Coast, threatening to dump up to 2 feet of snow across New York and Boston.
From you
Mark J. Hendrickson, a reader in Minneapolis, asked us a great question last week.
“I have seen several video clips of members of Congress giving speeches to an essentially empty, or near-empty, chamber. Who do they think they’re talking to, and what is the purpose of such audience-less speeches?” asked Hendrickson.
It is an odd image — a member of Congress giving an impassioned speech, and then the camera pans out to reveal… no one there.
But the reason is that those speeches are largely not for the people in the chamber.
Sometimes, a member gives a speech to enter their thoughts into the Congressional Record; other times, it is to create a moment that can be disseminated via C-SPAN or social media.
Some lawmakers have even used the empty chamber as a rhetorical tool.
“The House chamber was mostly empty. I’m unsure how many will ultimately hear it. But I spoke today to sound an alarm for our nation,” Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colorado) said during one speech early this month. “To alert the country of the wholesale corruption engulfing our government and the work we must do end it. I hope my fellow Americans will listen.”
Send a reply
There are a number of predictable topics that Trump will certainly touch upon in his State of the Union address — the economy, immigration and his diplomatic work. But we wanted to ask you: What is something a bit more… random… that you would like to hear from the president? Is there a more obscure policy issue that you would like him to touch on? Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow Dan and Matthew on X: @merica and @matthewichoi.
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