What is the Pentagon Pizza theory?
What if ordering a pizza near the Pentagon heralded geopolitical doom?
That's the core of the persistent Pentagon Pizza theory – or 'Pentagon Pizza Meter'.
Made popular by the website The Takeout, this far-fetched but enticing thesis is making a comeback after going viral last year.
The theory?
If the teams at the Pentagon or the Department of Defense are particularly busy, they can't leave their desks. Therefore, it must mean that serious things are afoot. Regardless, the teams need sustenance, so they'll end up ordering food. And what could be quicker than a pizza?
Ergo: If pizza deliveries go up in Washinton D.C., it could signal an imminent crisis.
This all goes back to the Cold War.
At the time, Soviet intelligence services monitored excessive pizza deliveries by couriers to gauge alertness to potential crises.
Then, on 1 August 1990, Frank Meeks, a well-established Domino's franchisee in Washington, noticed a sudden surge in deliveries to CIA buildings... all on the eve of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, which kicked off the Gulf War.
What he thought was a coincidence at the time has become a pattern over the years.
Meeks told the Los Angeles Times that a similar surge in pizza deliveries happened in December 1998 during the impeachment hearings of former President Bill Clinton.
In the age of social media, the theory has led online sleuths to scan the area around the Pentagon for pizza order spikes.
And wouldn't you know it, on 13 April 2024, there were unusually high pizza orders from not only the Pentagon but also the White House and the Department of Defense.
That date marked Iran launching drones into Israeli territory.
The theory quickly became a meme, with X users posting screenshots from Google Maps showing real-time activity at pizza outlets - particularly at a Papa John's in Washington D.C.
On X, the @PenPizzaReport account has set itself the daunting task of monitoring the activity of pizzerias near the Pentagon in real time.
And this week, on 1 June 2025, the account published: 'With less than an hour to go before closing time, the Domino's closest to the Pentagon is experiencing unusually high footfall.'
A few hours later, tensions escalated between Israel and Iran.
So, can pizzas predict war or be used to assess US involvement in global crises?
It's hardly a reliable geopolitical indictor and no definitive correlation has been established. However, it remains a tasty predictor if so.
As CNN's then-Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer reported in 1990: 'Bottom line for journalists: Always monitor the pizzas.'
A joke, maybe. But maybe the Pentagon needs to diversify their food orders...
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
15 hours ago
- LeMonde
The Russian family of dissidents that spans generations
From her kitchen, Zoïa Svetova is changing the world. When we interviewed Svetova, her face was radiant, her smile warm. Yet the eyes and hands of the 66-year-old journalist, one of the most respected in the anti-Kremlin circles in Moscow, betrayed a deep concern. In her central Moscow apartment, a haven for the Russian intelligentsia, the black-clad police could burst in at any moment. One of Svetova's sons had just been placed on the list of people sought by the authorities. The authorities made no announcement, but Mediazona, a website independent of the Kremlin, extracted the information from an Interior Ministry database: Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of the opposition channel Dojd, labeled an "undesirable organization" by Moscow since 2023 and in exile in the Netherlands, was being prosecuted in a criminal case. No further details were available. The family is used to this; they have generations of dissidents. "Since the beginning of the USSR, we have been on the side of Russians oppressed by their own state," insisted Svetova. "On the side of justice, of people who are in their right." The police could therefore appear at any moment to search the apartment, a family nest for generations. They would not find Tikhon, who left the country over three years ago. Svetova now lives alone. "Life is about taking risks. I feel the danger, but I don't want to think about it," she confided over tea and a few chocolates, those brightly wrapped treats unchanged since Soviet times. In her home, time seemed to have stood still. Black-and-white family photos, colorful icons, small pieces of jewelry, candle stubs, an hourglass, miniature baskets and other items had accumulated on the wooden furniture.
France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
Trump-Musk showdown threatens US space plans
So when President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cancel Elon Musk's federal contracts, space watchers snapped to attention. Musk, the world's richest person, shot back that he would mothball Dragon -- the capsule NASA relies on for crew flights -- before retracting the threat a few hours later. For now, experts say mutual dependence should keep a full-blown rupture at bay, but the episode exposes just how disruptive any break could be. Founded in 2002, SpaceX leapfrogged legacy contractors to become the world's dominant launch provider. Driven by Musk's ambition to make humanity multiplanetary, it is now NASA's sole means of sending astronauts to the ISS -- a symbol of post–Cold War cooperation and a testbed for deeper space missions. Space monopoly? The company has completed 10 regular crew rotations to the orbiting lab and is contracted for four more, under a deal worth nearly $5 billion. That's just part of a broader portfolio that includes $4 billion from NASA for developing Starship, the next-generation megarocket; nearly $6 billion from the Space Force for launch services; and a reported $1.8 billion for Starshield, a classified spy satellite network. Were Dragon grounded, the United States would again be forced to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for ISS access -- as it did between 2011 and 2020, following the Space Shuttle's retirement and before Crew Dragon entered service. "Under the current geopolitical climate, that would not be optimal," space analyst Laura Forczyk told AFP. NASA had hoped Boeing's Starliner would provide redundancy, but persistent delays -- and a failed crewed test last year -- have kept it grounded. Even Northrop Grumman's cargo missions now rely on SpaceX's Falcon 9, the workhorse of its rocket fleet. The situation also casts a shadow over NASA's Artemis program. A lunar lander variant of Starship is slated for Artemis III and IV, the next US crewed Moon missions. If Starship were sidelined, rival Blue Origin could benefit -- but the timeline would almost certainly slip, giving China, which aims to land humans by 2030, a chance to get there first, Forczyk warned. "There are very few launch vehicles as capable as Falcon 9 -- it isn't feasible to walk away as easily as President Trump might assume," she said. Still, the feud could sour Trump on space altogether, she added, complicating NASA's long-term plans. SpaceX isn't entirely dependent on the US government. Starlink subscriptions and commercial launches account for a significant share of its revenue, and the company also flies private missions. The next, with partner Axiom Space, will carry astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary, funded by their respective governments. Private power, public risk But losing US government contracts would still be a major blow. "It's such a doomsday scenario for both parties that it's hard to envision how US space efforts would fill the gap," Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. "Both sides have every reason to bridge the disagreement and get back to business." Signs of a rift emerged last weekend, when the White House abruptly withdrew its nomination of e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman -- a close Musk ally who has twice flown to space with SpaceX -- as NASA administrator. On a recent podcast, Isaacman said he believed he was dropped because "some people had some axes to grind, and I was a good, visible target." The broader episode could also reignite debate over Washington's reliance on commercial partners, particularly when one company holds such a dominant position. Swope noted that while the US government has long favored buying services from industry, military leaders tend to prefer owning the systems they depend on. "This is just another data point that might bolster the case for why it can be risky," he said. "I think that seed has been planted in a lot of people's minds -- that it might not be worth the trust."
Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
Pentagon watchdog probes if staff deleted Hegseth's Signal messages
The Pentagon's watchdog is looking into whether any of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's aides were asked to delete Signal messages that may have contained sensitive military information that was shared with a reporter, according to two people familiar with the probe and documents reviewed by The Associated Press (AP). The Inspector General of the Defence Department's request focuses on how information about the 15 March US air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen came to be shared on the messaging app. Besides finding out whether anyone was asked to delete Signal messages, the inspector general is also asking some past and current staffers who were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information and who had access to his phone. Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have said that the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets could have put the pilots' lives at risk and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would have led to their firing. Hegseth has said none of the information shared was classified. But current and former military officials have said there is no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been cleared to share on an unsecured device. "I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans," Hegseth told Fox News in April after reporting emerged about the chat that included his family members. "I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterise it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That's what I've said from the beginning." News of the imminent probe comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week for the first time since his confirmation hearing. He is likely to face questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks. Hegseth has already has faced questions over the installation of an unsecured internet line in his office that bypassed Pentagon security protocols and revelations that he shared details about US military strikes in multiple Signal chats. One of the chats included his wife and brother, while the other included President Donald Trump's top national security officials and, inadvertently, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson made no comment on Friday, citing the pending investigation. The inspector general's office didn't immediately respond to a request from the AP for comment. US President Donald Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his support, saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia that the defence secretary "went through a lot" but "he's doing really well." Hegseth has limited his public engagements with the press since the Signal controversy. He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing and his spokesperson has briefed reporters there only once. The inspector general is investigating Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and the committee's top Democrat, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information. On 14 March, one day before the US strikes in Yemen, the Defence Department cautioned personnel about the app's vulnerability. Trump has said his administration targeted the Houthis over their "unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism." He noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt's Suez Canal. The Houthis attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, between November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza. 'Time to drop the really big bomb: Trump is in the Epstein files," Elon Musk posted on the social media platform X on Thursday in a move that could potentially sever his close friendship with US President Donald Trump. From key ally to the US president to arch enemy almost overnight, Musk has fallen out with Trump over the president's "Big Beautiful Bill". Musk, who funded Trump's election campaign and led the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has just recently departed the agency and the Trump administration, as he increasingly publicly criticised what he said was a "disgusting abomination" that will "burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.' Following a series of tweets on the matter, Musk went so far as to accuse Trump without providing evidence of being included in the infamous files — which Trump himself demanded be released, as they purportedly contain the names of a number of high-profile political and business figures in the US and abroad linked to a sexual exploitation scheme involving minors. Trump, whose administration promised to release the Epstein Files, has rejected Musk's allegations, telling reporters Musk had "lost his mind". There is no evidence of his participation in illegal activities with Jeffrey Epstein. An influential US financier, Epstein came under significant public scrutiny after he was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s, but wound up serving just 13 months in jail. He was indicted on federal charges in New York in 2019, more than a decade after he secretly struck a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of similar charges of sex trafficking. The case has drawn widespread attention because of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell's links to royals, presidents and billionaires. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein's criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests. In January 2024, a court unsealed the final batch of a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. Much of the material, including transcripts of victim interviews and old police reports, had already been publicly known. They included mentions of Trump, former US President Bill Clinton, Britain's Prince Andrew and magician David Copperfield, as well as testimony from one victim who said she met Michael Jackson at Epstein's Florida home, but nothing untoward happened with him. The previously released files included a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted spending several hours with Epstein at Trump's Atlantic City casino. However, the documents did not state whether she had actually met Trump or accused him of any wrongdoing. Trump and Epstein have been friends since the late 1980s, when both men were part of the socialite circles in New York. Over the years, the two have partied at Mar-a-Lago, a Palm Beach estate that Trump purchased in 1995, and attended a Victoria's Secret show together. The US president has said in the past that he thought Epstein was a 'terrific guy,' but that they later had a falling out in 2004, reportedly over a botched real estate deal. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side," Trump told New York Magazine in 2002. Trump has since said he "wasn't a fan" of Epstein. According to media reports, since Epstein's sexual exploitation ring became public, Trump offered support and provided evidence against his once-friend. Epstein did not hold back since the two fell out, either. Trump biographer Michael Wolff last year released tapes of interviews with Epstein, in which he called the US president 'functionally illiterate' and a "horrible human being". The US president's team has rejected allegations of any connection between the two in recent years, stating Wolff — whose tapes showed Epstein knew some details of the inner workings of the first Trump administration between 2017 and 2021 — was "a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies". Musk has also been connected to Epstein. Like Trump, in 2014, he was photographed with Epstein's partner Maxwell at a party. Epstein died in apparent suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on criminal charges at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. The US Justice Department's Inspector General said that his suicide was the end result of 'combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures' by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons and jail workers. The watchdog report found no evidence of foul play. Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking related to her role in Epstein's abuse and exploitation scheme. She lost her appeal in September 2024. While the US president has faced multiple sexual assault accusations in the past, he has rejected all allegations as part of media bias or political smear campaigns. In December 2024, a judgment was upheld against Trump for defamation and sexual abuse of writer E Jean Carroll in 1995 or 1996. The sentencing carried a penalty of $5 million (€4.4m).
