The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 letter word STATE OF THE UNION
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
S
T
A
T
E
O
F
T
H
E
U
N
I
O
N
More clues leading to the result STATE OF THE UNION
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.