President Donald Trump stayed true to himself by boasting about his State of the Union ratings. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump gave himself a huge pat on the back Thursday, Feb. 1 claiming he has the most-watched State of the Union address in history. But as with many things in the Trump administration, that’s not true.
“Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history,” he tweeted. “@FoxNews beat every other network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!”
The address, which saw Trump stick to the script but take credit for lowered Black unemployment spurred under the Barack Obama administration, was the first SOTU the President gave. And while he’s right that conservative-leaning Fox News attracted the most viewers for his speech — albeit with 11.5 million viewers, according to Deadline, rather than 11.7 million — viewership for the SOTU was actually down from Obama’s years.
The 44th Commander-in-Chief had 48 million viewers tune into his 2010 speech and George W. Bush’s SOTU in 2002 drew 52 million viewers. Before then, Bill Clinton had 45.8 million — still beating Trump’s numbers by 200,000.
And Twitter users had no issues bosting about Trump’s inaccurate congratulatory tweet.
Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2018
On the first day of Black History Month…Donald Trump wants to tell you that he had high ratings for his State of The Union speech.
Here is a piece of Black History Month trivia…
Barack Obama had more viewers for his first State Of The Union.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) February 1, 2018
Honestly , how the fk did that guy make money with such a poor grasp of arithmetic?
— Left field Matt . #FBPE (@yusurownfkname) February 1, 2018
Trump’s record numbers are indeed #FakeNews @BarackObama ‘s 2010 #SOTU drew 48 million viewers
— Little ImpressionsHQ (@littleimpressio) February 1, 2018
