Donald Trump

Trump's State of the Union Reaches 45.6 Million Viewers; He Wrongly Claims It's the Most Ever

The Nielsen company said former President Barack Obama drew 48 million people for his first State of the Union in 2010

President Donald Trump reached an audience of 45.6 million people for his first State of the Union address, not enough to give him bragging rights over his predecessor.

But that didn't stop Trump from saying his address had more viewers than any other. 

"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," Trump said on Twitter Thursday morning.

The Nielsen company said former President Barack Obama drew 48 million people for his first State of the Union in 2010. And presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both gave two addresses that reached more viewers, Bush's 2003 speech before the Iraq war getting the most ever: 62 million.

Trump's audience was down from the 47.7 million people who watched his address to the joint session of Congress last February.

Fox News Channel earned the top spot among the individual networks, with 11.5 million viewers during the speech. It was the first time that Fox News, home of Trump-friendly opinion hosts like Sean Hannity, beat all of the networks for the State of the Union, although Fox also was the network of choice for Trump's address to Congress last February.

NBC (7.1 million) and CBS (7 million) fought for second place. The Fox broadcast network had 3.6 million, CNN had 3.1 million and MSNBC had 2.7 million, Nielsen said.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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