To the surprise of absolutely no one, President Trump’s first tweeted response to his own State of the Union address included an egregiously false claim about how it was the most watched one “in history.” His aren’t all that surprising, of course, due to his history with making similar boasts about other television broadcasts and attendance at his inauguration. Even so, it remains quite alarming that the President of the United States would make such an obviously incorrect claim which, as the New York Times points out, is “off by a couple of million people.”
“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,” tweeted Trump. “FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!”
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
Per the Times‘ correction, however, “President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union speech in 2010 beat Mr. Trump’s by about 2 million” with a total of about 48 million viewers. As for online streams, the outlet concedes that “[i]t is impossible to do a conclusive tally,” but after crunching the available numbers, it seems Obama’s 2010 address has drawn over 10 times what Trump’s has so far. As for the president’s insistence on receiving only “nice compliments and reviews,” his steady media diet of the Fox News Channel (and, primarily, the Fox & Friends morning show) probably left a few things out.
(Via New York Times)