DONALD ON DONALD/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump incorrectly claimed Thursday [2-1-18] that the State of the Union address he delivered earlier this week was the most watched in history, even though his own 2017 address to Congress got higher television ratings… The president did not make clear the source of his statistic, although the 45.6 million figure matched the one put out by Nielsen, which monitors television data. The White House did not immediately return an email seeking further information about the president’s tweet.
Despite Trump’s claim that his State of the Union on Tuesday had been the most watched ever, it actually had slightly fewer viewers than his 2017 address to a joint session of Congress, which Nielsen said was watched by nearly 47.8 million people.
Trump’s State of the Union did improve upon the most recent numbers of his predecessor, Barack Obama, whose final State of the Union address in 2016 was watched by 31.3 million people. But Obama’s early speeches before Congress significantly outdrew Trump’s: His first address to a joint session of Congress, in 2009, drew 52.3 million viewers, and his first State of the Union address, in 2010, attracted 48 million.”
-Louis Nelson, “Trump incorrectly calls his SOTU address most watched in history,” Politico, Feb. 1, 2018 08:19am