Right on Cue Trump Lies About State of the Union Viewership
‘Delivered From the Heart!’
President Donald Trump tweeted his first State of the Union address drew “the highest number” of viewers “in history.” That’s just plain false. Trump Thursday morning also threw in what amounts to a promotion of Fox News, touting their viewership as well.
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
The Hill notes that “former President Barack Obama had 48 million in Jan. 2010 and 52 million in Feb. 2009 and former President George W. Bush had 62 million in Jan. 2003 and 51.9 million in Jan. 2002, according to Nielsen.”
Even Trump’s own address to a joint session of Congress last year at the end of February attracted a larger audience, 47.7 million viewers, than Tuesday night’s speech.
Deadline sums it up, writing that Trump’s State of the Union address, which was “the third longest in history, is now also the least watched address in nearly a quarter of a century.”
In his speech Trump painted immigrants as gang members, murderers, and terrorists. He also falsely claimed that “chain migration,” which is a slur used by the right to describe keeping families together, allows “a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.”
That’s false.
Worse, the president said limiting the number of family members allowed into the country “is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security, and our future,” as if, somehow, allowing family members into the country is harmful or dangerous.
Thursday morning, in his tweet, Trump said he had delivered his message ‘from the heart!”
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