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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/26/2370609/-SO-MUCH-WINNING-Trump-s-State-of-Union-Ratings-Ranks-Near-the-Bottom-for-the-Past-25-Years
Now another metric of success that Trump regards as the most important of all is flashing bright red signals of disaster. His television ratings for the speech have come in near the bottom for all SOTU speeches for the past 25 years. According to the Hollywood Reporter...
"Trump's 107-minute speech (the longest on record) drew about 27.8 million viewers across the seven most watched broadcast and cable outlets: ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, MS Now and NBC. That's down by about 12 percent from 31.45 million viewers for those same networks for Trump's address to Congress last year. [...] Fox News led the way with 9.1 million viewers."
The only years where Trump was not dead last were one for Biden in 2021 during COVID, and another for Biden in 2023 when inflation hit its peak at about 8%. Note that inflation at that time was higher worldwide than in the U.S., and that Biden brought it down to about 3% before his term ended. Whereupon his last SOTU rebounded to be higher than Trump again. Here are the numbers...
2026 (Trump): 27.8 million*
2025 (Trump): 31.45 million#
2024 (Biden): 32.2 million
2023 (Biden): 27.3 million
2022 (Biden): 38.2 million*
2021 (Biden): 26.9 million#
2020 (Trump): 37.2 million
2019 (Trump): 46.8 million
2018 (Trump): 45.6 million*
2017 (Trump): 47.7 million#
2016 (Obama): 31.3 million
2015: (Obama): 31.7 million
2014: (Obama): 33.3 million*
2013: (Obama): 33.5 million
2012: (Obama): 37.8 million
2011: (Obama): 42.8 million
2010: (Obama): 48. million*
2009: (Obama): 52.4 million#
2008: (Bush): 37.5 million
2007: (Bush): 45.5 million
2006: (Bush): 41.7 million*
2005: (Bush): 38.4 million
2004: (Bush): 43.4 million
2003: (Bush): 62.1 million
