U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term this evening, after last year's speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. The President warned yesterday it would be "a long speech", as there is "so much to talk about"; he is expected to defend his agenda, including his immigration policies, which are causing unrest across the country, and to outline his priorities for the year ahead. At least a dozen Democratic lawmakers have announced they would be boycotting President Trump's speech and would instead attend a “People’s State of the Union”, described as “a rally counterprogramming President Trump’s night full of lies and misplaced priorities for the American people" in a press release.
As our infographic shows, how many people tune into a State of the Union address follows a certain pattern. Viewers seem more interested in first-year presidents and are more likely to tune in following a scandal or contentious issue. Over time, interest in one president’s SOTU addresses usually wanes.
This is where President Trump was bucking the trend at first. More TV viewers tuned into 2019's State of the Union Address than the year before. 46.8 million watched the president give the address right after a prolonged government shutdown, up from 45.6 million in 2018, according to numbers by Nielsen. In 2020, Trump lost viewers - only 37.2 million turned on the TV for the broadcast.
Trump has relied heavily on television to get his message out and is especially popular on Fox News, which also bolstered his ratings in the past. Yet, there is a general downward trend in these ratings as TV is becoming less important as a medium. For perspective: President Barack Obama’s first SOTU was viewed by 52.4 million people in 2009, President Bill Clinton’s by 66.9 million in 1993. Only 47.7 million watched Trump’s first address to the Joint Session of Congress in 2017.
