Donald Trump has been inventing an alternative reality again. He makes up facts that suit his ego, then he tries to convince millions of Americans of that lie. Then, in the process, he begins to believe his own falsehood. He started off the day with a doozy.
In one of his glaring morning tweets, the president crowed that the television ratings showed the viewership of his State of the Union address was “the highest number in history.”
‘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!’
The number of viewers was dramatically less than the number who watched his address to a joint session of Congress last year, 48 million. It was certainly far less than President Barack Obama had in 2010 for his first State of the Union address, 48 million. It was even smaller than President Obama’s 2009 joint session speech, 52 million.
The traditional Nielsen results exclude data on streaming, which has been growing significantly, and Trump’s number did not include streaming either. The reason was that streaming is so hard to measure.
Trump’s number includes a Nielsen collection of viewers on 12 broadcast cable channels and networks.
Trump tried to pull at the heartstrings of American viewers in his speech by showing a little boy who organized 40,000 flags for veteran grave, the grieving parents of a young man detained in North Korea and beaten to death, and two sets of grief-stricken parents who daughters were the victims of the gang MS-13.
Obviously, Trump did not write the speech, because it sounded nothing like him. His speeches are reminiscent of his tweets – overstated and filled with blatant falsehoods.
Trump sent former White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, out to lie about the size of his inauguration crowd. People immediately saw through his fabrication, because they could see the truth with their own eyes. The Washington Post reported that Spicer famously said:
‘This is the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe,” Spicer told reporters.
Check out our favorite responses to Trump’s early morning tweet:
Featured Image via Getty Images/Win McNamee.
