Trump's State of the Union address seen by 32.6 million people, down 4 million from 2025 speech
Source: AP
Updated 5:54 PM EST, February 26, 2026
An estimated 32.6 million people watched President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this week, down four million from his speech to Congress last year and the smallest audience he’s ever gotten for the annual message.
The Nielsen company said that his speech — the longest televised State of the Union address by any president, was seen on 15 different television networks.
Trump never dipped below 37.1 million for his four addresses in his first term. He exceeded 40 million viewers from 2017 through 2019, with a peak of 47.7 million for his first one, Nielsen said.
His audience on Tuesday was comparable to predecessor Joe Biden’s final State of the Union in 2024, where he reached 32.2 million viewers.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-state-of-union-ratings-904b5482e5fbbb41ef8068d4182bb976
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As measured by TV watchers the SOTU address was a boring rerun. The most MAGA of voters are saying they stopped watching after a few minutes because it was a rehash of old grievances.
The show is boring and old. Just like the current POTUS is and always has been. The difference in 2026 is there are fewer MAGAts being created, and the old ones are dying off. His audience has “lost its age”, if that age is 85. 
