President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Feb. 24. His speech drew an estimated 32.6 million viewers, reported Nielsen, which tracks how many people watch television programs. The number of viewers was lower than in any of Trump’s first five addresses to Congress or previous State of the Union speeches in his previous administration. Trump’s highest viewed speech was in February of 2017 with 47.7 million viewers.
President Donald Trump set new records for time and word count — speaking for 1 hour, 47 minutes and 40 seconds. The speech was punctuated by applause from standing Republicans and silence from seated Democrats.
While Trump’s speech was the largest use of time, it did not garner the largest audience. That title goes to former President Bill Clinton with 66.9 million viewers in his 1993 presidential addresses to Congress. While viewership numbers have fluctuated since then, the overall trend shows a decline.
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Of viewers watching Trump on Tuesday live or on the same day:
- 2,047,000 were aged 18-34.
- 5,960,000 were aged 35-54.
- 23,622,000 were aged 55 and older.
Trump’s viewership was 4 million views lower than his address to the Joint Sessions of Congress in March of 2025.
The overall viewership was less than the estimated 33.8 million viewers who watched Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 but higher than Biden’s final State of the Union speech on March of 2024 which gathered 32.2 million viewers.
Nielsen counts viewers of both network broadcasts and of live feeds by networks to streaming platforms and television program viewership is reported based on Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel methodology.
This is a developing story which may be updated.
