President Trump’s Address to the Joint Session of Congress on 4 March has pulled in great numbers, both in terms of ratings and poll numbers.
The top media research firm Nielsen has released that the President’s speech had reached an audience of 36.6 million people in the United States. That is a significant increase from Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address from a year ago, which was viewed by 32.23 million people. That is despite the fact that 2024 was an election year when, at the time of the address, Joe Biden was thought to be running for re-election.
However, President Trump’s speech is not outstanding in terms of viewership in a historical context. President Clinton’s 1993 address had the highest ratings in the last 32 years, with 66.9 million people tuning in. That was followed by President George W Bush’s State of the Union in 2003, with 62.06 million. However, that is, in large part, due to the fact that the media market was not as saturated back then as it is now. Meanwhile, the lowest-rated Joint Address or State of the Union was given by President Biden in 2021, with only 26.9 million people watching—that is quite strange, given that only a few months before, he had received the most votes by any candidate in a presidential election in US history, 81.2 million.
As for President Trump’s 2025 speech, the vast majority of viewers approved of his performance in front of Congress.
A CBS poll found that 76 per cent of viewers found his address to be agreeable, with only 23 per cent disagreeable. Meanwhile, according to CNN’s numbers, 69 per cent approved and 31 per cent disapproved.
By comparison, President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech had a 65 per cent approval rating according to CNN. So, President Trump has beaten his predecessor’s speech both in terms of ratings and polling.
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