Donald Trump falsely claims his State of the Union speech TV ratings were 'highest number in history'

Audience of 45.6 million people falls short of President Barack Obama's 2010 address to Congress

Donald Trump has falsely claimed the number of American TV viewers watching his State of the Union speech was "the highest number in history".

The US President said 45.6 million people watched his speech on Tuesday evening, and praised Fox News for "beating every other network, for the first time ever".

But according to Nielsen, a global TV ratings research agency, the figure fell short of President Barack Obama's 2010 address to Congress, which was watched by 48 million.

It was also down on President Bill Clinton's 1998 address, watched by 53.1 million, George W Bush's in 2002 (51.7 million) and again in 2003 (62.1 million).

Mr Trump's first televised address in Congress last February, although not a State of the Union speech, was watched by 47.7 million.

The numbers do not include viewers who live-streamed the events.

But the 71-year-old was right to say Fox News beat its competition after it notched the biggest ratings for any State of the Union address in the history of cable news.

11.5 million people tuned into the right-wing news channel's coverage of the speech, compared to 3.1 million for CNN and 2.7 million for MSNBC.

Since 2018, Nielsen measures ratings using a sophisticated system that employs small devices connected to television in selected homes. These gadgets transmit the viewing habits of the household back to Nielsen, giving it a minute-by-minute ability to track viewing habits.