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Eric Trump and Don Jr mocked for comparing Joe Biden's TV ratings with Trump's addresses: 'He was a clown'

'The country doesn’t run on ratings. People viewed your dad because he was a clown and people liked to watch him perform'

Shortly after President Joe Biden's address to a Joint Session of Congress, former President Donald Trump's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr took to their social media handles to mock Biden for allegedly low numbers in the audience.

In two tweets, Eric and Don Jr compared the television ratings for Biden's address with Trump's four-year addresses.

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"The the most popular President ever. Just barely beat out the dumbest group of people in America at the Oscars," Don Trump Jr tweeted along with the numbers of Trump's addresses. Eric Trump, on the other hand, resorted to using only the eyeroll emoji and a screengrab of the numbers posted by Twitter user @alexsalvinews.

It is, in fact, true that the ratings for Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress were weaker when compared to past presidents. According to Nielsen figures released on the afternoon of April 29, 2021, an estimated 26.9 million people watched the president’s address across 16 broadcast and cable networks. 

That is far less when compared with the 47.7 million who watched Donald Trump's first speech to a joint session on February 28, 2017. In addition to that, his State of the Union address last year, shortly before the pandemic, averaged 37 million viewers. Nielsen also reported that the bulk of Biden’s audience — 18.5 million — were 55 years of age and older. 

At the same time, it must be noted that live television viewership has been deteriorating in the country since on-demand programming is gaining traction. Plus, Nielsen's live-TV estimates don't account for the different mediums that are used to disperse an event like a presidential address such as the internet, radio and other formats. According to Reuters, the figures released by Nielsen, include people who watched via television as well as some who streamed the speech via internet-connected TVs, 'but they do not capture all online viewership'. 

Comparing Biden's numbers to that of previous presidents show poor results. Barack Obama's first address to Congress in 2009 saw about 52 million tuning in, while George W Bush's 2001 address was reportedly watched by 40 million people. 

No sooner than the brothers posted this, they were schooled by social media users. "Yeah but Biden got 80+ million votes!" one user tweeted. Along similar lines, one said, "Now do nation wide approval ratings. I’ll wait..."

Social media users did not mince their words when criticizing the former president. "When Daddy LOST the 2020 election like a SAD LOSER, 81,000,000 Votes to 74,000,000 Votes, Don Junior cried delicious MAGA tears into his MyPillow all night, crying and crying and crying sweet, salty, delicious MAGA tears! SAD!" Another use called Trump out saying, "He treated the office of POTUS like a reality show, idiot that he was. He never understood how any of it worked and never cared enough to learn. It was all about him. Narcissistic asshole."

Were ratings all that the President's agenda should be, people asked the brothers. "You literally still don’t understand what his job was do you? Ratings?" Another explained, "The country doesn’t run on ratings. People viewed your dad because he was a clown and people liked to watch him perform. He was must see TV because he was capable of literally anything. These ratings show the country is moving in the right direction."