The ratings are in, and let’s just say they don’t look too good after Donald Trump’s second inauguration. In fact, his ratings are downright underwhelming compared to both his own 2017 inauguration and Joe Biden’s in 2021.
Trump’s inauguration rating dipped 27% from Biden’s 2021 viewership and 20% from his first inauguration in 2017, which must be devastating to the president, who loves to harp about his crowd sizes.
According to The Wrap, a combined total of 24.59 million viewers tuned in to cable and network news. Fox News, for obvious reasons, received the highest ratings, making up nearly half of the total viewership, with an average of 10.3 million viewers from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM ET.
CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers during the same period, MSNBC had 848,000 viewers, ABC had 4.7 million viewers, CBS had 4.1 million viewers, NBC had 4.4 million viewers, and there is no immediate information on audience ratings for streaming platforms.
That means that more people watched Beyonce’s Christmas halftime show than the 47th president’s inauguration.
A small crowd stands on bleachers during Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
Those numbers seem especially bleak when you consider the size of the U.S. population and the fact that a relatively modest 7.2% of U.S. residents watched Trump’s inauguration. But, hey, at least they didn’t have to witness the endless spectacle of Trump claiming record crowds, an ongoing theme from his first inauguration.
For those with short memories, Trump’s first term kicked off in 2017 with a bizarre and unprovoked obsession over his crowd size. During his first White House press conference, he directed his short-lived Press Secretary Sean Spicer to lie about how many people gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., comparing his crowd to that of former President Barack Obama in 2009—who people can see in photos was clearly more prominent.
At least they didn’t miss much, other than Trump not putting his hand on the bible during his oath of office, an awkward air kiss with Melania, and an array of billionaire oligarchs front and center.
Whether it’s his polarizing presence, general apathy, despondency, or Trump fatigue, this dip in viewership suggests that the appetite for Trump’s theatrics might be waning—at least for now.
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