US President Donald Trump has accused the Democrats of being “un-American” and “treasonous” for their lack of applause during his State of the Union address last week.

“They would rather see Trump do badly than our country do well. That’s what it means,” Mr Trump said during an address on tax reform at a manufacturing plant in Ohio.

‘”It’s very selfish. It was bad energy.

“They were like death and un-American,” the President added.

“Somebody said ‘treasonous’. I mean, eh. I guess, why not? Can we call that treason, why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much,” he said.

Democrats gave Mr Trump a decidedly cool reaction during the State of the Union, during which he talked up rising wages and historically low African-American unemployment.

While falling unemployment has begun to lift wages, business executives are mixed on how much to credit Mr Trump.

“The freedom not to clap for ideas you disagree with is called the 1st Amendment,” Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said on Twitter.

.@realDonaldTrump: “Treasonous” means betraying your country – like, say, if someone colluded with Russia to influence American elections. The freedom not to clap for ideas you disagree with is called the 1st Amendment. https://t.co/0wQaifeiph

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) February 5, 2018

Over the past four years, the US economy has added 10 million jobs and the overall unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 2000. Wage growth, however, has been sluggish, although it has shown signs of picking up recently.

During last Tuesday’s address, the president touted his tax cuts and regulation rollbacks as the reason Americans are finally seeing more wages after “years and years” of stagnation.