Donald Trump calls Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on sitcom reboot

Donald Trump personally phoned Roseanne Barr to congratulate the actor on her TV show revival which saw an estimated 18.4 million people tune into the sitcom's debut.

The US President also called Barr, who has endorsed Mr Trump despite previously voicing left-wing views, on Wednesday to thank her for lending him support.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the call between the actor and Mr Trump - who is famed for his obsession with ratings - had taken place.

Roseanne returned to screens more than two decades after it ended its original run. The series, which focused on an Illinois working class family called the Conners, became the most watched show in the US from 1989 to 1990.

The revival’s debut sees a family row erupt between Barr, who is a Trump supporter both on-screen and off-screen, and her sister who is a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Barr has voiced an array of political beliefs over the years but has more recently given her backing to Mr Trump. "I think we would be so lucky if Trump won. Because then it wouldn't be Hillary," she said in June 2016.

Barr revealed she voted for the billionaire property developer in a now-deleted tweet to The Jerusalem Post.

On Tuesday, the actor told The New York Times she chose to turn her character of Roseanne Conner into a Trump supporter because she believed it was an “accurate portrayal” of the political preferences of much of the working class American population.

“I just wanted to have that dialogue about families torn apart by the election and their political differences of opinion and how we handle it,” she said. “I thought that this was an important thing to say at this time.”

Barr sought to defend Mr Trump on a number of occasions in the interview and protested against the suggestion he is against many of the views that she and Roseanne Conner have advocated over the years, such as support for same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and organised labour.

Despite being a proponent of abortion rights before throwing his hat into the presidential ring, Mr Trump has never been in support of same-sex marriage.

But Barr, who won both a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy for her work on original hit sitcom, challenged the latter point. “He has said it several times, you know, that he’s not homophobic at all," she said.

Barr’s Twitter feed has been punctuated with articles by far-right news site Breitbart and she has adopted the rhetoric of the so-called “alt-right” movement on various occasions. Comments include “Mamas don’t let ur babies grow up 2b libtards” and “‪#intersectionality is degenerate pseudo philosophy of fake left”.

The actor has also retweeted reports by far-right conspiracy site InfoWars on the “5.7 Million Illegals” who the site erroneously claimed voted in the presidential election.

The high numbers of people who tuned in to watch the Roseanne revival were ABC’s best results for an hour-long programme since autumn of 2006.

Conservatives heaped praise on the high ratings procured by the reboot on Twitter.

White House’s social media director Dan Scavino Jr drew attention to the fact #Roseanne was trending on Twitter and congratulated the cast.

Fox News host Sean Hannity said “Proud Deplorable” Barr surpassed expectations and Piers Morgan noted Barr’s support for the president did not stop the debut from getting high numbers.

The Independent contacted a representative for Barr for comment.