Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. (Getty)
President-Elect Donald Trump again said in a series of tweets this morning that he would have won the popular vote if he had campaigned differently.
Trump posted three tweets seemingly at random on Wednesday praising the Electoral College system and defending his popular vote loss. This is the second time this week that the president-elect has made this argument on Twitter.
Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult & sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!
I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote – but would campaign differently
I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss!
This seems to be a direct response to cable news coverage, as the third tweet references the way that pundits have discussed his win and tries to direct their attention towards another angle. Trump has been known to watch all of the major news shows, especially the morning programs, and he often tweets his response while they are airing. Both of Trump’s angry tweets this week were posted between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
Hillary Clinton’s supporters have continuously raised the point over the past few weeks that Donald Trump lost by almost three million votes but won due to his victory in the Electoral College. At his rallies and on Twitter, the president-elect has shot back by saying that he would have visited different states, such as New York and California, if the election were determined by the popular vote and that in this scenario, he still would have won.
Trump has also argued that Hillary Clinton lost the election because she spent time in the wrong states and not for any other reason. For example, Hillary Clinton made a play for Arizona in the final months of the election, but she did not visit Wisconsin a single time.
On Monday, Trump again mocked the way that Hillary Clinton ran her campaign, although this time it was specifically in response to Bill Clinton saying that Trump won because of FBI Director James Comey.
Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong, he called me (with a very nice congratulations). He “doesn’t know much” …
especially how to get people, even with an unlimited budget, out to vote in the vital swing states ( and more). They focused on wrong states
President-Elect Donald Trump was once a critic of the Electoral College system, saying in 2012 that it is a disaster for democracy. He has since changed his tune and now believes that the system is brilliant because it ensures that the smaller states are not neglected in favor of those states with a larger population. This is the argument of those who favor keeping the Electoral College in place, and the concern is that in a system based on the popular vote, candidates would spend all of their time in New York and California but ignore states like Iowa.
In his second tweet this morning, Trump subtly makes reference to his margin of victory, implying that he won so overwhelmingly that it’s hard to imagine a larger win. In fact, Trump’s victory in the Electoral College can hardly be considered a landslide; among 58 presidential elections, Trump’s Electoral College win comes in 46th place. However, he won by a bigger margin than George W. Bush did in 2004 and 2000.
