FACT CHECK: Trump Falsely Claims A 'Massive Landslide Victory

Massive landslide! Historic landslide! Yuge Landslide!

Except it wasn't.

While I understand that Trump seemingly needs to prop himself up with this claim, which seems to be growing in size since the election, it was not quite aas big as he claims.

Of all the presidential elections to date, this one ranks 46th in terms of winning electoral votes.

It was not a landslide,. it was not close to a landslide. It was a marginal, though significant enough, win.

Perhaps it is time that trumps top worrying abut stroking his own ego and start going about the business of the country.

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/11/50518...massive-landslide-victory-but-history-differs

President-elect Donald Trump doesn't seem to like suggestions that his victory over Hillary Clinton was anything but huge.

Trump made false claims that Clinton's lead in the popular vote was due to illegal voting.

He has chafed at recount efforts in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — even though such recounts pose no risk to Trump's victory, since he won those states by tens of thousands of votes.

And now, with a CIA assessment that Russian hacking during the campaign was part of an effort to swing the election Trump's way, he's hitting back hard at the intelligence agency — and renewing claims that his win was of historic proportions.

The Claim
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"We had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the Electoral College. I guess the final numbers are now at 306," Trump said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
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Politics
Clinton's Popular-Vote Lead Is Now Over 2 Million, But Don't Expect Big Changes

A statement from his transition team on Friday, in response to reports of the CIA assessment, said, "The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history."

Trump also said in his Fox interview, "I think the Democrats are putting it out because they suffered one of the greatest defeats in the history of politics in this country."

The Short Answer

Trump contends that the size of his victory was historic, which is not borne out by the results.

Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232. That puts him comfortably above the required 270 electoral votes. But it's hard to argue this represents a landslide of historic proportions, given that out of 58 presidential elections, the winner has received more electoral votes in 37 contests.

The Long Answer

Trump's win is historic, but mainly because it was so unexpected. He was outpaced by Hillary Clinton on nearly every conventional metric applied to successful campaigns. Trump was counted out by nearly every political professional and most of the media. Even his own campaign allies were expecting a loss. So the voters delivered a truly historic upset on Election Day. By that measure, Trump's statement about "one of the greatest defeats" holds up.

Comparing Trump's 306 electoral votes to recent history, he falls between the 2000 and 2004 razor-thin margins of George W. Bush, and Barack Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012.

2000 — Bush 271, Gore 266
2004 — Bush 286, Kerry 251
2008 — Obama 365, McCain 173
2012 — Obama 332, Romney 206
2016 — Trump 306, Clinton 232

So on the historic score, Trump's margin is pretty average for recent elections, and way down the list if you go all the way back to the beginning of the nation. Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, recently calculated the electoral college margins in all 58 U.S. presidential elections, and showed Trump coming in 46th.

Separately, there's the question of whether Trump's victory is a "landslide." President Obama is sometimes said to have achieved "electoral landslides," but that is even stretching historical standards.

Clear landslides came most recently in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan won 489 electoral votes to Jimmy Carter's 49 in the 1980 election. Four years later, Reagan won 49 states, delivering him a 525 to 13 victory over Walter Mondale. In 1988, George H.W. Bush succeeded Reagan by amassing 426 electoral votes to Michael Dukakis' 111.

Each of those Reagan and Bush victories came with an 8 to 9 percent margin in the popular vote, as icing on the cake.

Trump currently trails Hillary Clinton by about 2.8 million votes. There have been five candidates who lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College.
Source: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

To be certain, Trump's win in the Electoral College is what matters. But his loss in the popular vote to Hillary Clinton is itself historic. At 2.8 million votes, Trump's deficit is by far the largest for any candidate who won the Electoral College and lost the popular vo

 

Why are you so mad? He won, get over it.

 

Why are you apologizing for Trump's lies?

 

Dems win by 1% and it is a landslide. Trump wins by almost 60% and it isn't.

 

Who said that?

What? When did this happen?

 

Are you not aware how elections work?

 

Yes.

So what Democrat called a 1% victory a landslide, as you claimed, and when did Trump win by 60%, as you claimed?

 

Woo hoo! Trump absolutely kicked Hillary's butt!!!! Hillary took a beating!!!!

 

really huh?

<Mod Edit- Rule 3>

306 to 232 is a landside by any logical definition

 

Again, Trump's statement is an objective lie. Why are you defending him for it?

 

He won 56.8% of the electoral college.

 

what part of 306 to 232 don't you understand, wake up man smell the coffee

and you take away the moonbat states of New york and California and MAssachusetts she only got 137

 

This is a common thing collectivist do. You can tell they are just a drone when they parrot talking points, and openly worship the establishment, with names like free thinker, and independent etc. been a phenomenon going on for years.

 

Not when you lose the popular vote at the same time.

- - - Updated - - -

I understand it means he won huge numbers of states that have less population than just the cities in Texas.

 

Sometimes, as you see the daily, never-ending, post-election, anti-Trump threads from the Left, you would think that someone should go by the username of "TemperTantrum" instead.

 

Trump won at 57%. Do you agree with my % or not?

 

It's all interpretation, the left see a couple of infected states with huge number of followers far more relevant than all those people that make up two thirds of the U.S.! It's simple Liberal arithmatricks!

 

By the numbers, Trump's "landslide" isn't anything more than an average win. But if we look at the pre-election situation and numbers, things start to appear in a different light. It was common belief that Hillary would get well over 300 Electors. Many pundits said Trump wouldn't even make it to 200 Electors.

Trump ended getting 100 more Electors than anticipated. This is like a 30 point underdog at the SuperBowl winning by 50 points. The election of Trump might not technically qualify as a landslide. But one thing is for sure, it's about the biggest upset and butt whoopin' since Noah went on a boat ride.

 

Whatever. He won, you lost. Suck it up & put on your big boy pants.

 

What you've failed to recognize is that there are 200 absolutely safe Democratic electoral votes (the blue states like CA, NY, NJ, MA) and about 100 absolutely safe republican votes (the red states like TX, UT, WY, AL).

In reality just 240 electoral votes at most are in play. Of them Trump won 206 and Hillary got 34 electoral votes. If this is not an electoral landslide, nothing is.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfac...-will-paints-dire-electoral-picture-gop-says/

 

Agreed, the man straight up ran the table in every state he had to.

If he wanted to or needed to win the popular vote, he would have.

 

Electoral College Map Update: Pollster Predicts Hillary Clinton Landslide, Winning All Swing States Except Iowa, Ohio

https://www.google.com/amp/www.ibti...slide-winning-all-2443087?amp=1?client=safari

 

Is there any particular reason why you failed to mention Richard Nixon's
unbelievable Landslide in 1972.He won 520 Electoral votes.
George McGovern took 17 Electoral votes.
The entire United States Electoral map is red except for a blue dot where
N.Y.city resides and a small blue wedge for Mass.

 

no one is mad, it's called a fact check, Trump lost the popular vote, simple as that, this was not a landslide victory, common sense

 

There is no excuse for Hillary to lose Wisconsin except she failed to campaign
there.Because her and her advisors were cocky,brash and very self-assured.
This is the problem Lefty Democrats have.Like Nancy Pelosi who refused to
even have public debates with any opposition candidate.
Hillary used a different tact with those like Fox Judge Jeanne Pirro.
Hillary just used the press to make sure stories spread like wildfire
over the legal problems Jeanne Pirro's husband was having.So she dropped out.
Plus Rick lazio's attempt to hand Hillary *something during a debate was declared
almost Rape.He touched Hillary.Hillary had her surrogaates use that crap against
Trump.Accusing him of stalking around her while she spoke in a debate.

* a mere document to sign making a pledge to abstain from benefitting from
" soft money ". That was truly a bellwether of things to come.Hillary and Billo
benefitting yearly to the tune of tens of millions for shady contributions to their
bogus Charity and outrageous speaking fees.