Statistics lead to intriguing answers. It’s Trumplicated to explain, yet he won both ways, with less than the popular vote in 2016, and with the majority in 2024.
Here’s a History article that explains some past elections how 5 presidents who did not get the majority of voters yet they still were elected by the Electoral College or by the House of Rep. The 1888 election where Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote but won the electoral college vote is the most similar one to 2016, and 2000 Bush v. Gore is similar too, as Bush lost the popular vote but won more electoral votes. https://www.history.com/news/presidents-electoral-college-popular-vote
States H. won in 2016 like New York, California, and Massachusetts, were won by wide margins of voters going for Hillary. The number of voters for H. was far greater than the number of voters Trump got from his winning states like Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Texas which have lower populations compared to Democratic leaning states.
2016 California, NY, Mass., Virginia, and Illinois added up to 128 of her 232 electoral votes. She won these states with millions of votes more than Trump.
2016 States Trump won like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and Ohio were closer races in the popular vote, for example Trump only got ten thousand votes to a few hundred thousand votes more than Hillary in each of these states. So the margins of voters Trump won by was much smaller in these states compared to the wider margins (greater number of voters H. won by). Yet Trump still won by a sliver, and took 74 electoral votes + 38 Texas and 29 Florida for a total of 141 electoral votes.
So from these larger states, Trump did not get a majority of voters, yet he eked out victories in Michigan, Ohio… to get more electoral votes.
Then from the balance of the less populous states, Trump won more states but the population of voters from these states did not get Trump enough votes to overcome the greater number of voters centered in NY, Mass., Illinois, Virg. and Calif.
Yet the 6 electoral votes here and there from Kansas and Mississippi outnumbered the electoral votes H. took from Washington, New Jersey and Minnesota.
This is quite tricky to explain. Hope this helps!
Statistics lead to intriguing answers. It’s Trumplicated to explain, yet he won both ways, with less than the popular vote in 2016, and with the majority in 2024.
Here’s a History article that explains some past elections how 5 presidents who did not get the majority of voters yet they still were elected by the Electoral College or by the House of Rep. The 1888 election where Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote but won the electoral college vote is the most similar one to 2016, and 2000 Bush v. Gore is similar too, as Bush lost the popular vote but won more electoral votes. https://www.history.com/news/presidents-electoral-college-popular-vote
States H. won in 2016 like New York, California, and Massachusetts, were won by wide margins of voters going for Hillary. The number of voters for H. was far greater than the number of voters Trump got from his winning states like Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Texas.
2016 California, NY, Mass., Virginia, and Illinois added up to 128 of her 232 electoral votes. She won these states with millions of votes more than Trump.
2016 States Trump won like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and Ohio were closer races in the popular vote, for example Trump only got ten thousand votes to a few hundred thousand votes more than Hillary in each of these states. So the margins of voters Trump won by was much smaller in these states compared to the wider margins (greater number of voters H. won by). Yet Trump still won by a sliver, and took 74 electoral votes + 38 Texas and 29 Florida for a total of 141 electoral votes.
So from these larger states, Trump did not get a majority of voters, yet he eked out victories in Michigan, Ohio… to get more electoral votes.
Then from the balance of the less populous states, Trump won more states but the population of voters from these states did not get Trump enough votes to overcome the greater number of voters centered in NY, Mass., Illinois, Virg. and Calif.
Yet the 6 electoral votes here and there from Kansas and Mississippi outnumbered the electoral votes H. took from Washington, New Jersey and Minnesota.
This is quite tricky to explain. Hope this helps!