In its statement dismissing the findings of the CIA investigation into hacking of John Podesta’s email and the DNC website, the Trump transition team said:
“The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again,’ ” the statement read.
Unfortunately, the Trump Transition team lies as much as the Trump Campaign did.
The Electoral College victory was one of the smallest, not one of the biggest.
Here are the facts.
Since 1980, the winning Electoral College results are as follows.
Since 1980, the only winner who got fewer votes than Trump was George W. Bush, who won with 271 and 286 Electoral College votes in 2000 (thanks to FL and the SCOTUS) and 2004.
1984 — 525 — Reagan
1980 — 489 — Reagan
1988 — 426 — George HW Bush
1996 — 379 — Clinton
1992 — 370 — Clinton
2008 — 365 — Obama
2012 — 332 — Obama
2016 — 306 — Trump
2004 — 286 — GW Bush
2000 — 271 — GW Bush
In terms of his popular vote margin, Trump will probably end up with the third-worst popular vote result ever, 56th ranked of the 58 winning candidates in history. (The 58 elections have produced 45 presidents, some of them winning two terms and FDR winning four.) Currently, Hillary Clinton has received over 2.5 million more popular votes than Trump.
In terms of his Electoral College margin, which will probably end up at 306 to 232, Trump will rank #46 among the 58 presidential elections that have been held, or just above the bottom 20%.
Trump and his people need to stop saying he won by a landslide.