Posted on 04/26/2018 12:30:13 PM PDT by Simon Green
President Trump on Thursday argued that he'd rather see the presidential election be determined based on the popular vote than the current Electoral College system, claiming it would be "much easier to win."
"They also like to always talk about [the] Electoral College. Well, it's an election based on the Electoral College. I would rather have a popular election, but it's a totally different campaign," Trump said during an interview with "Fox & Friends."
"It's as though you're running — if you're a runner you're practicing for the 100-yard dash as opposed to the one mile," he continued. "The Electoral College is different. I would rather have the popular vote, because it's — to me, it's much easier to win."
Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, securing 304 electoral votes to Clinton's 207.
However, Clinton defeated Trump in the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.
Trump has claimed without any evidence that his defeat in the popular vote was due to widespread voter fraud.
The president has frequently touted his election victory in the 15 months he’s been in office, often explaining that it is difficult for a Republican to win the general election based on the way votes are divvied up in the Electoral College.
A month after the election, Trump took to Twitter to claim that he would have performed "even better" in the 2016 campaign if it had been based on the popular vote.
"Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult & sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!" he tweeted, referencing his Democratic opponent.
Uh... no.
LOL, sit back and watch the MARXISTS heads explode at this one.
Stupid. So the five most populated states will determine who’ll be president.
Trump didn't really campaign in Ca or NY. Why bother...between the illegal and dead vote, they are Dem states. He was respectful to both states however.
Easier to win for who? Ones gotta win and ones gotta lose.
The electoral college ensures a representative vote. A popular vote would ensure that NY, CA, and FL would decide every election.
It’s nice that you have an opinion, Donny-boy, but you don’t get to make that decision. There’s a lot more to America than California and New York. I thought you knew that. You’ll still have to campaign for the votes from us rubes in “Flyover Country”.
He hasn’t thought this through.
With a popular vote, instead of the effects of a major voter fraud effort being confined to the state in which it occurs (and the electoral votes of that state) it would affect the national tally.
The Democrats would have an incentive to undertake voter fraud everywhere in the country, not just in their corrupt urban precincts in the close states.
I think Trump is trolling the press and the Dems...
Don’t you know Trump by now. He’s throwing the press a bone. Too funny....Can’t wait till Hillary declares that she won!!
He would have lost.
We should never let go of the electoral college.
It makes it a 50 state election.
I’ll keep the EC, but Trump is right. If it were a PV contest in 2016, he would have campaigned like crazy in NY, CA, IL, NJ, TX, etc., and he would have won the PV.
I see what he did there!
Do that and New York,Chicago and LA will get to choose.I like things the way they are.
Fixed it.
He’s trolling. Haven’t people figured that out yet?
Direct election of senators is bad enough, and we may not survive even that in the long run. Might as well have a unicameral legislature.
I love Trump’s art!
Trump: I would rather have presidential election based on the popular vote
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Well, I would rather return to land owning males as the electorate.
That ain’t gonna happen either.
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