Trump apparently doesn’t know how many Electoral College votes he got
During a press conference on Thursday during which he attacked the media for “dishonesty”, President Trump told a couple of little “alternative fact” of his own.
Speaking at the conference, he claimed he won 306 Electoral College votes to become the President.
He also said it meant he had “the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.”
In fact, Trump won 304 Electoral College votes, not 306. This is because two electors didn’t vote for him despite him winning the popular vote in their states.
And despite not being the smallest Electoral College win, it certainly wasn’t the biggest.
Barack Obama won 365 electoral votes back in 2008 followed by 332 back in 2012.
Bill Clinton also beat President Trump with 370 electoral votes back in 1992, and 379 in 1996.
When challenged, President Trump said he had intended to say that he had the biggest Republican Electoral College win since Reagan.
But actually, that isn’t true either as George H W Bush won 426 Electoral College votes in 1988.
He did beat George W Bush, however, who only won 271 electoral votes in 2000 and 286 in 2004.
But according to Trump, he was just “given that information. I don’t know. I was just given it. We had a very, very big margin.”
Trump attacked the media at the press conference, saying: “The media is trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges we made and they’re not happy about it.”
“But a lot of people are happy about it.”
“I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, I see stories of chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.”
He lashed out at the press in the conference which lasted an hour and 16 minutes, adding: “Many of our nation’s reporters will not tell you the truth. And will not treat the wonderful people of this country with the respect they deserve.
“I hope going forward things can be a little bit different and maybe get along a little bit better. Maybe it’s not. That’s okay too.”
