The Electoral College Landslide

By now we should all know that Donald Trump has a problem with the truth. Even when something is good, he can't keep from exaggerating. Embellishment is his middle name. A recent instance of this is the Electoral College predicted results.

The official Electoral College votes have not been cast yet, but Trump will get approximately 306  votes to Clinton's 232. You need 270 votes to win outright. I said approximately because a few of Trump's delegates may not actually vote for him. That won't make any difference in the final results, Trump will still win.

So, Trump won in the Electoral College with 56.88% of the 538 possible votes. The President-Elect and his surrogates have stated several times that this is a landslide victory. Trump said on Fox News "We had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the Electoral College". His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway tweeted "306. Landslide. Blowout. Historic". Reince Priebus, Trump’s soon-to-be White House chief of staff, said that Trump’s victory was "an electoral landslide."

In truth, this "landslide" 56.88% ranks number 46 of the 58 presidential elections, the bottom 20%. Let's point out too that Clinton won the popular vote by almost three million.

Reagan won the 1984 Electoral College vote 525 to 13 over Mondale. That's 97.58% of the votes. Mondale won his home state of Minnesota and DC, that's all. It ranks fifth on the all-time chart. That is a landslide.

You can see all the numbers at PolitiFacts.

Trump and his team pulled off a stunning and surprising win. Why can't they be satisfied with that? Almost everything that comes out of the President-Elect's mouth or from his staff and surrogates is a lie, a half-truth or an embellished truth. Take nothing at face value. They apparently can't help it.

-30-