--- description: Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the popular vote in the presidential election, if so-called 'illegal votes' had not been counted title: With No Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions Voted 'Illegally' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4055c4f0220c7ec7/6988afbcfb4eac8272890040/trump32.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Donald Trump](/tag/donald-trump/) ## Donald Trump Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Without Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions of People Voted 'Illegally' in the Election He Won by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:30 PM CUTPublished: Nov 27, 2016 9:02 PM CUT  Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Sioux City Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2016 in Sioux City, IO Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Sioux City Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2016 in Sioux City, IOChip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:30 PM CUTPublished: Nov 27, 2016 9:02 PM CUT President-elect Donald Trump made the unfounded claim Sunday he won the [popular vote](http://time.com/4572295/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-lead/ "undefined") in the presidential election — if millions of so-called “illegal votes” had not been counted. “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802972944532209664 "undefined"). There is no [evidence](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2016/nov/18/blog-posting/no-3-million-undocumented-immigrants-did-not-vote-/ "undefined") that millions voted illegally. Tallies of the popular vote show that Hillary Clinton beat Trump by [more than 2 million votes](http://fortune.com/2016/11/23/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-popular-vote/ "undefined"), though Trump won more Electoral College vote and therefor the presidency. “It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 states that I visited,” Trump wrote. “I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802972944532209664) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802973848022847489) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/802975667197386752) The latest tweets came after Trump railed against the [election recount](http://fortune.com/2016/11/23/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-popular-vote/ "undefined") effort by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, calling it a “scam” and saying “nothing will change.” Stein filed for a [recount in Wisconsin](http://fortune.com/2016/11/25/jill-stein-recount-wisconsin-pennsylvania/ "undefined") and said she would file for recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania as well, after people pointed to [anomalies in voting data](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/activists-urge-hillary-clinton-to-challenge-election-results.html "undefined") in the three swing states. In a series of Twitter posts on Sunday, the independent investigative news website [ProPublica](https://twitter.com/ProPublica "undefined") said its extensive election monitoring had revealed no evidence of systemic fraud, and that for millions of people to vote illegally “would require a conspiracy larger than all previous conspiracy theories combined.” > [](https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/803022213779689473) > [](https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/803023072886407173) > [](https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/803023771124826112) > [](https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/803023931804450816) > [](https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/803023990839066625) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/"},"headline":"Without Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions of People Voted 'Illegally' in the Election He Won","datePublished":"2016-11-27T21:02:12.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T15:30:35.000Z","description":"Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the popular vote in the presidential election, if so-called 'illegal votes' had not been counted","url":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4055c4f0220c7ec7/6988afbcfb4eac8272890040/trump32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4055c4f0220c7ec7/6988afbcfb4eac8272890040/trump32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Campaigns In Key States During Weekend Ahead Of General Presidential Election","caption":"Donald Trump Campaigns In Key States During Weekend Ahead Of General Presidential Election","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/","name":"Without Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions of People Voted 'Illegally' in the Election He Won"}}]}] ```