--- title: Donald Trump Says Millions of People Voted Illegally description: Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the popular vote in the presidential election, if so-called 'illegal votes' had not been counted canonical: https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-27T21:02:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T15:30:35.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: With No Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions Voted 'Illegally' og:description: Unfounded claim og:url: https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4055c4f0220c7ec7/6988afbcfb4eac8272890040/trump32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Campaigns In Key States During Weekend Ahead Of General Presidential Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: With No Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions Voted 'Illegally' twitter:description: Unfounded claim twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4055c4f0220c7ec7/6988afbcfb4eac8272890040/trump32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 00:48 video:published: 2016-11-28 section: politics topics: Donald Trump, popular vote, electoral college, illegal voting claims, voter fraud, Hillary Clinton, election recount, Jill Stein, swing states, presidential election genre: news report tones: factual, critical, concise, political emotions: concern (medium), controversy (high), skepticism (medium) sentiment: negative audience: news followers, political observers, voters, general public people: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein organizations: Green Party content_suitability: politics [00:00-00:48] transcript_source: automatic transcription transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # Without Evidence Donald Trump Says Millions of People Voted 'Illegally' in the Election He Won > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7260998f-c5c3-4031-8a2d-e3760fc748d1&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Claims He Won The Popular Vote [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Claims He Won The Popular Vote](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q1lrIzPt.m3u8) (0:48)  _Published 2016-11-28. In a Tweet, Donald Trump claimed if it weren't for millions of illegal votes, he would have won the popular vote._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary The video reports that Donald Trump claimed he won the popular vote in addition to the electoral vote, citing millions of illegal votes. It states that there is no evidence that millions voted illegally and that tallies show Hillary Clinton ahead by over 2 million votes. It notes that Trump followed with more tweets on the Electoral College and voter fraud. It also covers Jill Stein's recount filings in swing states. ## Key points - Presidential elect Donald Trump is claiming that he won the popular vote in addition to the electoral vote. (00:00) - Trump tweeted that he won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. (00:07) - Trump's tweet also said he won the electoral college in a landslide. (00:07) - The video states there is no evidence that millions voted illegally. (00:17) - Tallies show Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2 million votes. (00:21) - Trump followed his tweet with several others mentioning the Electoral College and voter fraud. (00:26) - Green Party candidate Jill Stein is seeking an election recount in three swing states where people pointed to abnormalities in voting data. (00:31) - Stein has already filed in Wisconsin, with Michigan and Pennsylvania expected to follow. (00:42) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:26] Trump's popular vote claim and the tallies. Trump's tweet claiming he won the popular vote is reported alongside the statement that no evidence supports millions of illegal votes and that Clinton leads by over 2 million. - [00:26 to 00:48] Further tweets and Stein's recount effort. Trump's follow-up tweets on the Electoral College and voter fraud are described, followed by Jill Stein's recount filings in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. ## Key quotes - [00:07] Donald Trump: "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." - [00:17] narrator: "However, there is no evidence that millions voted illegally." - [00:21] narrator: "Tallies show Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2 million votes." ## Questions this video answers - What did Donald Trump claim about the popular vote? [00:07] - Is there evidence that millions of people voted illegally? [00:17] - Who won the popular vote according to the tallies? [00:21] - What else did Trump tweet about after his popular vote claim? [00:26] - Which states did Jill Stein file or plan to file recounts in? [00:42] ## Content suitability - politics [00:00-00:48]: Covers a contested US presidential election, including a claim of illegal voting that the video says lacks evidence, and recount efforts. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:30 PM UTCPublished: Nov 27, 2016 9:02 PM UTC In a Tweet, Donald Trump claimed if it weren't for millions of illegal votes, he would have won the popular vote. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:30 PM UTCPublished: Nov 27, 2016 9:02 PM UTC President-elect Donald Trump made the unfounded claim Sunday he won the [popular vote](http://time.com/4572295/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-lead/) 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). There is no [evidence](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2016/nov/18/blog-posting/no-3-million-undocumented-immigrants-did-not-vote-/) 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/), 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/) 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/) 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) in the three swing states. In a series of Twitter posts on Sunday, the independent investigative news website [ProPublica](https://twitter.com/ProPublica) 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":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/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"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Claims He Won The Popular Vote","description":"In a Tweet, Donald Trump claimed if it weren't for millions of illegal votes, he would have won the popular vote.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Q1lrIzPt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-11-28T14:09:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q1lrIzPt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/","duration":"PT48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4582868/donald-trump-people-illegally-voted-election/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```