--- title: Donald Trump Defends Electoral College, Popular Vote Total description: Donald Trump said he would have campaigned differently if he had been trying to win the popular vote, defending the Electoral College canonical: https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-15T15:08:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:17.770Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: I Would Have Won the Popular Vote if I Tried og:description: "The Electoral College is actually genius" og:url: https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d6905e031ba604b/6988ae87cf40a80682c4590b/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4029 og:image:height: 2266 og:image:alt: Republican presidential elect Donald Trump meets with og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: I Would Have Won the Popular Vote if I Tried twitter:description: "The Electoral College is actually genius" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d6905e031ba604b/6988ae87cf40a80682c4590b/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump: I Would Have Won the Popular Vote if I Tried > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times 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.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 15, 2016 3:08 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump listens as President Barack Obama talks to the media in the Oval Office of the White House in Nov. 10, 2016. President-elect Donald Trump listens as President Barack Obama talks to the media in the Oval Office of the White House in Nov. 10, 2016. Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 15, 2016 3:08 PM UTC Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would have campaigned differently if he had been trying to win the popular vote, defending the [existence of the Electoral College](http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/) a week after he was elected President of the United States despite what looks like a narrow popular vote win for Hillary Clinton. “If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily,” [the President-elect tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/798519600413601792) on Tuesday morning. “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!” While Trump won the Electoral College, Clinton will likely win the popular vote. Although some states are still counting votes, Clinton currently leads Trump by a margin of 671,246 votes overall, according to the [Associated Press tally](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/2016-election-results/) as of Monday night. Trump’s opinion on the Electoral College has changed. When then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost the election in 2012, Trump [criticized the Electoral College](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266038556504494082), calling it a “disaster for a democracy.” During his [_60 Minutes_ interview](http://time.com/4569534/donald-trump-60-minutes-interview/) on Sunday, Trump was asked whether he still believed the political system, including the Electoral College, was “rigged,” as he [often claimed during his campaign](http://time.com/4535364/donald-trump-rigged-election-fact-check/). “I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” Trump said. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win. There’s a reason for doing this because it brings all the states into play—Electoral College, and there’s something very good about that. But this is a different system. But I respect it. I do respect the system.” Under the “simple votes” system referenced by Trump, Clinton would have won the presidential election. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/"},"headline":"Donald Trump: I Would Have Won the Popular Vote if I Tried","datePublished":"2016-11-15T15:08:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:17.770Z","description":"\"The Electoral College is actually genius\"","url":"https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","White House","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d6905e031ba604b/6988ae87cf40a80682c4590b/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d6905e031ba604b/6988ae87cf40a80682c4590b/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential elect Donald Trump meets with","caption":"Republican presidential elect Donald Trump meets with","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4571185/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/","name":"Donald Trump: I Would Have Won the Popular Vote if I Tried"}}]}] ```