who won the popular vote 2016 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2016 Voters selected members of the Electoral College in each state, in most cases by "winner-takes-all" plurality; those state electors in turn voted for a new president and vice president on December 19, 2016.[a] While Clinton received over 2.8 million more votes nationwide, a margin of 2.1%, Trump won 30 states with a total of 306 electors, or 57% of the 538 available. He won two perennial swing states which typically decide an election, in Florida and Ohio. Trump also won three "blue wall" stronghold states that had not gone Republican since the 1980s: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He also won Maine's 2nd congressional district, which had also not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was considered unlikely by almost all media forecasts. After his victory was assured, some commentators compared the election to President Harry S. Truman's victorious campaign in 1948 as one of the greatest political upsets in modern American history.[14][15]
United States presidential election, 2016 Voters selected members of the Electoral College in each state, in most cases by "winner-takes-all" plurality; those state electors in turn voted for a new president and vice president on December 19, 2016.[a] While Clinton received about 2.9 million more votes nationwide, a margin of 2.1%, Trump won 30 states with a total of 306 electors, or 57% of the 538 available. He won the four perennial swing states of Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Iowa, as well as the three "blue wall" stronghold states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which had not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since the 1980s. Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was considered unlikely by almost all media forecasts.
President-elect of the United States No constitutional provision or federal law requires electors to vote according to the results of their state's popular vote, though some states bind their electors to their pledges by state law. Historically, there have been only a few instances of "faithless electors" casting their ballots for a candidate to whom they were not pledged, and such instances have never resulted in changing the final outcome of a presidential election. The popular vote does not declare the presidency but the Electoral College vote does. Even if the popular vote goes to one candidate, another may win the electoral vote and the presidency, as has happened in 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016.
President of the United States Donald Trump of New York is the 45th and current president. He assumed office on January 20, 2017.