Donald Trump's recent press conference was full of lies. That's no surprise. Lies are his first line of defense when questioned. But there is one lie that he has told repeatedly, and it is a lie that is easily exposed. Any child with a computer and 30 seconds to kill can expose it. And it would not be exposed by opinion or by polls, but by cold hard facts.
Trump has said several times since the election that his electoral college victory was a record-breaking one -- one larger than that of any other president. That's not even close to the truth. When you look at the electoral vote percentages of the presidents in the 58 elections held, Trump's electoral college percentage (56.5%) only ranks 46th. That means that in 45 elections the winner got a higher electoral college percentage than Trump did.
Trump did alter the lie a bit in the latest press conference. This time he said "it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan". That's still a lie. In the seven other elections since Reagan, Trump's percentage was only higher that George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
In the other five election (George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012), the winning candidate received a significantly higher percentage of electoral college votes than Trump did (see chart above).
By telling this lie, Trump is trying to make himself look good and claim he has a mandate. It accomplishes neither. It just reinforces the public's view that Trump is dishonest and untrustworthy.
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