ABC News(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration’s version of the WhiteHouse.gov website debuted today with an error in the 45th president’s biography about his margin of victory in the 2016 election — a mistake that was corrected a short time later.
The biography stated: “Mr. Trump won the election on November 8 of 2016 in the largest electoral college landslide for a Republican in 30 years.”
It was less than 30 years ago, however, that another Republican presidential candidate won the election by a larger Electoral College margin than Trump.
In 1988, George H.W. Bush won with 426 electoral votes compared to Michael Dukakis’ 111 electoral votes, a difference of 79.2 percent.
Trump won the 2016 election with 306 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232, a difference of 56.9 percent. He ultimately received 304 electoral votes after two electors defected.
The White House did not formally acknowledge the error but later corrected Trump’s biography to read, “Mr. Trump won the election on November 8 of 2016 in the largest electoral college landslide for a Republican in 28 years.”
There has been only one Republican president since then — George W. Bush, who won in 2000 and 2004.
Trump and his team have repeatedly called his victory against Clinton a “landslide.” He won the electoral vote, but lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots to Hillary Clinton.
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
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016
.@CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don’t know what to do.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
Trump spoke about his election win during a black-tie dinner Thursday night in Washington, D.C., telling supporters “next time we’re going to win the old-fashioned way.”
“We’re going to win because we did so well because it was so overwhelming,” he told the crowd.
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