No, Trump Didn't Win "By A Landslide"!

The CIA determined that the Russian government had interfered in the recent election not just to shake the American people's confidence in the system, but specifically to help elect Trump. The Donald, of course, couldn't stand for that. His team put out the following press release:

These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It's now time to move on and "Make America Great Again."

Three lies: Obama's intelligence team is entirely different from W.'s; the election was barely a month ago; and THE ELECTION WAS NOT ONE OF THE BIGGEST ELECTORAL COLLEGE VICTORIES IN HISTORY!

I'm getting sick and tired of hearing Trump and his team boast that they won election "by a landslide." A lie doesn't become the truth merely through endless repetition. If 306 electoral votes is a landslide, what was Obama's 332 votes in 2012, and his 365 in 2008? There have been 58 presidential elections; in 37 of those elections, the winner has received more votes than Trump did (and in a whole bunch of those elections there were a lot fewer Electoral College seats to be won). Of the last 10 presidential elections, Trump's margin of victory was the 8th highest. According to Trump's own pollster, just five counties in Florida and Michigan could have flipped the Electoral College.

You need 270 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency. FDR won his elections by truly massive landslides. He got 472 votes in the Electoral College in 1932; 523 votes in 1936; 449 votes in 1940; and 432 votes in 1944. Earth to Donald: You got 306!

2016 was the 18th election in what might be considered "the modern era," after FDR, post World War II. So how does Trump's number, 306 EC votes, stack up against the results in the rest of those elections?

Not very well. Six of the 18 were won by a smaller total of Electoral College votes than Trump's 306. Those were 1948 (Truman, 303); 1960 (JFK, 303); 1968 (Nixon, 301); 1976 (Carter, 297); 2004 (W., 286); and of course 2000 -- and who can forget Bush v. Gore? -- when W. won with a landslide, as I guess Trump would call it, of 271 Electoral College votes.

Eleven of the 18 elections were won by more votes than Trump's anemic 306, most of them by a lot more. Those were Obama, 2012 (332 votes); Obama, 2008 (365 votes); Clinton, 1992 (370 votes); Clinton, 1996 (379 votes); Poppy Bush, 1988 (426 votes); Eisenhower, 1952 (442 votes); Eisenhower, 1956 (457 votes); LBJ, 1964 (486 votes); Reagan, 1980 (489 votes); Nixon, 1972 (529 votes); and finally, Ronald Reagan squeaked by, I guess Trump might say, in 1984 with 525 votes.

306 votes a landslide? Hell, after Obama's 332-vote victory in 2012, Republicans denied that it was even a mandate. Trump's election was historic, though: Never before has the winner in the Electoral College lost the popular vote by such a huge margin (nearing 3 million votes).

Trump lies repeatedly; I don't know why this particular lie bothers me so much. But it does. JUST STOP IT!

(I've just been reading an article that says George W. Bush's team lied to the American people 935 times before the invasion of Iraq. I'm tempted to say that Trump's team routinely lies 935 times before breakfast, but it's hard to provide backup.)

UPDATE: I just watched a guy from Politico on CNN referencing the "one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history" quote, and he said, "That's wrong."

NO, IT ISN'T WRONG! IT'S A LIE! The Trump team knows full well that 306 Electoral College seats is not a "big victory," or a "landslide" -- and they are flat-out lying when they say that it is.