A viral post shared on Threads claims President-elect Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2% in the 2024 election.
Verdict: False
The claim is false. Multiple sources, including the Cook Political Report’s 2024 National Popular Vote Tracker show Trump winning the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Fact Check:
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The Threads post, which has garnered over 1,000 likes as of writing, claims Trump lost the popular vote by 2% in the 2024 election.
“Donald Trump losing the popular vote by 2% and only won because of the electoral college means that he is a DEI president,” the Threads post reads. A comment shared on the post features a screenshot from New York Magazine’s “The Intelligencer” to help bolster the claim.
The claim is false. The article from “The Intelligencer” does not state that Trump lost the popular vote during the 2024 election but that he lost the popular vote majority he held. According to the same article, Trump was over 50% when it came to the popular vote on Election Night, but as ballots continued to be counted, his percentage dropped to 49.87% and was likely to decrease further.
Likewise, BBC News reported that although Trump won the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election, “he slipped a fraction of a percentage point below 50% in his vote share” and was not expected to “close the gap” as counting continued.
Data included in the BBC article shows Trump won 49.9% of the popular vote while his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, won 48.3% of the popular vote. The data is sourced from the U.S. Federal Election Commission, NEP/Edison via Reuters.
In addition, the Cook Political Report’s 2024 National Popular Vote Tracker shows Trump defeating Harris by a close margin of 49.85% to 48.27%.
Furthermore, on Nov. 26, PolitiFact debunked the claim Trump had lost the popular vote by 2%. Trump, however, does not appear to have publicly commented on the claim. (RELATED: Claim Michelle Obama Regrets Endorsing Harris Is False)
Check Your Fact has contacted a Trump spokesperson for comment.
