The claim: Trump is the first US president to win three elections
A Nov. 6 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes an image of President-elect Donald Trump wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.
“Trump is a (sic) first president to win three elections,” reads the caption on the post.
Other versions of the claim spread on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
Trump’s 2024 victory is his second election win – the other was in 2016. Various recounts, audits and court rulings have confirmed that Trump did not win the 2020 election.
No widespread fraud in 2020 election
The claim came after numerous outlets, including the Associated Press and NBC News, called the 2024 presidential race for Trump. He had 295 electoral votes compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 226 electoral votes as of Nov. 6 when the post was made, according to USA TODAY.
But the win doesn’t mark Trump’s third election victory. It’s his second, given that he won against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and then lost to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump baselessly claimed victory on election night in 2020 and has continued to assert he was the rightful winner. Such statements, however, have been disproven through numerous legal means including recounts and audits.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its partners also said there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised,” and then-Attorney General William Barr also said he had seen no evidence of widespread fraud that affected the outcome of the 2020 election, as USA TODAY reported.
Fact check: Fabricated CNN graphic shows Harris leading Trump in Texas
Conservative legal experts in 2022 published a report that found Trump was only successful in one out of 64 lawsuits related to the 2020 election, USA TODAY reported. That singular case involved “far too few votes to overturn the results,” the report said.
The post is also wrong about no prior president winning more than two elections.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times – in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. Before Roosevelt’s presidency, it was a tradition for presidents to seek no more than two terms in office, according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum.
That became a legal requirement with the 22nd Amendment, which was ratified in 1951.
Trump’s 2024 election was historic in other ways. At 78, he’s the oldest person to be elected president, the first president-elect with felony convictions and the first to be elected after being impeached twice. The Senate acquitted him on all counts.
Trump will also be the first president to serve non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the 19th century.
USA TODAY has debunked numerous claims related to Trump’s campaign, including false assertions that Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said, “We won’t be certifying the election” if Trump won, that the Trump campaign funded a sign with a swastika on it and that the Constitution “clearly states that a felon cannot take elective office.”
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump’s 2024 win is his second election victory | Fact check
