September 26, 2018

Trump Falsely Claims Again That He Won 52 Percent of Women In 2016

He actually only won 41 percent.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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During his Wednesday press conference at the United Nations, which touched on everything from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to why UN delegates laughed at him yesterday, President Donald Trump claimed that 52 percent of women voted for him on Election Day 2016.  

In fact, Trump won 52 percent of white woman voters in 2016 and just 41 percent of all women, according to exit poll data cited by the Washington Post. That crucial distinction has not stopped Trump from repeatedly claiming he won a majority of female voters. 

Trump brought up his election during a full-throated defense of Kavanaugh, his pick for the high court who has been accused by three women of sexual misconduct. Trump said women were upset at Kavanaugh’s treatment in the media. “Women are very angry. You know, I got 52 percent with women. Everybody said this couldn’t happen—52 percent.”

He made the same mistake in March. “We got 52 percent. Right? Fifty-two,” Trump said during a rally in Pennsylvania with Rick Saccone, the GOP congressional candidate who lost a special election to Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.). “And I’m running against a woman! You know, it’s not that easy,” he added. 

As the Post pointed out after Trump’s rally, his claim defies logic, because Trump could not have lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton—as he did—if he’d won a majority of both men and women. (Trump won 52 percent of male voters in comparison to Clinton’s 41 percent.) 

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In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

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