President Donald Trump speaks in the briefing room at the White House on Thursday. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
The messy, disputed 2020 presidential election will go into the record books for something more than the number of lawsuits engendered by the decision by many states to adopt mass mail-in ballots.
President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to top 70 million votes, with a total of 70,812,803 as of incomplete and unofficial returns posted on Fox News as of Sunday afternoon.
He also moves ahead of former President Barack Obama, who received 69,498,516 votes in the 2008 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Obama’s mark had been the record for any presidential candidate until this election.
Trump noted his achievement on Twitter, and also shared his contention that it should have been enough to win.
71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
Obama was unable to increase that when he ran in 2012, totaling 62,615,406 when he defeated Republican candidate Mitt Romney, now a U.S. Senator from Utah, according to NBC.
After all, Trump received 62,984,828 votes to win the 2016 election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Not only does that put Trump ahead of Obama, he also stands ahead of other Republicans in the popular vote.
Romney received about 59 million votes, according to NBC.
Former President Ronald Reagan, in his 1984 landslide victory, polled slightly less than 54.5 million votes, according to The New York Times.
Some noted that Trump’s turnout was an incredible achievement.
Seems obvious the strategy was to get out the vote to attempt to overcome the corruption and then fight in court after if needed. He was alone with no GOP support to fight an army to make sure election laws and processes were transparent and fair.
— NathanHale (@hale1755) November 8, 2020
Trump’s Popular Vote Tops Obama’s Record-Setting Performance in 2008 https://t.co/dVwCAGr5MT
— Stephi Connolly (@ConnollyStephi) November 8, 2020
Trump’s record showing for a sitting president, however, trailed the popular vote total of Democrat Joe Biden, who has been projected to be the election winner based on electoral totals.
Biden received 75,215,986 votes, as of Sunday afternoon.
That is a popular vote margin of 4,401,183 over Trump. But a closer look at the number shows that taking away only one state would give Trump a popular vote victory.
In California, Biden had a lead of 9,163,725 votes to Trump’s 4,741,191, a margin of 4,422,534.
Thus, taking away Biden’s margin in California, he would be trailing Trump in the popular vote total for the other 49 states.