How many electoral votes did Trump receive in the 2016 presidential election?

1. The headline number: 304 electoral votes, final certified total

The Office of the Federal Register within the National Archives lists the official Electoral College result as Winner: 304 for Donald J. Trump and 227 for Hillary Clinton, out of 538 electors, which is the figure recorded in the Electoral College certificates and archival summaries ^[1]. This 304 figure is the historical, post-electoral-vote total most cited in government and reference sources ^[1].

2. Why you sometimes see 306: pledged vs. cast votes

Several outlets and interactive maps note that Trump won states adding to 306 pledged electors on election night, but that two Trump electors in Texas did not cast their ballots for him when electors met in December—these faithless electors reduced his recorded total to 304 (270toWin; 270toWin map discussion) ^{[4] [3]}. Business Insider and other summaries explicitly explain that states won by Trump were worth 306 EVs on Election Day but faithless votes changed final tallies to 304 ^[5].

3. How faithless electors changed the ledger

Reporting and election trackers document seven faithless electors in 2016: two who defected from Trump and five who cast ballots for other figures instead of Clinton, which adjusted the electoral vote counts from the pledged-state totals to the certificates counted by Congress ^{[4] [3]}. The 304–227 split therefore reflects the certificates actually submitted and archived after electors voted ^[1].

4. Why multiple numbers persist in public discussion

Some educational pieces and early maps still cite 306–232 as the raw state-won split because that counts the pledged electors per state results before faithless votes were recorded ^{[4] [3]}. Other analyses emphasize the 304 final number because it reflects the constitutional mechanism—the actual Electoral College ballots cast and certified—so context matters when sources quote either figure ^{[1] [4]}.

5. The popular vote vs. Electoral College — the broader context

Most sources pair the electoral tally with the popular-vote discrepancy: Hillary Clinton won the nationwide popular vote by roughly 2.8–2.9 million votes yet lost the Electoral College to Trump, a contrast highlighted in encyclopedias and academic analyses of 2016 (Wikipedia; Britannica; Journal of Democracy) ^{[6] [2] [7]}. That divergence is central to why the exact EV count receives ongoing attention and debate ^{[6] [7]}.

6. How authoritative sources present the figure and why that matters

Government archives (National Archives) and major reference works (Britannica, 270toWin) present 304 as the historic final total, and they explain the faithless-elector adjustments; relying on the National Archives' certified tally is the standard for citing official Electoral College outcomes ^{[1] [2] [3]}. If a writer or map instead uses the pre-faithless pledged total ^[8], they typically note that it does not reflect the final certified electors’ votes ^[4].

7. Caveats and remaining differences in reporting

Some later journalism or academic pieces may discuss 306 when analyzing state wins or theoretical alternatives (e.g., what-if scenarios), and at least one source published later reinterprets state allotments in different ways — for example, an analysis claiming 306 or 312 appears when discussing different elections or mapping choices, so always check whether the source means “pledged on election night,” “cast by electors,” or “certified” ^{[9] [10]}. Available sources do not mention any alternate final certified figure beyond the 304–227 tally recorded by the National Archives ^[1].

Bottom line: the official, post-electoral-vote record credits Donald J. Trump with 304 Electoral College votes in 2016; the 306 number appears in some maps and analyses that count pledged state electors before two Texas electors cast faithless votes ^{[1] [4] [3]}.