Fact check: During the 2024 Presidential election, Trump blew out Harris more thoroughly than Crooks blew out his ear.

1. Summary of the results

Donald Trump did win the 2024 Presidential election against Kamala Harris, securing the necessary Electoral College votes for victory ^[1]. However, the characterization of a "blow out" is not supported by the data. The election results show significant complexity:

• Initial vote counts showed a very close popular vote, with Harris receiving 49.9% (77.1M votes) vs Trump's 48.3% (74.7M votes) ^[2]
• Later analyses from the Brookings Institution indicated Trump eventually won an outright majority of the popular vote ^[3]
• Harris formally conceded the election and called for respecting the results ^[4]

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several crucial pieces of context are missing from the original statement:

• Trump's victory represented a "remarkable return to power" driven by economic fears and immigration concerns ^[5]
• The election saw significant demographic shifts, with Trump building a multiracial working-class coalition and making notable gains among Latino and young male voters ^[6]
• Vote counting was still ongoing when initial reports were made, with normal variations in turnout between elections ^[7]
• Harris received approximately 67 million votes, showing a significant drop from Biden's 81 million in 2020 ^[4]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement contains several problematic elements:

• The use of inflammatory language ("blew out") misrepresents what was actually a complex electoral outcome with varying vote totals
• It ignores the fact that initial vote counts showed Harris leading in the popular vote ^[2]
• The statement fails to acknowledge that claims about "missing" votes were circulating on social media, though election officials maintained the integrity of the voting process ^[7]
• The comparison to violence ("Crooks blew out his ear") is inappropriate and potentially inflammatory when discussing democratic processes

This kind of hyperbolic language benefits those seeking to amplify political divisions and downplay the complexity of American electoral politics. Both major media organizations (NBC News, p1_s1) and academic institutions (Brookings, p3_s2) presented more nuanced analyses of the election results.