Who won the 2016 presidential elections

1. How the result was decided: Electoral College vs. popular vote

The U.S. president is chosen by the Electoral College, not directly by national popular vote; Trump reached the 270-electoral-vote threshold by winning a coalition of states that gave him an Electoral College majority—most widely reported as 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227—so he became president-elect despite Clinton’s lead in total votes nationwide ^{[1] [3] [2]}.

2. Vote totals and the “split” outcome

Contemporary sources and election compendia emphasize the split: Hillary Clinton won more raw votes nationwide—by about 2.8 million according to encyclopedic summaries—while Trump won more states and the decisive Electoral College margin ^[2]. This split placed 2016 alongside only a handful of prior U.S. elections ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]} in which the popular vote winner did not become president ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Key states and the map that decided the race

Major news outlets and election trackers point to wins in battleground states—Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and others—as pivotal to Trump’s Electoral College victory; those state-level pluralities translated into the electoral votes that put Trump over the 270 threshold ^{[9] [4]}.

4. Official records and post-election certification

The National Archives’ Electoral College page and official tallies list Trump as the Electoral College winner with 304 electoral votes and Mike Pence as vice president-elect (305 electors sometimes cited due to one faithless elector variation), reflecting the certified, state-reported electoral outcomes ^[3]. Election data repositories (e.g., MIT Election Lab, FEC reports) and historical election sites provide precinct- and state-level returns used to compile these official totals ^{[10] [11]}.

5. County-level and geographic patterns

Detailed breakdowns show Trump carried a large number of counties nationwide—sources report Trump won about 2,626 counties to Clinton’s 487—illustrating a geographically broad but often less-populous rural sweep versus Clinton’s concentrated margins in more populous urban counties ^[12].

6. How reputable outlets summarized the night

Major media organizations (BBC, New York Times) called and summarized the race consistent with the official tallies: they reported Trump’s Electoral College victory and provided the state-by-state maps and real-time estimates that reflected the certified outcome ^{[13] [9]}.

7. Context on post-election controversies and investigations

Encyclopedic and government summaries note that the 2016 election prompted significant post-election scrutiny, including later intelligence assessments alleging a Russian influence campaign in 2016; those matters are framed as separate from the certified vote counts but part of the broader historical record and debate about the election’s context ^[14]. Available sources do not mention every subsequent legal or political development in detail here; consult the cited pages for deeper timelines ^[14].

8. What this meant for governance and historical comparison

Analysts and histories mark 2016 as the first time in some cycles that a political outsider and private-sector figure won the presidency, altering norms of presidential experience and campaign style; it also left a Republican White House and congressional majorities that shaped policy from 2017 onward ^{[14] [1]}.

Limitations and how to follow up: This summary relies on the provided sources; for precinct-level datasets or the Federal Election Commission’s full numerical tables see MIT Election Lab and the FEC/National Archives links cited ^{[10] [11] [3]}. If you want the exact certified national popular- and state-level vote counts or the list of faithless electors and how they voted, I can pull those specific figures from the cited repositories.