43 days after winning election, Trump still touchy about losing popular vote

Forty-three days after winning the election and 29 days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump is still obsessing over the fact that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

In a series of tweets early Wednesday, Trump claimed he would have campaigned “differently” had he not been focused on amassing the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency — and that he could’ve won the popular vote if he wanted to.

“Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult & sophisticated than the popular vote,” Trump tweeted. “Hillary focused on the wrong states!”

Trump finished with 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232 — with seven electors casting protest votes on Monday, when the Electoral College finalized the count. Clinton, though, got nearly 3 million more votes overall, finishing with 65,844,610 (48.2 percent) compared to Trump’s 62,979,636 (46.1 percent).

“I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote,” Trump tweeted, “but would campaign differently.”

In his first interview after winning the election, Trump said he would prefer to see the U.S. presidency determined by the national popular vote as opposed to the Electoral College.

“I would rather see it where you went with simple votes,” Trump said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Nov. 13. “You know, you get 100 million votes, and somebody else gets 90 million votes, and you win.”

But two days later, Trump, who once called the Electoral College a “disaster for democracy,” declared that the system “is actually genius” because it empowers smaller states.

“If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily,” he tweeted. “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

On Wednesday, the self-described billionaire also complained that the media has not pointed out that his campaign spent less money than Clinton’s.

“I have not heard any of the pundits or commentators discussing the fact that I spent FAR LESS MONEY on the win than Hillary on the loss!” he tweeted.

According to campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission, Trump’s campaign spent $531 million compared to $969 million spent by Clinton’s. Including super-PACs, the Clinton campaign spent nearly $1.2 billion, while the Trump campaign spent a little more than half of that ($616 million).

Earlier this week, Trump and former President Bill Clinton engaged in a public feud over his victory.

In an impromptu discussion with a reporter from the Bedford, N.Y., Record-Review published Monday, Clinton said Trump “doesn’t know much,” but “one thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.”

The former president also scoffed at Trump’s assertion that he won over Hillary Clinton in a “landslide.”

“Landslide? I got something like 370 electoral votes,” Clinton said, referring to his 1992 election victory over President George H.W. Bush. “That was a landslide.”

Trump fired back on Twitter.