United States

Trump’s victory and Russian interference in the presidential election

In the weeks before the election, Clinton held a small but steady lead in opinion polling both on the national level and in the battleground states. In the event, however, Trump confounded both pollsters and political pundits by not only winning several crucial battleground states (Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina among them) but also by bettering Clinton in states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that had been longtime Democratic strongholds in presidential elections. In the process, Trump found a path to the more than 270 electoral college votes necessary to be elected as the 45th president, although Clinton won the popular vote by more 2.8 million votes. In the meantime, Republicans held on to their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Pence, Mike; Trump, DonaldPresident-elect Donald Trump (right) shaking hands with running mate Mike Pence prior to Trump's victory speech, November 9, 2016.John Locher/AP Images

Some Democrats blamed what they saw as the undemocratic nature of the electoral college for Clinton’s defeat. Others pointed to Comey’s actions, “fake news” that had been generated by questionable Internet sites and subsequently shared as true news on social media sites like Facebook, and intervention in the election by Russia, including computer hacking of the e-mail of members of the Democratic National Committee and its release through WikiLeaks. During the transition period between the Obama administration and the incoming Trump administration, 17 U.S. intelligence agencies collectively indicated their belief that the Russian government had engaged in a systematic effort to influence the election in Trump’s favour. The president-elect forcefully questioned this conclusion, and Republicans largely dismissed the Democrats’ broader accusations as efforts to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s impending presidency.

United States presidential election of 2016Results of the U.S. presidential election, 2016.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.