The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine.

While Clinton received about 2.9 million more votes nationwide, a margin of 2.1% of the total cast, Trump won a victory in the Electoral College, winning 30 states with 306 pledged electors out of 538, and overturned the perennial swing states of Florida, Iowa and Ohio, as well as the "blue wall" of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which had been Democratic strongholds in presidential elections since the 1990s. Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was projected unlikely by most media forecasts.

In the Electoral College vote on December 19, there were seven faithless electors; two defected from Trump while five defected from Clinton. Three other Clinton electors attempted to defect but were replaced or forced to vote again due to their respective state laws. Ultimately, Trump received 304 electoral votes and Clinton garnered 227, while Colin Powell won three, and John Kasich, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and Faith Spotted Eagle each received one.

Trump became the fifth person in U.S. history to become president despite losing the nationwide popular vote. He is the first president without any prior experience in public service, while Clinton was the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major American party.

Statistical analysis

Six states plus a portion of Maine that Obama won in 2012 switched to Trump (Electoral College votes in parentheses): Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Wisconsin (10), Iowa (6), and Maine's second congressional district (1). Initially, Trump won exactly 100 more Electoral College votes than Mitt Romney had in 2012, with two lost to faithless electors in the final tally. Thirty-nine states swung more Republican compared to the previous presidential election, while eleven states and the District of Columbia swung more Democratic.

Based on United States Census Bureau estimates of the voting age population (VAP), turnout of voters casting a vote for president was nearly 1% higher than in 2012. Examining overall turnout in the 2016 election, University of Florida Prof. Michael McDonald estimated that 138.8 million Americans cast a ballot. 65.9 million of those ballots were counted for Clinton and just under 63 million for Trump, representing 20.3% (Clinton) and 19.4% (Trump) of a census estimate of U.S. population that day of 324 million. Considering a VAP of 250.6 million people and a voting eligible population (VEP) of 230.6 million people, this is a turnout rate of 55.4% VAP and 60.2% VEP. Based on this estimate, voter turnout was up compared to 2012 (54.1% VAP) but down compared to 2008 (57.4% VAP). A FEC report of the election recorded an official total of 136.7 million votes cast for President—more than any prior election. Hillary Clinton won 51.1% of the two party vote and Donald Trump won 48.9% of it.

Data scientist Hamdan Azhar noted the paradoxes of the 2016 outcome, saying that "chief among them [was] the discrepancy between the popular vote, which Hillary Clinton won by 2.8 million votes, and the electoral college, where Trump won 304-227". He said Trump outperformed Mitt Romney's 2012 results, while Clinton only just matched Barack Obama's 2012 totals. Hamdan also said Trump was "the highest vote earner of any Republican candidate ever," exceeding George W. Bush's 62.04 million votes in 2004, though neither reached Clinton's 65.9 million, nor Obama's 69.5 million votes in 2008, the overall record. He concluded, with help from The Cook Political Report, that the election hinged not on Clinton's large 2.8 million overall vote margin over Trump, but rather on about 78,000 votes from only three counties in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

2016 Election Facts

• Issues of the Day: Health care costs, Economic inequality, Terrorism, Foreign policy (Russia, Iran, Syria, Brexit), Gun control, Treatment of minorities, Immigration policy, Shifting media landscape
• One of only 5 elections (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016) where the popular vote winner was defeated
• Hillary Clinton first female presidential nominee of a major political party
• Clinton won Maine but Trump earned an electoral vote by winning the popular vote in the 2nd Congressional District. This marked the first time that Maine has split its electoral vote since it moved away from the winner-take-all method in 1972.
• Independent Evan McMullin received 21.5% of the vote in Utah; best '3rd party' performance in any single state since Ross Perot in 1992
• Libertarian Gary Johnson received over 3% of the nationwide vote; best 3rd party performance nationwide since Ross Perot in 1996
• There were seven faithless presidential electors. Aside from 1872 - death of Horace Greeley - it is the greatest number since electors began casting one vote each for president and vice president (12th Amendment, 1804). Three additional faithless votes, one each in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, were disallowed.
• Clinton won Washington; however three electors cast votes for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle
• Trump won Texas; however one elector cast a vote for Ron Paul, another for John Kasich
• Clinton won Hawaii; however one elector cast a vote for Bernie Sanders

2016 general election debates

Campaign finance

Wall Street spent a record $2 billion trying to influence the 2016 United States presidential election.

The following table is an overview of the money used in the campaign as it is reported to Federal Election Commission (FEC) and released in September 2016. Outside groups are independent expenditure-only committees—also called PACs and SuperPACs. The sources of the numbers are the FEC and Center for Responsive Politics. Some spending totals are not available, due to withdrawals before the FEC deadline. As of September 2016, ten candidates with ballot access have filed financial reports with the FEC.

Notable expressions, phrases, and statements

• Basket of deplorables: A controversial phrase coined by Hillary Clinton to describe half of those who support Trump.
• Because you'd be in jail: Off the cuff quip by Donald Trump during the second presidential debate, in rebuttal to Clinton stating it was "awfully good someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country".
• Big-league: A word used by Donald Trump most notably during the first presidential debate, misheard by many as bigly, when he said, "I'm going to cut taxes big-league, and you're going to raise taxes big-league."
• Birdie Sanders: During a campaign stop in Portland, Oregon, a house finch landed on Sanders's lectern while he was addressing a large crowd of supporters. The event became popular with the Sanders community and Sanders even began to publicize the bird as "Birdie Sanders".
• Build the wall: A chant used at many Trump campaign rallies, and Donald Trump's corresponding promise of the Mexican Border Wall.
• Drain the swamp: A phrase Donald Trump invoked late in the campaign to describe what needs to be done to fix problems in the federal government. Trump acknowledged that the phrase was suggested to him, and he was initially skeptical about using it.
• Feel the Bern: A phrase chanted by supporters of the Bernie Sanders campaign which was officially adopted by his campaign.
• Grab 'em by the pussy: A remark made by Trump during a 2005 behind-the-scenes interview with presenter Billy Bush on NBCUniversal's Access Hollywood, which was released during the campaign. The remark was part of a conversation in which Trump boasted that "when you're a star, they let you do it."
• I like people who weren't captured: Donald Trump's criticism of Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war of the North Vietnamese.
• I'm with her: Clinton's unofficial campaign slogan ("Stronger Together" was the official slogan).
• Lock her up: A chant first used at the Republican convention to claim that Hillary Clinton is guilty of a crime. The chant was later used at many Trump campaign rallies.
• Make America great again: Donald Trump's campaign slogan.
• Mexico will pay for it: Trump's campaign promise that if elected he will build a wall on the border between the US and Mexico, with Mexico financing the project.
• Nicknames used by Trump to deride his opponents: These include "Crooked Hillary", "Little Marco", "Low-energy Jeb", and "Lyin' Ted".
• Russia, if you're listening: Used by Donald Trump to invite Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing" (from Hillary Clinton) during a July 2016 news conference.
• Such a nasty woman: Donald Trump's response to Hillary Clinton after her saying that her proposed rise in Social Security contributions would also include Trump's Social Security contributions, "assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it" Later reappropriated by supporters of Clinton and women's rights.
• They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people: Donald Trump's controversial description of those crossing the Mexico–United States border during his June 2015 announcing the launch of his campaign.
• What is Aleppo?: Uttered by Gary Johnson during an interview when questioned about the status of Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War.
• What, like with a cloth or something?: Said by Hillary Clinton in response to being asked whether she "wiped" her emails during an August 2015 press conference.
• What the hell do you have to lose?: Said by Donald Trump to inner-city African Americans at rallies starting on August 19, 2016.
• When they go low, we go high: Said by then-first lady Michelle Obama during her Democratic convention speech. This was later inverted by Eric Holder.
• Why aren't I 50 points ahead?: Question asked by Hillary Clinton during a video address to the Laborers' International Union of North America on September 21, 2016, which was then turned into an opposition ad by the Trump campaign.
• The lesser evil paves the way for the greater evil.: Jill Stein slogan.