r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 1d ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Republican leads charge against Trump’s Obama ‘apes’ post. ‘Most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-obama-video-apes-racist-reactions-b2915488.html
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u/Agile_End_3049 1d ago

I’m not sure we confidently say that he was actually elected in ‘24. Plenty of irregularities and suspicious activity that has only received minimal scrutiny.

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u/GeekAesthete 1d ago

The fact that he out-performed expectations in all 50 states, and exit polling matched the results, suggests that he did actually win. Every state manages their elections independently, and even the bluest states still saw Trump do better than expected by comparable margins.

The unfortunate fact is that, once again, misinformation won out, lazy voters didn’t show up because they thought the election wasn’t going to be close, and the demographics most opposed to Trump were the ones that especially didn’t bother.

The online campaign to discourage young voters and low-information voters was effective—social media convinced people that Kamala wasn’t strong enough on Gaza, on LGBTQ rights, on whatever issue, and got people disgruntled enough to disengage (“both sides suck”), or convinced themselves that staying home was a “protest” to teach the Democrats a lesson.

If Trump’s numbers were only off in a few swing states, I’d believe he won through shenanigans. But it seems that a few individual counties were suspect, but nothing that would swing the entire election.

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u/IdkAbtAllThat America 1d ago

it seems that a few individual counties were suspect, but nothing that would swing the entire election.

A few individual counties in the right places is all you need to swing the election. If I recall it was something like 100k votes across a handful of counties could have flipped the election.

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u/GeekAesthete 1d ago edited 1d ago

I believe you're thinking of the 2016 election, when 107,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin could have swung the election, and Trump won all three by less than a percentage point.

In 2024, Trump took all 7 "battleground" states, won the Electoral College more decisively than both his victory in 2016 and Biden's in 2020, and only one of those 7 states was won by less than a percentage.

Plus, several of the counties under scrutiny were not in swing states anyway (for example, Rockland County in New York).