President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated what may be his most easily debunked lie: that he would have won California if not for the state being “crooked.”
“California’s a very crooked election system, and if we had an honest election, Republicans would win. I would have won,” he said. “I got millions of votes, but I would have won California if that were an honest system, I would have won.”
“This remains one of the president’s most ludicrous lies,” CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale wrote on X. “He lost California by 30 points in 2016 (more than 4 million votes), 29 points in 2020 (more than 5 million votes), and 20 points in 2024 (more than 3 million votes).”
No Republican has won a major statewide election in California since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 gubernatorial victory, and no Republican presidential candidate has won the Golden State since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Yet Trump claims there’s a big anti-Republican, anti-Trump conspiracy because of the state’s widespread use of mail-in ballots. He has frequently slammed the practice, even though he often votes by mail himself.
Critics hit back at the president on X: