Trump Hasn't Already Won the Election

Zach Rathner

Politics

4th November 2020

Trump erroneously said he already won the election (Getty Images).

The Claim

President Donald Trump has won re-election.

News posted on

Emerging story

On November 4, 2020, President Trump said in the East Room of the White House that he had won the re-election for the Presidency.

Users across social media called out the President’s claim, quick to note that it was premature.

Misbar’s Analysis

The Misbar team has determined that this claim is false. After declaring his early victory, Trump said, "The campaign would go to the Supreme Court," without offering specifics about a theoretical case. He went on, "We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay? It’s a very sad moment... And we will win this. And as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it."

In the United States, federal law allows states over a month to finalize election results. Electoral votes are cast on Dec. 14, with Congress officially counting them on Jan. 6.

When Trump made the proclamation, substantial numbers of ballots had yet to be counted in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.

While it’s possible that Trump will win re-election, his statement was made prematurely and based on incomplete information about the vote counts in multiple states. With the U.S. election system allowing states more than a month to count ballots and no organization substantiating Trump’s claim, we rate the statement that Trump has won re-election as false.