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The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial 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 the United States senator from Virginia Tim Kaine, in what was considered one of the greatest upsets in American history. Trump took office as the 45th president, and Pence as the 48th vice president, on January 20, 2017. It was the fifth and most recent presidential election in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote.[2][3]

Per the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, then-incumbent president Barack Obama was ineligible to seek a third term. Clinton defeated self-described democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, among other candidates, and became the first female presidential nominee of a major American political party. Trump emerged as his party's front-runner amidst a wide field of candidates in the Republican primary, defeating Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, among other candidates. The Libertarian Party nominated former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, and the Green Party nominated Jill Stein. Trump's right-wing populist nationalist campaign, which promised to "Make America Great Again" and opposed political correctness, illegal immigration, and many United States free-trade agreements[4] garnered extensive free media coverage due to Trump's inflammatory comments.[5][6] Clinton emphasized her extensive political experience, denounced Trump and many of his supporters as a "basket of deplorables", bigots and extremists, and advocated the expansion of President Obama's policies; racial, LGBT, and women's rights; and inclusive capitalism.[7]

The tone of the general election campaign was widely characterized as divisive and negative.[8][9][10] Trump faced controversy over his views on race and immigration, incidents of violence against protestors at his rallies,[11][12][13] and numerous sexual misconduct allegations including the Access Hollywood tape. Clinton's popularity and public image were tarnished by concerns about her ethics and trustworthiness,[14] and a controversy and subsequent FBI investigation regarding her improper use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, which received more media coverage than any other topic during the campaign.[15][16] Clinton led in almost every nationwide and swing-state poll, with some predictive models giving Clinton over a 90 percent chance of winning.[17][18]

On Election Day, Trump over-performed his polls, winning several key swing states, while losing the popular vote by 2.87 million votes.[19] Trump received the majority in the Electoral College and won upset victories in the pivotal Rust Belt region, becoming the first and only Republican nominee since 1988 to win Michigan and Pennsylvania, and the first and only since 1984 to win Wisconsin. This election also marked the first time since 1988 that the Republican candidate won Maine's second congressional district. He additionally flipped Ohio, Florida, and Iowa. Ultimately, Trump received 304 electoral votes and Clinton 227, as two faithless electors defected from Trump and five from Clinton. Trump was the first president with neither prior public service nor military experience. Trump became the only Republican to earn more than 300 electoral votes since the 1988 election and the only Republican to win a Northeastern state since George W. Bush won New Hampshire in 2000.

This was the first time since 1976 where a Republican presidential candidate lost a pledged vote via a faithless elector and additionally, this was the first time since 1972 that the winning presidential candidate lost an electoral vote. With ballot access to the entire national electorate, Johnson received nearly 4.5 million votes (3.27%), the highest nationwide vote share for a third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1996,[20] while Stein received almost 1.45 million votes (1.06%), the most for a Green nominee since Ralph Nader in 2000. Independent candidate Evan McMullin, who appeared on the ballot in 11 states, received over 732,000 votes (0.53%). He won 21.4% of the vote in his home state of Utah, the highest share of the vote for a third-party candidate in any state since 1992.[21]

On January 6, 2017, the United States Intelligence Community concluded that the Russian government had interfered in the 2016 elections[22][23] in order to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency."[24] A Special Counsel investigation of alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign began in May 2017[25][26] and ended in March 2019. The investigation concluded that Russian interference to favor Trump's candidacy occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", but it "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government."[27][28]