Despite claiming in June that he would win California, Donald Trump suffered a resounding defeat there on Tuesday. When the polls closed at 11 p.m. ET statewide, Trump was immediately declared the loser by multiple media outlets.
“I’m not even talking about landslides, but I think we can win the state of California and win it pretty substantially,” Trump said while campaigning in San Jose, Calif., in June. “Now, I’ve been told by all these geniuses, all these brilliant guys — they all say you can’t win the state of California. I think we can.”
In theory, it’s possible Trump was talking about winning the Republican primary in California, which he did five days later. But he was already the presumptive GOP nominee at that point, so it’s doubtful “brilliant guys” were saying Trump couldn’t win the California primary.
Pre-Election Day polls found Clinton ahead in California by an average of 22 percentage points.
Both Trump and Clinton won the California primary on June 7, with Clinton getting 56 percent in the Democratic primary and Trump getting 75 percent in the Republican primary.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
