Donald Trump’s percentage of the popular vote continues to decline, and now makes Trump one of the lowest popular vote percentage winners in American History, and NOT due to strong third party performances.
Right now, Trump has 46.28 percent of the vote and is 2.35 million popular votes behind Hillary Clinton, who has 48.2 percent of the vote.
The only 7 Presidents to have lower percentage are:
John Quincy Adams 1824—30.92
Abraham Lincoln–1860–39.65
Woodrow Wilson–1912–41.84
Bill Clinton–1992–43.01
Richard Nixon–1968–43.42
James Buchanan–1856–45.29
Grover Cleveland–1892–46.02
Before it is all over, Trump is likely to fall lower than Cleveland, and possibly Buchanan, in percentage of the popular vote, when all votes are accounted for.
In each of these seven cases, however, there were more than two strong Presidential candidates, and a third party and twice a fourth party gained electoral votes.
Adams had electoral vote competition from Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford in 1824.
Lincoln had electoral vote competition from John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas in 1860
Wilson had electoral vote competition from Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in 1912.
Clinton had electoral vote competition from George H. W. Bush and Ross Perot in 1992.
Nixon had electoral vote competition from Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in 1968.
Buchanan had electoral vote competition from John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore in 1856.
Cleveland had electoral vote competition from Benjamin Harrison and James Weaver in 1892.
However, Trump had no third party competitor who took electoral votes away from him or Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.
And only Adams ended up second in popular votes with a percentage of the vote lower than Trump.
So Donald Trump cannot claim a popular mandate by any means.