I understand that most people don’t care about statistics, but please bear with me for a statistical view of how the U.S. government got to be what it is in 2025, because some of the results are surprising.

President

A majority of U.S. voters voted against Donald Trump. Yes, this is true. Trump’s popular vote margin over Kamala Harris was 1.47%. But because more than 2% of voters rejected both major-party candidates and cast their ballots for other candidates, Trump’s popular vote total dropped to  49.67%.

As a matter of fact, not once in the last nine presidential elections has a Republican candidate won at least 51% of popular vote. Yet they have won four of those nine elections anyway.

Here are the results:

1992: 37.45% Bob Dole (lost)

2000: 47.87% George W. Bush (won)

2004: 50.73% George W. Bush (won)

2008: 45.60% John McCain (lost)

2012: 47.15% Mitt Romney (lost)

2016: 45.93% Donald Trump (won)

2020: 46.80% Donald Trump (lost)

2024: 49.67% Donald Trump (to 48.20% for Harris) (won)

During this same period, Democratic candidates won more than 51% three times:

Barack Obama in 2008: 52.93%

Barack Obama in 2012: 51.06%

Joe Biden in 2020: 51.31%

Election statisticians have a category known as the Voter-Eligible Population (VEP). This includes citizens aged 18 and older. People not included are non-citizens and felons (depending on state disenfranchisement laws). In 2024, the number of VEPs totaled 244,666,890. The number of non-voters in 2024 was 89,039,336. I know that most people characterize these non-voters as lazy or apathetic. I am sure many of them are. However, most of the non-voters I have spoken with are not like that. They’re disillusioned by both the Republican and Democratic parties, and they feel their votes are meaningless. This is particularly true of those Americans who live in the 43 states that, because of the Electoral College, are not considered “battleground states.”

So the percentage of voting-eligible Americans who voted for Donald Trump was 31.59%. That’s right, more than two-thirds of voting-eligible Americans did not vote for Trump.

Senate

Now let’s look at the Senate. Voting for senators is staggered, with one-third elected every two years. To determine the popular vote by party, it is necessary to combine the votes for the past three elections. For the Senate, that means 2020, 2022 and 2024.

Again, Republican candidates won more votes than Democratic candidates, but in the case of the 100 senators, the margin was even closer than for the president. Republican candidates won 48.58% and Democratic candidates 48.46%. That’s a difference of one-eighth of one percent. Again, because of third-party and independent voters, most voters did not vote for Republican candidates. Yet despite winning fewer than 49% of the votes, they captured 53% of the Senate seats.

House of Representatives

Here, at last, is an instance of Republican candidates wining a majority of the votes. Of course it was only 50.55%, yet again less than 51%. What is more, in 2024 the Republicans actually lost seats, dropping from a margin of 222-213 to 220-215.

Supreme Court

In the Supreme Court, Republicans have a super-majority of 6-3. It is worth noting that five of those six were appointed by presidents who actually lost the popular vote. George W. Bush appointed John Roberts (2005) and Samuel Alito (2006). Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch (2017), Brett Kavanaugh (2018) and Amy Coney Barrett (2020). According to multiple polls, only about 40% of Americans approve of the actions of the current Supreme Court.

Here are three particularly important 6-3 Supreme Court decisions in which the majority of justices who voted in favor had been appointed by presidents who took office despite losing the popular vote.

• Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization  overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ruling that women have no constitutional right to abortion.

• Trump v. United States ruled that presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for all their official acts, and courts may not inquire into a president’s motives. In addition, a president is completely immune from prosecution involving discussions with Justice Department officials.

• A case that garnered less attention is Snyder v. United States. The issue here was whether a winning state or local candidate who gives a campaign donor a contract should be charged with accepting a bribe. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that if the contract was awarded after the election, it was not a “bribe,” but a “gratuity” or a reward.

So, the majority of voters did not vote for Donald Trump for president; the majority of voters did not vote for Republican candidates for the Senate; and fewer than 51% of voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives.

I understand that in practical terms none of what I have presented matters because the Republican Party now controls the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, no matter how that came to be. But still, I believe it is worth bearing in mind that a majority of U.S. citizens did not support the Republican winners.

-David Wallechinsky