When It Comes To The Electoral College, Trump Opposed It Until He Was For It
Predictably, despite the evident bipartisan interest in doing away with the Electoral College, one person who wants to keep it is the man who inspired the current efforts to kill it, President Donald Trump.
Seven years ago, Trump would no doubt have been on the side of Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren and supporters of the so-called National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, as he famously tweeted then that the electoral college is a “disaster for democracy.”
But as he made plain this week in a series of tweets, his perspective from the White House is far different.
“The Democrats are getting very ‘strange,'” he said in one missive. “They now want to change the voting age to 16, abolish the Electoral College, and increase significantly the number of Supreme Court Justices. Actually, you’ve got to win it at the Ballot Box!”
In another he said, “campaigning for the popular vote is much easier and different than campaigning for the Electoral College. It’s like training for the 100 yard dash versus a marathon. The brilliance of the Electoral College is that you must go to many states to win.
“With the Popular Vote, you go to just the large states,” he continued. “The cities would end up running the country. Smaller states and the entire Midwest would end up losing all power, and we can’t let that happen.”
He added, “I used to like the idea of the popular vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better for the USA.”