Former President Donald Trump has a proven track record – of not winning. That's not a slight, and it isn't "fake news." It is an indisputable fact.

In 2000, Trump first entered politics running as a Reform Party candidate – although he had considered a run for president as early as 1987 – and he received more than 15,000 votes in the party's California primary, only to bow out of the race after he found the party to be too dysfunctional.

Just as he began hosting the reality show The Apprentice for NBC, Trump mulled a run for the White House in 2004 but opted not to follow through. Due in part to the popularity of the show, Trump topped a list of Republican Party contenders in a March 2011 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, but again, Trump opted not to throw his hat into the ring.

It was only in February 2015 after Trump decided not to renew his contract with NBC that rumors circulated he would be run for president. There has been speculation it was a stunt to convince the network to increase his contract given the popularity of the show. In June 2015, Trump arguably crossed the proverbial Rubicon, when he announced he was running for president – during which he made disparaging comments about Mexicans. That resulted in several partnerships – including Macy's, NBC, and Univision – severing ties.

Trump went on to win the 2016 Republican nomination for president. In the general election, he received the most votes in the Electoral College, yet lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Election Denial Not New for Donald Trump 

Trump has also shown to have a long history of not accepting the results of an election and called Barack Obama's 2012 reelection a "sham" and suggested "We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"

During the 2016 primary season, Trump also made the unsubstantiated claim that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas "stole" victory in the Iowa caucus. In the run-up to the general election, Trump went on to suggest Hillary Clinton's campaign was rigging the election.

Even after Secretary Clinton conceded, Trump attempted to make the dubious claim he won the popular vote, stating, "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally!"

Losses in 2018, 2020, and 2022 for Trump

In addition to being defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Trump also saw the candidates he backed largely coming up losers in the 2018 midterms. Democrats flipped 40 seats and took back the House of Representatives. Exit polling suggested there was an unusually high level of opposition to Trump, which in turn fueled record turnout.

Two years later, Trump became the first incumbent to lose a reelection bid since George H.W. Bush in 1992, although Trump refused to concede and called the election rigged. That commentary likely also cost the GOP control of the U.S. Senate, which came down to a pair of runoff races in Georgia.

In the 2022 midterms, Trump-backed candidates – including Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, and Blake Masters – all failed to win their respective races, resulting in the Democrats keeping control of the Senate, while the GOP only retook the House of Representatives by a narrow margin.

Though Trump has already secured the GOP nomination for the 2024 election – and did so without taking part in a single Republican debate, proving the rest of the field just wasted their time and donor's money – he could still struggle to win when it counts in November. That is because winning the base doesn't ensure victory. Trump narrowly won the presidency eight years ago, and if voter turnout is strong, which would favor Biden, he may go down as a loser once again.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].

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