Former President Donald Trump said on Friday that he won Minnesota in 2020, despite Democratic presidential candidates carrying the state for more than 40 years.
“I thought we won it in 2016. I thought we won it in 20 — I know we won it in 2020,” he said during a speech at the Minnesota GOP dinner in St. Paul. Trump added, “We got to watch those votes.”
The false claim was the latest in a spate of election denialism and conspiracy comments the former president has made since his 2020 presidential loss.
President Joe Biden won Minnesota in 2020 with 52.4% of the state’s votes, compared to Trump’s 45.3%. The margin between the two candidates was more than 233,000 votes.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Minnesota in 2016, though by a tighter margin than Biden. Clinton secured 46.9% of Minnesotans’ votes, while Trump secured 45.4%.
Democrats have won Minnesota in every presidential election since 1976. The cycle before, the state went to Republican Richard Nixon.
During his speech, Trump asserted that he would “win this state” in November.
Trump previously said of Minnesota in an interview published by KSTP on Wednesday, “I thought I won in 2020 easily.” In an interview that aired on KNSI Radio in March, Trump at first said of Minnesota in 2020, “I thought we won it last time. I’ll be honest. I think we did win it” before adding, “We didn’t quite make it.”
Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer slammed the former president as “unhinged about his 2020 loss.”
“In 2020, Joe Biden beat him by 7 million votes, including by more than 230,000 in Minnesota — and this November Joe Biden is going to beat him again because Americans deserve better than a weak, desperate, and pathetic loser like Donald Trump as their commander in chief,” Singer said in a statement.
Trump made a similar false claim about Wisconsin last month as well.
“We won this state by a lot. It came out that we won this,” Trump said at a rally.
However, Trump lost the state in 2020 by more than 20,000 votes. He carried in 2016, becoming the first Republican to win the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Polling suggests that Biden and Trump continue to be locked in a tight race. An NBC News poll conducted in April showed 44% of registered voters preferring Biden and 46% preferring Trump in a head-to-head matchup.