Why Trump’s Favorite 2016 Map Should Scare Him
This week, as President Donald Trump went on the offensive to bolster his case against impeachment, he tweeted a county-by-county map of the 2016 presidential race that showed a sea of red interrupted by only a few blue inlets, mostly along the coasts. The map, captioned with the headline “Try to Impeach This,” documented the measure on which Trump performed best: He won more than 2,600 counties, while Hillary Clinton carried fewer than 500.
Even though the version he tweeted slightly exaggerates his performance—by painting red several counties that actually voted for Clinton—the county map has long been a favorite of the president’s: A reporter for the conservative outlet One America News Network tweeted a photo in May 2017 of a staffer carrying a framed version to be hung somewhere in the West Wing. Trump likes the map for good reason: He carried more counties than any other nominee in either party since 1984, when Ronald Reagan won reelection in a 49-state landslide.
But Trump’s beloved map is just one way to picture the political divide between blue and red America. It actually takes several maps to capture the full complexity of the two parties’ intense struggle for power—and each one alludes to a different pressure point that could tip the 2020 election.
