This past Thursday, President Donald Trump claimed that his 306 electoral college votes lead to the largest electoral college victory since former President Ronald Reagan’s.

That is false.

Trump’s electoral college total was in fact trumped by Obama – twice, actually (who got 365 votes in 2008 and 332 votes in 2012). Trump’s total was also eclipsed by two Bill Clinton victories (370 in 1992 and 379 in 1996) and George H.W Bush (426 in 1988).

The president should be held accountable for such a boldfaced lie, and, at the least, he should apologize for misleading the public. Trump, when asked about the lie by a reporter, instead, deflected the question, saying he had “seen the information around” and continued to discuss how substantial his victory was.

Trump followed up his disastrous press conference with a rally on Saturday, in which he referenced an apparent terrorist attack that occurred in Sweden. While that normally is all well and good to bring up in a campaign speech, there was no terroristic activity in Sweden.

When Trump’s fabrication was highlighted by the media, he sent out an angry tweet about “FAKE NEWS,” much akin to a middle schooler sending out an angry tweet after an argument with a classmate.

Trump has based much of his political banter around the idea of dishonest press, when – in reality – he’s the one who has clearly been dishonest. He’s a man who lies in his press conferences, proceeding to angrily shout into the dark void of the internet when the media sheds light on his dissemination of misled information.

Trump attempts to make the press the antagonist in the novel he’s writing, when his biggest enemy is simple facts. He has proven on multiple occasions that he is willing to put his own agenda above those simple facts and then blames it on the general establishment of “fakes news.”

The Washington Post has put out a fantastic chart that shows he’s spewed at least one falsehood for 22 straight days, averaging four such statements a day.  

The irony of the whole Trump electoral college situation is that he didn’t even get 306 electoral college votes. He only got 304.

But hey, what do we know? We’re just journalists.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of The Kent Stater editorial board.