Question Time ‘slip of the tongue’ on Trump voters

7 February 2025

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Russell Findlay MSP, claimed on BBC One’s Question Time [13:10] on Thursday that “140 million Americans cast their vote” for Donald Trump.

This isn’t correct. According to the US government’s official vote count, 77,302,580 votes were cast for President Trump in the 2024 presidential election. 

This represented about 49.8% of the 155,238,302 votes cast in total.  

When Full Fact contacted Mr Findlay’s office, they quickly told us that his comment was a “slip of the tongue”, explaining that he meant to refer to the total number of Americans who voted. 

Mistakes happen, and we’re grateful for the prompt acknowledgement.

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