But that isn't true. If you look at Michigan, 47.5% of the people voted for Trump and 47.3% voted for Hillary. Margins in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were hardly wider. A smarter campaign could have more properly articulated why Trump's xenophobic populism is not a fit solution for the real problems of these areas, retaining enough of the rust belt Democrats who voted for Obama in the last two elections.
Much more importantly, turnout in battleground states was never higher than 65%. This means that
millions of registered voters in all the large states stayed home. If Hillary had turned out 2 or 3% more of the electorate which did not vote, she'd have won
every swing state besides Arizona and North Carolina. A huge part of Trump's success was in turning out people who previously had not voted, particularly in the
white rural areas particularly receptive to his bigotry. Had Hillary turned out more first-time voters,
as was key to Obama's success, she'd be president.
that bullshit about "national identity" is one beer away from outright white nationalism
