President-elect Donald Trump has won the White House through the Electoral College, but he’s also on track to win the popular vote — a development few people saw coming.

Mr. Trump led Vice President Kamala Harris by 5 million votes early Wednesday, splitting the electorate 51% to 47.5%.

It’s the first time in three tries that Mr. Trump attracted more votes than his Democrat opponent, and it will puncture the argument that Mr. Trump had to rely on the Electoral College.

Before this cycle, Democrats had won the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests, causing some in the party to call for the Electoral College to be abolished in favor of a national vote system.

Now, Mr. Trump can claim he won over real voters instead of gaming the system.

“Democrats lost the House, Senate, electoral college, AND popular vote… Newsflash: It’s not the ’mean, orange man,’” said an X post by Riley Gaines, a swimmer known for lobbying against the participation of transgender women in women’s sports.

Few forecasters saw Mr. Trump winning the popular vote, even though many saw a path for him to gather 270 electoral votes.

Conventional political wisdom dictated Mr. Trump had an ardent base though had not been popular enough overall. Unlike other recent presidents, Mr. Trump never got above 50% in Gallup’s presidential approval tracker.

Yet on Tuesday, Mr. Trump bested Ms. Harris in county after county compared to his performance against President Biden four years ago.

Mr. Trump “not only earned a sweeping electoral victory, he earned a mandate for change,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who lost the Republican primary to Mr. Trump, posted on X. “The scope of the victory — electoral swing state domination, popular vote victory, and a Republican-controlled Senate — represents a decisive rejection of the Biden-Harris administration.”