David M Jackson

USA TODAY

Donald Trump doesn't sound too happy about all those stories on how Hillary Clinton won the popular vote — and exhibited it with an unsubstantiated claim about illegal voting.

"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Trump said during a Sunday afternoon tweet storm.

The president-elect did not elaborate on his illegal voting claim.

Clinton topped Trump by more than 2 million votes in the election, but her support was not distributed in key states. Trump captured more states and claimed victory in the Electoral College.

As he has in post-election interviews, Trump said he would have campaigned differently if the popular determined the presidential winner.

In a series of two tweets, Trump said "it would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College" if he had focused on three or four big states rather than the 15-state strategy he employed against Clinton.

"I would have won even more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)!" Trump tweeted.

Trump's claim of illegal voters drew derision.

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, said on Twitter: "Every time you decide that maybe a Trump Administration could work out ok, you're reminded (as by his tweets today) of one obstacle: Trump."