Final answer:
Presidential candidates have been inaugurated without winning the popular vote five times: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, due to the Electoral College system.
Step-by-step explanation:
Presidential candidates in the United States have been inaugurated without winning the popular vote on five occasions. This can occur due to the Electoral College system, where electors vote for the president rather than a direct popular vote by citizens. The instances where this has occurred are as follows:
- John Quincy Adams (1824)
- Rutherford B. Hayes (1876)
- Benjamin Harrison (1888)
- George W. Bush (2000)
- Donald Trump (2016)
Each of these presidents won the Electoral College while receiving fewer popular votes than their opponents. In the elections of 2000 and 2016, the spread between the popular vote and Electoral College vote was particularly notable, with George W. Bush and Donald Trump winning the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, respectively.