Does Trump win the Popular Vote if that was the Game?

[rockhound]

I don't think the election result would be any different, if the rules of the game going in were for a national popular vote.

Instead of Trump spending a lot of time and money pulling out those last few hard to reach voters in say Pennsylvania, he could have picked up the low-hanging votes in Western NY, non-urban California, and especially southern Illinois, that would have jumped at the message had they heard it.

While you could say the same about Hillary, her base in the cities (as evidenced by the protests) in those states where it didn't matter was already coming out.  The "vote for the first woman for me and my daughters" group already came out strong in New York and California, so she wasn't getting any more of them.  I suspect far more Trump voters stayed home in those states than did Hillary voters.