Remember what I said yesterday about our new president’s ego?

So obsessed is the man with the size of the crowd that viewed his inauguration, that he’s had a portrait of the crowd hung in the hallway connecting the White House communications work spaces.

He’s also apparently grappling with the idea that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and it’s not going to be something he walks away from.

I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

Being from North Carolina, where a wildly successful Republican governor, Pat McCrory, lost his reelection bid by two-tenths of a percent, I’m actually all for stringent measures to assure voter integrity.

The 2016 election in the Tar Heel state may have been upended, after activist judges in Virginia’s 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down common sense voter ID laws, weeks before the election.

Multiple complaints of voter fraud were rejected without full investigation and the Democrat, Roy Cooper, was given the election, already proving to the detriment of North Carolina voters.

That’s one state and one race, however, and Trump won the state, handily.

So how does that translate to the nationwide election? Is voter fraud that rampant?

The president said during a White House meeting with congressional leaders earlier this week he lost the popular vote because of rampant voter fraud by “illegals.”

“He said 3 to 5 million ‘illegals’ voted so that’s why he lost popular vote,” a Democratic aide said.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million votes, but Trump won the Electoral College.

The president made similar claims in tweets he posted after his victory.

“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,” he tweeted after Election Day.

Back in late November, our Dan Spencer touched on the subject of voter fraud, and some reports that suggested it actually was happening, although, to what degree may not be fully known.

As it is, Trump’s claims are not getting the kind of support from even Republican colleagues.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday he’d seen “no evidence” of rampant voter fraud during the election.

Others have echoed Ryan’s words.

Were Trump a little smarter, he would have held his tongue (and his ego) in check, and quietly backed measures to assure voter integrity.

This, however, is more about proving how loved he is. How popular he is.

When the gilded Trump statues start going up in public squares around the country, and the sides of major buildings are adorned with portraits of a young, studly Trump, with a noble chin and large, manly hands, let’s not forget that this all started long before he was even elected.