He won the complex and kind of silly electoral college vote and most American's, myself included don't fully understand this odd and complex process. Where as, a popular vote is pretty easy to understand.
The other item to examine in this mess of an electoral system is something called gerrymandering!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/how-the-electoral-college-gerrymanders-the-presidential-vote/?utm_term=.3fc9f35107fd
It's really a very simple process. Really, it is so simple. Each state has so many electoral votes, and all of those votes go to the candidate that won that state's popular election. Then, the total tally of electoral votes decides on who wins the election.
It is not anymore complicated then that.
This process is much better then a popular vote since it prevents a "tyranny of the majority" from forming in the country and also demands national politicians actually pay attention to all areas of the country. Just imagine if HRC actually campaigned in PA, WI and MI, she would be president. Instead she ignored those states since they were "shoe-ins," her mistake.
And by the way, gerrymandering has absolutely nothing to do with presidential elections, since it only deals with districts and not the overall state. (I could not open the link you provide since you need a subscription to do so, but even suggesting gerrymandered districts could effect the popular election of a state must have been quite the stretch. I really would have liked to have had a chuckle reading it.)
Gerrymandering is the process of drawing local districts in such a way that it is more likely house representatives within that state are elected from the same party. This has no bearing on senate seats either, since they are elected in state wide popular elections too.
Now before you cry fowl on the GOP, both parties are just as guilty in doing this over the decades. The only reason the media is making such a big deal now is because during the census, which is when district maps are redrawn, the GOP was in control, and the controlling party dictates how the districts are redrawn.
But both parties do this, as
John Oliver explains here. So it is pretty much an universal problem.