CNN's John King explains how Donald Trump could win — or lose spectacularly

(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

An recent CNN/ORC poll has Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 13 percentage points nationally, which is obviously not great news for Donald Trump. But at CNN's magic wall on Thursday night, John King found some silver linings in Trump's gray clouds. In the upper Midwest, for example, Trump holds a big advantage over Clinton on handling of the economy, a common issue people base their votes on. If Trump wins Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, King pointed out, and won every other state Mitt Romney took in 2012, he will be the next president. If he wins all those states but Pennsylvania, it's an electoral college tie.

"Yes, Hillary Clinton enters with an advantage, but if Donald Trump can do some business across the Rust Belt, he can make this a very competitive election," King told Anderson Cooper. The Clinton and Trump campaigns are playing out all sorts of scenarios on which states they might be able to flip from 2012 — the Clinton camp is eyeing Arizona, for example. "They think the map is going to be different this year, because this year is very different, Anderson." Watch some of the 2016 scenarios play out on CNN's magic wall below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.