How are presidential elections different from other American elections

A presidential election does not actually use the votes in the way we would think the person with the most votes does not actually always win like in most other American elections. The presidential election works based on the large cities and counties in each state for instance NY more total counties voted red but the bigger counties like NYC voted blue so the total of new york state was blue. In the previous election Hillary Clinton won the popular vote meaning she got the most votes and yet Donald Trump still won the presidency this is a prime example.