He did win the 2016 election, he just wasn’t selected by the “American voters”. Whether the alternative is better or not is irrelevant.
Back to the original statement “Americans chose him” is even further from that - “American voters” - as only a small portion of the American population actually voted for him.
When you don’t vote, or vote third party, that in itself is a choice to let the other voters make the decision on your behalf. Plenty of eligible voters were so unhappy with both available choices in 2016, or so certain that the other voters would support their preferred candidate, that they entrusted other voters to make that decision for them. So while not all eligible voters cast a ballot, they all made a choice for either Trump or Clinton, in some manner or another, with the exception of those who were disenfranchised via some sort of voter suppression effort, or were physically unable to cast a ballot due to medical reasons, etc.