It is not up for debate whether Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. He did. What is up for debate is the interpretation of the results. Trump would have you believe he won by a landslide and thus has a clear and overwhelming mandate to govern. But evidence suggests otherwise.
Yes, Trump won both the popular vote; and the Republican party built in the image and support of Trump now controls both houses of Congress and through judicial appointments effectively the U.S. Supreme Court. That is the outcome. But no evidence exists that it was a landslide or mandate.
For example, Trump won the popular vote by only 1.6 percent and the Electoral College vote by only 58 percent to 42 percent. The U.S. Senate has a six vote Republican majority, and the U.S. House of Representatives has only a two vote Republican majority. Oh, and yes, the U.S. Supreme Court has but a five to four conservative majority. Trump’s majority is not a clear and overwhelming mandate to govern. Things pretty much continue to reflect the divided nature of American society and the politics it represented prior to the election.
But even this is not an accurate depiction. The country is not evenly split, 50-50, as so many people would have you believe. That is just what the two dominant political parties – Democrat and Republican – want you to believe. A more interesting way to look at the outcome of the election is not that Trump – and by consequence the Republican party – received a mandate to govern as they please, or that inflation and immigration won out over character, but that most Americans were not supportive of Trump or his agenda.
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Image of Trump
Image by Barbara from Pixabay