Trump's Claimed "Mandate" Ain't True
Trump lies that his win is "huge mandate" when in reality it was a meager #32 out of 52 on the mandate scale - way behind Obama, Clinton, Biden, Reagan, and Carter and 31 other elections
Last night was a good example of what happens when a grifter drinks too much Red Bull and becomes full of himself! The lies came fast and furious and there were too many to cover in one post so I am going to separate them out.
I want to start with the most basic one: He claims that he has a “mandate” when in reality his meager win was not even close to a mandate. Let me explain.
As I have talked about before, there was a slim 1.5% difference in Trump’s favor with the popular vote, and many think that resulted from the large number of people (over 10M by some counts) who voted for Biden in 2020 that didn’t vote at all. Trump acts like he won these folks, when they simply did not vote. If they had showed up he most likely would have lost. The electoral college definitely went his way but to say that this reflects the overall will of the total American population is a gross overstatement, to say the least. 1
48% of the people DID NOT vote for him, but he conveniently forgets that.
According to the American Presidency Project at UCSB, a “popular mandate” is measure by the margins of victory in the popular and electoral votes. A “landslide” is one marked by a very large popular vote majority AND a near-complete, or complete, electoral victory.
Image created by Ed Paulson using ChatGPT.
As mandates go, Trump’s is not even in the top one-half of all presidential elections! In fact, it is ranked 32nd out of all 52 historical presidential elections, way behind Obama (2008 #18, 2012 #25), Biden (2020 #23) and even behind Carter (1976 #31). His first win in 2016 was even worse at #44 out of 52, so I guess, to be kind, you could say he is improving?
Placing 32 out of 52 on the mandate meter with a meager 1.5% vote advantage is not “winning with a mandate” by any stretch, and certainly does not give him permission to run roughshod over the other 48% of Americans who did not vote for him.
Claims a “mandate” to justify his actions when no mandate exists. Says one thing when the truth is just the opposite and he knows it. Just like a grifter!
Is this really what you voted for?
THIS IS IMPORTANT - Please think about it for a moment
Trump is creating massive self-inflicted economic chaos, upending the lives of thousands of civil servants and their families, jeopardizing the lives of Ukrainian families and soldiers, alienating allies who shed blood with our parents in past wars, and buddying up to Putin, all in the name of the American people (you and me) because he claims to have a “mandate.” This is not OK with me and many of the folks that I know. Are you REALLY ok with it?
Copyright © 2025 by Ed Paulson. All rights reserved.
There is a lot of discussion about the flaws related to the electoral college and I won’t go into it here other than to say that to present the electoral college vote as representative of the overall population is a gross misrepresentation.