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The Bulwark: Calling Trump's Win a 'Mandate' Is Ridiculous. Here's Why.
The Bulwark - Calling Trump’s Win a ‘Mandate’ Is Ridiculous. Here’s Why.
The numbers show that voters wanted an end to the status quo, not the future policy agenda Trump is offering.
Will Saletan
Nov 29, 2024
AS DONALD TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES lay plans for his second term, they’re hammering one word.
“The American people gave President Trump a mandate,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin told CNN on Sunday. On ABC, Sen. Bill Hagerty concurred: “The mandate that came from the American public is overwhelming.”
It’s normal to say you have a mandate after winning an election. Trump’s staff did as much after the 2016 election, when he didn’t even win the popular vote. If the claim is believed this time around, it could intimidate Democrats and embolden Republicans in Congress.
But when you look closely at what voters actually think, there’s no mandate for a Trump agenda.
Two massive polls of the 2024 electorate—the network exit poll and the VoteCast survey used by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets—show that Trump won the election because voters rejected the status quo and had positive memories of his first term. But on most issues, they oppose what Republicans want to do in his second term.
VoteCast included two questions that largely explain Trump’s victory: whether the country was headed in the right direction and how voters assessed each candidate’s record.
/snip
The numbers show that voters wanted an end to the status quo, not the future policy agenda Trump is offering.
Will Saletan
Nov 29, 2024
AS DONALD TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES lay plans for his second term, they’re hammering one word.
“The American people gave President Trump a mandate,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin told CNN on Sunday. On ABC, Sen. Bill Hagerty concurred: “The mandate that came from the American public is overwhelming.”
It’s normal to say you have a mandate after winning an election. Trump’s staff did as much after the 2016 election, when he didn’t even win the popular vote. If the claim is believed this time around, it could intimidate Democrats and embolden Republicans in Congress.
But when you look closely at what voters actually think, there’s no mandate for a Trump agenda.
Two massive polls of the 2024 electorate—the network exit poll and the VoteCast survey used by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets—show that Trump won the election because voters rejected the status quo and had positive memories of his first term. But on most issues, they oppose what Republicans want to do in his second term.
VoteCast included two questions that largely explain Trump’s victory: whether the country was headed in the right direction and how voters assessed each candidate’s record.
/snip
3 replies
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