The myth of Trump's MAGA mandate
Despite GOP election gains, his margin of victory keeps shrinking; Trump's allies have no electoral justification for overriding constitutional norms
Don’t believe all the Republican propaganda that the 2024 election gave it a “mandate” to reshape American politics and adopt president-elect Donald Trump’s agenda and cabinet picks without scrutiny or debate.
It just ain’t so, and this GOP “talking point” is getting less true by the day. It certainly is no justification for an unconstitutional approval of Trump’s troublesome cabinet nominations.
As of late this week, Trump’s lead in the popular vote was down to about 2.5 million votes out of 150 million cast, a lead of about 1.6%.
His percentage of the vote stood at 49.87%, meaning he may end up winning by a plurality, not a majority. His margin of victory is the smallest of any winning presidential contender who actually won the popular vote since 2000.
Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the Electoral College tally — 312 to 226 — was just slightly larger than Joe Biden’s win over Trump in 2020 — 303 to 235 — when Democrats also won or maintained control of both houses of Congress. I don’t remember that any Republicans acknowledged that Biden had a mandate of any kind back then. And Biden won by popular vote by 7 million ballots.
Trump’s victory hinged on squeaky close outcomes in battleground states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump won with 50.4%, 49.7%, and 49.7% of the vote, respectively.
Trump boosted his total votes by around 2.5 million vis-a-vis the 2020 election. However, Harris received 7 million fewer votes than Biden did in 2020. There are likely many reasons why Democrats didn’t get out the vote, but the fact that so many sat out likely cost their party this election. And it is no endorsement of Trump.
Yes, the nation as a whole shifted slightly further pink this time, and Republicans managed to regain control of the Senate and retain their control of the House. But to put those facts in perspective:
The GOP’s house majority is likely to be unchanged or maybe increase by one member. Republicans have won 219 House seats to Democrats’ 213, with three races still undecided. The final tally likely will be 220-215. “No change” does not equal to a “mandate.”
The GOP picked up four Senate seats, giving it a 53 to 47 majority. This was is no surprise given that, of the 34 seats that were up for re-election, 19 were held by Democrats and four were held by Democratic-leaning independents. Still, Democrats won four Senate races in states that Trump won, up from zero in 2016 and 2020, according to CNN. Trump’s coattails were shorter than a pig’s tail.
The election results more than anything show that America is still divided, but they are, I believe, united around a commonsense, moderate center. Parties that deviate too far from that will pay the price at the ballot box.
If Trump has any mandate at all, it’s to better regulate the southern border, an issue E that resonated well with voters. (But it’s also a goal that he himself thwarted by opposing bipartisan border legislation.)
The GOP should not get power drunk on its own post-election rhetoric. Americans want good governance. They want people of expertise, not radical extremists or Fox News buffoons, to wield the powers of the executive branch. And I believe they want respect for the Constitution, which requires that cabinet members and other ministers to be approved with the “advice and consent of the Senate.”
Trump’s MAGA allies assert their mythical “mandate” to justify ramming cabinet appointments through without scrutiny, perhaps using the Constitution’s “Recess Appointments Clause” as an end-run to dodge Senate authority.
That proviso was adopted in the late 18th Century, when Congress was expected to meet only a few months a year and took weeks to reassemble. Using the clause to ramrod cabinet appointments through in this age would be an abuse of constitutional authority. Authors of our Constitution wanted a strong presidency, but they also were leery about the office’s potential for abuse of power. So they constrained it however best they could.
Voters did not give Trump any kind of mandate to ignore the Constitution. Nor did they give him a mandate to nominate people as inept, inexperienced and flawed as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth (an angry, unhinged former Fox News talking head) to run government agencies.
Keep contesting the myth whenever you hear it.
All day long …
There are a bazillion ways to quietly fight back, support Hope House for one and drug court. These are two places Mortenson didn't want to fund even though the funding was a grant is my understanding. The simple tax to support "drug court" went down to defeat. We couldn't get Amy Norquist elected, she would have been an awesome addition to that good ole boys club. IMO the local Republicans are bullies, there are a couple on Longview city council, they want to bend the rules to suit their agenda. Go to the local school board meetings, attend a county commissioners meeting, they are open public meetings and they can not turn you away.
The Trump administration does NOT have a mandate and our job is to call that out at every turn in any way that we can. Their game plan has always been to lie, then lie some more. That's exactly how they swayed so many people that either didn't do any research on their own and simply voted the way they always do "who's the best looking, who has the best performance before the camera's, who listened to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Propaganda machine". The Democrats suck at messaging and standing on an overpass waving a flag does not address the concerns of voters. We better get really good at reaching people where they are and most of them are on the computer and our young voters aren't going to show up at the Senior Center to volunteer to canvas but they would send text messages etc.