Donald Trump continues to expand his vortex of lies by falsely claiming his very narrow vote margin was a mandate. NOT!

The ‘Landslide’ That Wasn’t: Trump and Allies Pump Up His Narrow Victory.  Echo report published in The New York Times by Peter Baker. 

Donald Trump won in 2024 without obtaining a mandate.  His radical reform MAGA agenda will fail.

(Warning Note: Real landslides have been unmistakable, including Lyndon B. Johnson’s in 1964, by 22.6 points, Richard M. Nixon’s in 1972 by 23.2 points and Ronald Reagan’s in 1984, by 18.2 points. In the 40 years since that Reagan victory, no president has won the popular vote by double digits." So, Johnson essentially resigned and Richard Nixon was forced to resign.  Ronald Reagan's administration was saved by a failed assassination attempt because the Congress was ready to impeach him about his role arms trafficking, in the Iran Contra Scandal.)

The latest vote count shows that Donald J. Trump won the popular vote by one of the smallest margins since the 19th century. But  Trump (falsely) claims a “powerful mandate.”😒

Trump’s victory was neither unprecedented nor a landslide. In fact, he prevailed with one of the smallest margins of victory in the popular vote since the 19th century and generated little of the coattails of a true landslide.

The disconnect goes beyond predictable Trumpian braggadocio. The incoming president and his team are trying to cement the impression of a “resounding margin,” as one aide called it, to make Trump seem more popular than he is and strengthen his hand in forcing through his agenda in the months to come.

The collapse of Matt Gaetz’s prospective nomination for attorney general demonstrated the challenges for Trump in forcing a Republican Congress to defer to his more provocative ideas. While Gaetz, a former Republican congressman from Florida, denied allegations of attending sex and drug parties and having sex with an underage girl, they proved too much even for Republicans eager to stay in Trump’s good graces.

With some votes still being counted, the tally used by The New York Times showed Trump winning the popular vote with 49.988 percent as of Friday night, and he appears likely to fall below that once the final results are in, meaning he would not capture a majority. 

Another count used by CNN and other outlets shows him winning 49.9 percent. By either reckoning, his margin over Vice President Kamala Harris was about 1.6 percentage points, the third smallest since 1888, and could ultimately end up around 1.5 points.

“If the definition of landslide is you win both the popular vote and Electoral College vote, that’s a new definition,” said Lynn Vavreck, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of “Identity Crisis” about Mr. Trump’s first election, in 2016. “I would not classify this outcome as a landslide that turns into evidence of desire for a huge shift of direction or policy.”

But Trump has a clear interest in portraying it that way as he seeks to transform Washington. “It obviously gives you more momentum if you say, ‘The people have spoken, and they want my set of policies,’” Ms. Vavreck said. “Nobody gains any kind of influence by going out and saying, ‘I barely won, and now I want to do these big things.’”

As he assembles a cabinet and administration during the transition, Mr. Trump is certainly acting as if he has the kind of political capital that comes from a big victory. Rather than picking lieutenants with wide appeal, he is opting for highly unconventional figures with scandals to explain, almost as if trying to bend Senate Republicans to his will.

Asked about the president-elect’s characterization of his victory,  Trump’s campaign sent a statement by Steven Cheung, his communications director, attacking The Times and repeating the sweeping claims. “President Trump won in dominating and historic fashion after the Democrats and the fake news media peddled outright lies and disinformation throughout the campaign,” he said.

Trump would not be the first newly elected or re-elected president to assume his victory gave him more political latitude than it really did. Bill Clinton tried to turn his 5.6-point win in 1992, into a mandate to completely overhaul the nation’s health care system, a project that blew up in his face and cost his party both houses of Congress in the next midterm elections.

George W. Bush likewise thought his 2.4-point win in 2004, would empower him to revise the Social Security system, only to fail and lose Congress two years later. 

And President Biden interpreted his 4.5-point win over Trump in 2020, as a mission to push through some of the most expansive social programs since the Great Society, then saw Republicans take control of the House in 2022, and the White House and Senate two years after that.

“Trump’s appointments have already demonstrated that he will continue a bipartisan tradition of presidents, over-reading their electoral mandate,” said Doug Sosnik, who was a White House senior adviser to Mr. Clinton.