Julia R. Azari, Marquette University
Shortly after the 2024 election was called in Donald Trump’s favor, he declared that voters had given him “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
As the popular vote margin shrinks, however, this claim seems less plausible. But it puts Trump squarely within the historical tradition of how presidents – and those around them – have claimed electoral mandates.
These claims don’t necessarily tell anything meaningful about the…
