Trump won less than 50 percent. Why is everyone calling it a landslide?
Is it newsworthy that Donald Trump’s share of the 2024 presidential vote has fallen below 50 percent?
You wouldn’t think it’s a big deal based on the relatively few headlines triggered by the milestone, which passed quietly last weekend as California and other states continued their glacially slow vote counts.
And maybe that’s as it should be. After all, Trump’s 49.9 percent (for now) is still more than Kamala Harris’ 48.3 percent. When the counting is done, the margin will probably have shrunk even further. No matter: It still earns him 312 electoral votes from a population that also gave his Republican Party control of the House and Senate. He won.
All the same, the numbers might seem a wee bit jarring to anyone who has been listening to Washington’s triumphal Republicans and self-flagellating Democrats — all of whom seem to have internalized a version of the story that involves a romping, stomping Trump triumph.
It’s hard to blame them: Even as the counting progressed, Trump’s victory was described as “resounding” by news organizations ranging from the Associated Press to the The Washington Post to the The New York Times to POLITICO. Others offered “commanding win,” “runaway win” and “dominant victory.”
Say what?
To coin a phrase, we’ve defined dominance down. After years as a 50-50 country, it seems, even a small win gets talked about like a shellacking. Wriggling into office with a puny plurality and less than half the vote in an essentially two-way race used to be considered pretty weak sauce. A squeaker. Why do we now treat a JV-caliber success like some sort of Olympian feat? Following the traumas of 2020, maybe “dominant victory” has come to simply mean a win that doesn’t lead to endless recounts or domestic insurrection. [Continue reading…]
Donald Trump is upset with the media for accurately reporting that his election night victory wasn’t exactly a “landslide.”
Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Friday took aim at Politico and The New York Times for reporting on the fact that President-elect Trump didn’t win the popular vote by some resounding majority.
“New Fake News Narrative Alert!” Leavitt posted on X. “Here are the ridiculous headlines from @politico and @nytimes this morning. The fake news is trying to minimize President Trump’s massive and historic victory to try to delegitimize his mandate before he even takes the Oath of Office again.” [Continue reading…]