Several times in the last few days I’ve heard some Republican, some Trump defender, or some commentator say in defense of Trump, “The overwhelming majority of the American people voted for him.” Today, again, I heard some CNN interviewee say, “The American people voted overwhelmingly for this.”
They are citing the Electoral College vote. If you’re going to talk about how the American people — every individual voter — voted, it’s the popular vote, not the electoral college vote, that you cite. And Trump did no better than 50% of the popular vote. That is far from an “overwhelming majority” of the American people.
I checked several sources, and none showed Trump getting over 50% of the popular vote. True, the electoral vote was pretty lopsided, but that’s a different animal entirely.
Note the differences between electoral college totals and popular vote totals:
From CNN Politics:
From NPR:
From Fox9:
To repeat, Trump’s popular vote totals above are 49.8%, 50%, and 49.9%. Hardly overwhelming.
I happen to be one of those “American people” they keep referencing. And I guarantee I did not vote for the chaos now occurring in Washington. Frankly, I’m horrified. It feels a bit like January 6, but with the attack coming from within rather than without.
Trump is absolutely giddy that the richest man in the world is his best buddy. And Musk is literally dancing with glee that the most powerful man in the world is his best buddy. And now the pair of them are playing games with our government. Never mind the Constitution. It’s just a dusty old piece of paper with no relevance in today’s world. What really matters to them is being half of the richest, most powerful couple in the world.
Come on, Congress. These guys are running roughshod over you, your power to enact legislation, and your “power of the purse.” How long are you going to stand for it?
johnthecook…are you trying to infer that the Biden Administration was the best thing to happen to America and that the Democratic Party followed The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to the letter and spirit of the law?
I don’t know how you took from that any inference or reference to the Biden administration. No, I’m saying that Trump and Musk are running amok in Washington, claiming massive approval that I don’t think they have, and somebody needs to stop them. I’m also thinking yes, maybe we’d get a more accurate picture of public sentiment if we ditched the Electoral College. But I’m still on the fence about that.
There’s a big difference between how Biden and Trump view the Constitution. Trump openly flouts it.
You noticed that, eh? Nothing gets past you. 😉
Yep, seems to me Trump is openly challenging anyone to stop him.
johnthecook…Mr. Wheeler, I see President Trump openly testing the Legal limits of our Constitution and The Articles it contains, which is causing great concern to the MSM and the American people, where as President Biden tested its limits with a smoke and mirror tactic while putting the American people to sleep with a false sense of security
Seems to me, an ignorant outsider, that if the bloody Justice Department hadn’t dragged its feet for the past four years, tRump would’ve been jailed long since. As for the Musk debacle, I can scarcely BELIEVE that Congress hasn’t risen to its feet, choking with rage, and put a stop to the whole disgraceful charade.
I am beside myself with anger that Musk is being allowed to do what he’s doing. Not to mention what I think of Trump for enabling it. I’m hoping that the next election will get rid of some of the people in Washington who are allowing this debacle to happen. But by then we may not have a government to speak of. We may not even have elections. Trump should have been kicked out when he was impeached during his first term.
yes. we need action strong and loud.
I hope to see it, and see it while there’s a democracy to save.
Yeah, I mentioned the vote thing before. I don’t think it registers with people.
I wonder if it’s because there is no concept of a tie in American Sports. It matters not how close the game, every American Sport is played for the Win. And, apparently, so is Politics.
As far as what’s happening, in a recent conversation I pointed out that what this administration is doing matches the stupidity of the Defund the Police movement which, rightly so, conservatives decried as the wrong approach to addressing endemic problems with some law enforcement practices.
Now that they are in charge, they are taking the same approach with foreign aid, CIA, FBI, CDC, NIH, etc.
I’m disgusted by the world’s richest man jeopardizing humanitarian aid (in a given year, he makes 10 times the USAID budget), putting untold number of people in danger from disease and famine.
But, hey, he gets the FAA to drop investigations into Space X, and the FCC and SEC to back off. Plus, Musk gets to see the government contracts with his competitors, and has control of the disbursement of money associated with those contracts.
I literally laughed when Trump was asked about Musk’s actions and he responded by saying Musk won’t do anything without approval from him.
Trump has no idea what Musk is doing, nor what his other political appointees are doing . . . because, by his own admission, he’s not read or ever heard of Project 2025. (I aim to always refer the pair as President Musk and Clown Puppet Trump.)
I retain some hope this won’t devolve into a complete clusterfuck, but I am more and more skeptical in part because Republicans control Congress (if even by a small margin), and they don’t have the balls to do anything.
And notice how illegal immigration has fallen off the radar? And how Trump has back off reducing inflation and prices on his first day in office? Now he’s saying (finally) that he can’t control what happens, and Americans will have to tighten their belts. Gee, I wonder how MAGA feels about that?
It’s also worth looking into who the people he’s appointing admire. Suffice it to say, I don’t think The Wall will stand much longer (SCOTUS has already reinterpreted portions of the 1st and has hinted at further loosening of what has been understood for nearly 250 years), and I don’t mean the one on the Southern border . . . you know, the one Mexico paid for.
Musk scares the hell outta me because he’s so much younger and smarter than Trump. All he had to do was throw money and whisper sweet nothings and look where he is. Look what he’s doing with nary a finger wag from Trump. Encouragement, actually. If anything happens to Trump and Musk has to deal with Vance, it might be a different story. But by then it will probably be Führer Musk, so who knows.
It didn’t take much reading of Project 2025 to see what a Trump victory could mean, but half the country voted for him anyway. That right there was enough to keep me awake nights. Then his first act was to release and pardon all those fine, upstanding J6 folks who were so unjustly convicted of insurrection.
Think I’ll go find some more cheerful news, like the local cops arrested a serial killer or something.
Our PM declares that Trump is his friend and that friend has sent back immigrants who have been illegally living there in chains. Illegal immigration is wrong but to send back them in chains !!! And we read that this video is circulating in the US.
Unfortunately our country is being divided on the basis of religion. And from 11 years people are being brainwashed. Even educated people spread words of hatred. But there are people who are speaking against all that is happening. There is hope.
When Trump was elected, I posted an apology to the world. I had voted against him, but I felt that by electing him, my country had unleashed an evil, sick man on the entire world. And indeed he is reaching far beyond our borders with his dreams of unlimited power and self-importance. He has the support of religious extremists who hope to impose their beliefs on everyone, and that’s about as un-American and unconstitutional as anything I can think of. The opposition to all this is growing, I think. So yes, there is hope.
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