Trump Keeps Making Stuff Up
Exactly one year ago, CNBC highlighted a fascinating report where psychology experts broke down the tactics used by effective liars to make their stories believable. One key takeaway? Successful liars often sprinkle in extra details to make their claims sound more convincing.
Lately, every time Donald Trump goes on about his so-called electoral “mandate,” I can’t help but think back to that CNBC report.
When the president-elect sat down with Time magazine late last month, he wasted no time boasting about his victory. “The beauty is that we won by so much,” the Republican declared. “The mandate was massive. Somebody had 129 years in terms of the overall mandate. That’s a lot of years.”
The specificity of the claim might have made it sound convincing to some. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
It’s unclear who exactly the “somebody” is that Trump mentioned, but the statement itself is undeniably absurd. While he secured a second term fair and square, his victory was far from historic in the way he suggested. In fact, recent history offers clear examples that dwarf his 316 electoral votes: Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan both won by significantly wider margins.
As for the popular vote, the latest numbers from the Cook Political Report show the president-elect with 49.8% of the vote, giving him a narrow lead of 1.47% over Vice President Kamala Harris. Interestingly, the Democratic nominee lost the election despite winning a higher percentage of the popular vote than Trump did in either 2016 or 2020.
The New York Times recently shared an insightful analysis, pointing out that the Republican’s win “was neither unprecedented nor a landslide.” The article explained, “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.”
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump claimed he was quoting someone else—one of his frequent rhetorical tactics that allows him to backtrack when his false statements are debunked. He often defends himself with phrases like, “I was just repeating what others said.”
This week, however, he dropped the facade. On his social media platform, he boldly declared, “I won the biggest mandate in 129 years.”
The issue isn’t just that Trump is spreading baseless and easily disproven claims—it’s that his reasons for doing so make the situation even more troubling.
The Republican, his team, and their allies seem to be grappling with some insecurity over Trump’s lackluster victory—one where more Americans actually voted against him than for him.
Despite this, the incoming president and his loyalists are eager to spin a narrative that paints him as the undeniable voice of the nation, insisting that policymakers must bow to this so-called electoral powerhouse.
In reality, Team Trump is resorting to fabrications because the facts don’t align with the image they’re trying to sell.
No matter how many times Republicans throw around the word “mandate,” it won’t change the numbers or rewrite the outcome.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com