Republican President-elect Donald Trump said his election victory gave him “unprecedented and powerful” authority to govern.
He beat Democratic rival Kamala Harris in all seven closely watched battleground states and gained a decisive advantage overall.
Trump’s party also won both houses of Congress, giving the returning president significant power to enact his own agenda.
He has expanded his appeal across nearly every group of voters since his 2020 loss. And in doing so, he pulled off a comeback unlike any previously defeated president in modern history.
But the data suggests it was much more competitive than he and his colleagues suggest.
His communications director, Steven Cheung, called it an “overwhelming” victory. But as vote counting continued, it emerged this week that his vote share had fallen below 50%.
“It seems grandiose to me that they’re calling it a landslide,” said Chris Jackson, senior vice president of U.S. research at polling firm Ipsos.
Trump’s language suggests a landslide victory, Jackson said. But in reality, it was hundreds of thousands of votes in key areas that helped Trump return to the White House, Jackson said.
This is thanks to America’s Electoral College system, which amplifies relatively weak wins in swing states.
There are three ways to look at his victory.
