§35 —
On the landslide
Democrat
FIFTH SMALLEST
The certified numbers: 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent, a margin of about a point and a half 1. The Council on Foreign Relations measured that against every presidential race since 1900 and placed it "the fifth smallest of the thirty-two" 2. The House that came in with it was 220 to 215 3.
And the standing of the mandate now, from three different instruments. The polling average sits a hair under 40 percent approval 4. One large September survey put it at 36 approve, 64 disapprove 5. The net rating in one tracked average reached a record low of minus 20.6 this month 6. Gallup, which measured presidential approval for eighty years, stopped in February; its final reading in December was 36 percent 7. A landslide is the one word in politics that a certified sheet can settle. The sheet says a point and a half.
Sources
- Official 2024 presidential results: 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent — Federal Election Commission ↑
- "The fifth smallest of the thirty-two presidential races held since 1900" — Council on Foreign Relations, 22 November 2024 ↑
- The 119th House seated 220 Republicans to 215 Democrats — CBS News, 3 January 2025 ↑
- The RealClearPolitics approval average "a hair under 40%" — Political Wire, 1 September 2026 ↑
- 36 percent approve, 64 percent disapprove, n=7,105, 20 August–1 September 2026 — NBC News/SurveyMonkey ↑
- Net approval of minus 19.5, after a record low of minus 20.6 — Silver Bulletin, 9 September 2026 ↑
- Gallup ended presidential approval polling in February 2026; its last reading, in December 2025, was 36 percent — Axios, 11 February 2026 ↑
Republican
THREE TIMES
The claim, in his own voice, from a speech in Clive, Iowa, in January: "we won in a landslide. Three times we won in a landslide" 1. It is the settled version of a line first used the night of the win, when he told the crowd the country had given "us an unprecedented and powerful mandate" 2.
The honest case for the word: he won the popular vote, which no Republican had done in twenty years, and he took every one of the seven contested states. That is a real sweep of the board, and a president who wins it is entitled to say the country moved toward him. The word "landslide" is a claim about size, though, and size is the one thing in an election that gets certified. So the argument on this side stands entirely on the margin, and the margin is in the next column.
Sources
“A landslide. I've got the certified sheet from the Federal Election Commission — 49.8 against 48.3. A point and a half. Then the Council on Foreign Relations lined that up against every presidential race since 1900 and got the fifth smallest of thirty-two. And then here's the speech in Clive, Iowa, in January: "we won in a landslide. Three times we won in a landslide." Sorry, one more thing and then I'm out of your hair. Three times. Which of the three moved a hill?”— Lou
“"Three times we won in a landslide." Three. Say it slowly, because one of the three is the one with sixty lawsuits and fifty-nine losses. A point and a half isn't a landslide, it's a rounding error with a motorcade. The word means the hill moved. Go look at the hill.”
“A landslide is a description of momentum, the popular vote is a description of arithmetic, and the mandate is a third thing that depends on neither — so all three statements are true in their own frameworks, which is the most any of us can offer.”