And it is the other side's duty to stop the winners from implementing a partisan agenda. Either way.
Without these struggles, democracy is pointless. It's just some kind of theocracy with extra steps.
Assuming I did my sums right, DT won by approximately 1.5%. Hardly a ringing endorsement. He got 31.59% of the voter-eligible (VE) population. I count active yes votes as for a candidate and non-voter passive no votes. Some non-voters support a candidate, but since they didn't vote, their non-votes count against each candidate.
%of ballots %of VE population
Democratic Kamala Harris Tim Walz 226 42% 75,019,230 48.34% 30.66%
Republican Donald J. Trump J.D. Vance 312 58% 77,303,568 49.81% 31.59%
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2024 https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-1...
it seems relevant that he just straight up lied a lot the whole time:
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/a-guide-to-project-2025/:
> “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on July 5. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
> A week later, on July 11, Trump again took to Truth Social to further distance himself from the plan.
> “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump wrote. “I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it. The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said. It is pure disinformation on their part. By now, after all of these years, everyone knows where I stand on EVERYTHING!”
whereas, now https://www.politico.com/interactives/2025/trump-executive-o...:
> 37 ways Project 2025 has shown up in Trump’s executive orders
his policies and mates are wildly unpopular, so he just lied about it and then did it anyway. obviously people - and in particular the media - are extremely dumb for believing him, but it's not unreasonable, most politicians don't fully lie about nearly their entire policy program.
It is too early to say. He'd actually doing pretty well in favourability polling [0] and is certainly doing a lot better than the Congress. But it is proper to wait another month to see what people think when the situation has calmed down a little. From a distance it looks like he is attempting to implement policies he campaigned on but who really knows. And that approach would be a bit unusual in the US public's experience so it isn't obvious how they will react.
It is unfortunate 538.com doesn't seem to have the comparisons to former presidents available. It'd be fun to check how he is doing vs Trump I.
[0] https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/dona...
49.8% is not a majority. Did you forget that there were more than two candidates?