Opinion: No Mandate for Extremism: Debunking Lies in the Trump Era

Love, Justice, and Climate Change

A great many of us in the U.S. are distraught about Trump winning election to the presidency. We watch with some horror as he proceeds with his plans to undermine the rule of law, deport immigrants, target LGBQT+ people, use the government for his personal revenge and financial gain, eliminate many health and safety protections, and make the ultra rich even richer and more powerful. We know that it will be important for us to not be silent or complicit, but many of us don’t know what to do in this moment in history.

Here are some suggestions that I hope can be useful to you. They are based on my reading of others’ analyses and recommendations, listening to webinars, and talking with friends.

Implanting Myths and Lies in the Minds of the Public
One of the techniques used by aspiring dictators, and currently by the MAGA Republicans, is to plant key myths or lies in the public consciousness that seem to justify their extreme actions to come. They are currently trying to make everyone believe that Trump won by a landslide and therefore has a “mandate” to do what he said he would do. This is a lie. They are also seeking to instill a fear of immigrants in our minds with the notion that immigrants are dangerous criminals. This, too, is completely contrary to the facts.

Now is the time to battle these ideas–first in our own minds, then in the minds of everyone we know, and then in the news media and public consciousness.

Trump Does Not Have a “Mandate”
Trump did not win by a landslide and does not have a mandate. As the final votes have been tallied, it turns out that Trump did not even win a majority of the vote. He did win the election, and got more votes than Kamala Harris,  but with only 49.8% of the vote. As the Washington Post reported, “Most voters voted for someone beside Trump.”

With the exception of George Bush in 2000, Trump’s raw vote total margin was smaller than any popular vote winner since 1976.  On a percentage basis, Trump’s 2024 winning margin (1.62%) was, again with the exception of Bush in 2000, the smallest since 1968. This is hardly a mandate for upending the nation.

Limited Support for Trump Policies
Even those who voted for Trump don’t all support his policies. A poll taken after the election found, as Jeremy Symons writes, “Most Trump voters oppose efforts to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  More Trump voters want to see EPA strengthened than weakened, and EPA’s funding increased rather than decreased. The public has not given Trump a mandate for sweeping change at EPA.” According to the poll, 76% of Trump voters oppose weakening the EPA. None of this is likely to deter MAGA efforts to destroy the EPA, but it is illuminating, and undermines the “mandate” idea.

While support for deporting immigrants remains distressingly high, exit polls showed that 56% of voters (including a good many Trump voters) want legal pathways for immigrants already here,  Newsweek also reported that Trump’s plan to use “the military to round up undocumented immigrants, many of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades and have not committed any other crimes, has not seen widespread support, even among Trump’s own party.” Again, I don’t expect the MAGA cabal to be deterred, but there is certainly no mandate for using the military to force deportation.

Immigrants Commit Crimes at a Much Lower Rate Than Native-born Users
Trump and his MAGA cronies have repeatedly called immigrants murderers, rapists, and criminals. If the general populace shares this view, then it will be much easier for Trump to carry out his vicious deportation plans. The facts, of course, are quite different. A large body of research shows that immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S.  One extensive study found  immigrants 60% less likely to engage in criminal activity than native-born USers. A Texas study by the National Institute of Justice found that undocumented immigrants are “arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.” Another study found that as the immigrant  portion of the population grew, the crime rate went down.

We Can Affect What People Think and Believe
There will be many struggles ahead. One struggle that has already begun is for the minds of the general population. If we can spread widely the fact that Trump won the election with the narrowest of margins and more people voted against him than for him, we could dispel the “mandate” myth and significantly change the context for the next four years.

If we can help a great many people learn that immigrants commit fewer crimes and our communities are actually safer with more immigrants in them, we can weaken support for horrendous mass deportations.

How can we affect what the people of the U.S. think? We can start by keeping these ideas clearly in our own minds. Then we can share these facts with many people we talk to. When someone asks how you are, you could reply that you’ve been recently reassured by learning that a majority of the country didn’t vote for Trump and that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born.

Let’s Go One Step Further
Given the severity of our situation, I think we will all do well to go one step further. Any time we see the media quote Trump or his allies saying he has a mandate, and the media doesn’t mention the narrowness of his victory, we can write to the editor, the TV station, the author and insist that they include the fact of his minority status any time they repeat the mandate myth. Let’s inundate them with letters, emails, and calls. Pressuring the media to report on the “mandate” myth and the “immigrant criminal” myth accurately can be a role for all of us. It’s going to matter whether these myths are constantly challenged or not.

Russ Vernon-Jones was principal of Fort River School 1990-2008 and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now-Western Massachusetts. He blogs regularly on climate justice at www.russvernonjones.org.