We recently explored the question of whether Donald Trump has been given an electoral mandate by voters, with my bottom line being, 'yes, but mandates are fickle and only last as long as voters remain on board.' Seasoned and insightful political observer Brit Hume, however, has warned Trump's team not to treat their victory as some sort of triumphal, full embrace: "This was a clear and convincing win for Mr. Trump, to be sure, and — particularly when you think of all the stuff that had been thrown at him as he tried to be elected again — it’s impressive," he said before adding a few cautionary notes:
“Joe Biden won a narrow victory — convincing, perhaps, but narrow — in 2020, and once he got control of the Senate and had control of both houses, he started thinking that he was going to be the new FDR, and was going to pass all kinds of great social legislation, some of the results of which were an outbreak of inflation, from which his candidacy and his campaign never recovered,” Hume said. “So, you have to be careful about these things. Mandates, real mandates, are rare, and landslides are perhaps even rarer.” ... “My thought about this is: The president would be wise to ignore the talk from his supporters about what an enormous mandate he has and what a great landslide he won, because thinking that can lead to trouble,” Hume added. Hume said Trump following through with his promise of mass deportation would be an appropriate reading of Trump’s mandate, given how clear the president-elect was on his goal. “Particularly on the deportation of illegal migrants,” Hume said, “he does, I think it’s fair to say, have an authority to do that, and the voters understood that that’s one of the things he said he was going to do, and he never back away from it.”
We'll revisit the point about decorations of illegal immigrants in a moment. More broadly speaking, despite a chorus of negativity from Democrats and their 'news' media allies -- and some early bumps in the road -- the public is largely satisfied with what they're seeing from the Trump transition process thus far:
CBS poll: 59% of Americans approve of the Trump transition so far.https://t.co/FqqZOpeCUy pic.twitter.com/Cq1CpK0S03
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) November 24, 2024
To achieve these numbers, Trump is obviously getting a thumbs-up from a lot of voters who didn't support him in the election. Some of these crosstabs are especially eye-opening, in my view:
Voters under 30 are at 65% approval of the Trump transition pic.twitter.com/3piuBa3T0T
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) November 24, 2024
Approval of this transition to Trump's second presidency is viewed favorably by a 30-point margin among the youngest voters, with the second-youngest demographic at (+24). It's at (+12) among both independents and Hispanics. Even more than one-fifth of Democrats, and more than one-third of black voters, approve. This all feels rather...normal, come to think of it:
No Resistance
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) November 24, 2024
No Women's March
No Indivisible
No prayer candles https://t.co/CHppUS2YUi
In fairness, a question like 'do you approve of the presidential transition' is admittedly somewhat nebulous. People may appreciate the exchange of power without embracing Trump or his agenda. That said, the same poll -- from a network that has been a cauldron of bias in recent months -- found even the president-elect's most controversial nominees right-side-up, and some of Trump's signature goals enjoying robust support:
Rubio is Trump's most popular cabinet nominee in this CBS poll (by percentage support) thus far, though RFK Jr. to HHS hits the highest number: pic.twitter.com/uY06SqNovB
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 24, 2024
As for Hume's point about Trump's mandate to deport illegal immigrants, the public is on board:
CBS News Poll - Would you approve or disapprove of Donald Trump starting a national program to find and deport all immigrants who are in the US illegally?
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 24, 2024
Approve: 57%
Disapprove: 43%
---
• Male: 63-37 (+26)
• Female: 53-47 (+6)
---
• Ages 18-29: 50-50 (=)
• Ages 30-44:… pic.twitter.com/qfleElKhs5
Hispanics are nearly evenly split on this question. The youngest voters are, too. Nearly half of black Americans are in favor of this deportation program. Independents and moderates support it by double digits, roughly reflecting overall public opinion. Notice how this question specifies the removal of all illegal immigrants. I guarantee you that a similar question about such migrants with active deportation orders against them and criminal records (which are the populations Team Trump will be prioritized) would push support for deportations significantly higher. It might be an 80/20 issue. Preening Democrats, certain governors and mayors in particular, resist this at their own political peril. On that score, I'll leave you with this:
An illegal alien was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Denver, Colorado right after the mayor Mike Johnston pledged to resist Trump's mass deportation agenda.
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) November 22, 2024
I reported for @realDailyWire:https://t.co/l0DuIAzfxR
Trump's work in removing unlawfully-present migrants will now be harder, given the outgoing Biden-Harris administration's outrageous loosening of procedures, which is a gift to illegal immigrants.
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