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Abstract
Donald Trump and his supporters offered claims of an historic mandate to provide critical legitimacy for the extraordinary changes the president initiated immediately after taking office. Did he actually receive such a mandate? The data show that he did not. His electoral victory was modest by historical standards, and the public did not view his election as a mandate for sweeping change and did not desire to accord the president additional power. Moreover, Trump did not campaign on many of the issues on which he took action, and the public opposed most of the president’s major changes in policy, including drastically cutting or dismembering congressionally authorized agencies and programs, deporting most undocumented aliens, raising tariffs, acquiring territory, and gutting foreign aid.