Dan PfeifferTrump Is Overstepping His MandateDonald Trump likes to pretend he won a massive victory with a strong mandate for his MAGA agenda. Trump may have won the popular vote and swept the battleground states. Still, a majority of Americans voted for someone else, and he had the narrowest popular vote margin in American history. That’s Trump’s mandate — lower costs and secure the border. The narrowness of Trump’s mandate matters because the fastest way to lose the midterms is to forget why you won the election.