How big is Donald Trump’s mandate?

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has said his election victory handed him an “unprecedented and powerful” mandate to govern.

He beat Democratic rival Kamala Harris in all seven closely watched swing states, giving him a decisive advantage overall.

Trump’s party has also won both chambers of Congress, giving the returning president considerable power to enact his agenda.

He has broadened his appeal across nearly all groups of voters since his 2020 defeat. And in doing so he pulled off a comeback unmatched by any previously defeated president in modern history.

But the data suggests it was a much closer contest than he and his allies are suggesting.

His communications director Steven Cheung has called it a “landslide” victory. Yet it emerged this week that his share of the vote has fallen below 50%, as counting continues.

“It feels grandiose to me that they’re calling it a landslide,” said Chris Jackson, senior vice-president in the US team of polling firm Ipsos.

The Trump language suggested overwhelming victories, Jackson said, when in fact it was a few hundred-thousand votes in key areas that propelled Trump back to the White House.

That is thanks to America’s electoral college system, which amplifies relatively slender victories in swing states.

Here are three ways to look at his win.