@pluralistic How did you vote *extremely unpopular* Trump back into office then? How did he get 50%+ of votes in general election? How are his approval rates *extremely low* when they dropped from 52% to say around 47%? How is 47% *extremely unpopular* ?

@ati1 @pluralistic Trump got less than 50% of the vote. For those who do not live in the U.S., presidents in the U.S. are not elected based on the popular vote. Instead, it is based on the electoral vote, where the number of electors for each state is equal to the sum of its representatives and senators. Most states have a "winner take all" policy, so that if a candidate gets 50.00001% of the popular vote in a state, all of that state's electors vote for that candidate.

@bzdev @pluralistic Ok, I've heard / am aware of that although don't know the details. Anyways if he got 49% or 45% or even 40% of votes countrywide .... how is that meant to be "extremely unpopular"? It's nuts someone like Trump can run USA. TWICE. It's game over. EU is far from perfect but it is really the last stronghold of civilisation in this new dark ages era. Sorry.

@ati1 @pluralistic You asked how he got over 50% of the vote. I merely explained how he could get elected with less than 50% of the vote. Also, Trump's popularity has been dropping like a rock, unfortunately after the election. Part of the problem is the U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision, which enabled a few billionaires to spend a fortune to get Trump elected via heavy, last-minute advertising in "swing states".

@bzdev @pluralistic It doesn't really matter to me if it was 51% or 48%. It's irrelevant. He owns USA again. "Well estabilished democracy" turned out to be smokes and mirrors. His approval rates dropped even worse in 1st cadence and that didn't stop him from winning again. Sorry. Picking details like no it wasn't 50,13% it actually was 49,375% changes nothing.