(The Center Square) – President-elect Donald Trump has the potential to become the most influential president since Ronald Reagan if he and a Republican-controlled Congress can accomplish three things, according to pollster Scott Rasmussen: Make the economy work for all Americans; secure the southern border; and returning to common sense around issues of gender identity.

In a post-election analysis released Monday, Rasmussen said Trump’s victory in the 2024 election was significant but not overwhelming.

“A realistic assessment of the results shows that this is not a landslide,” Rasmussen wrote. “Although Trump won the popular vote, it was by the narrowest margin (around 1 percentage point). Since 1888, only three winning candidates have achieved a smaller electoral victory (1960, 2000 and 2016).”

As of midday Monday, Trump had won 74,851,207 votes in the United States, compared to 71,287,325 votes for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Decision officewith votes still being counted, particularly in blue states. California, for example, where Harris won, reports that only 74% of all votes have been counted so far. Trump won the Electoral College with 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226; You needed 270 to win.

“Moreover, it looks like he will fail to get a majority of voters (current estimates show he will win around 49.8%),” Rasmussen added. “In other words, despite the president’s strong performance, a majority of voters voted for someone else.”

Despite this, Trump has the opportunity to become the most influential president of his generation.

“Donald Trump now has the opportunity to become the most influential president since Ronald Reagan,” Rasmussen wrote. “If over the next four years he and the Republican Congress can achieve the top three priorities established by the American people, he will have presided over a fundamental political realignment and paved the way for the continued success of the Republican Party.

“However, Trump’s lasting influence and potential realignment are far from assured. They depend entirely on whether or not the new administration can achieve what voters hope for: getting the economy working, securing the borders and return to common sense when it comes to gender identity. If they fail, voters will move on and the Trump era will be just another episode in the nation’s history.

Rasmussen notes that before the election, only 25% of voters thought the economy was improving, while 41% said it was getting worse.

“Voters in swing states were even more pessimistic,” Rasmussen said.

The border was a key issue for Trump. There have been at least 14 million illegal border crossings since President Joe Biden took office, Center Square first reported.

The border has “become even more important to voters as the impact of Biden’s open border policy has been felt across the country,” Rasmussen said.

On issues of gender identity, Rasmussen wrote: “Simply put, voters recognize that men and women are different. They want their governments and societal institutions to stop insisting that they are not. »