He won the popular vote in a year when incumbents across the world ate shit at the polls because of COVID inflation.
The US had the smallest drop in support for an incumbent party.
And yet he still won
It's a winner take all two-party election where a 3% swing in sentiment results in a complete blowout.
Generally one of the two participants wins those.
There's a really serious systemic problem with the party that chose him in its primaries, and there is nothing to prevent it from happening again, but my point is that a 49.8% mandate given the circumstances is... Well, it's not one of overwhelming sentiment.