django - set user permissions when user is automatically created using get_or_create

Use add and remove methods:

 from django.contrib.auth.models import Permission
 permission = Permission.objects.get(name='Can view poll')
 u.user_permissions.add(permission)

Andrew M. Farrell's answer is correct. I only add the use of get_user_model() and a full example.

from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
from django.contrib.auth.models import Permission
u = get_user_model().get(username=new_user_name)

To get the permission you can use

permission = Permission.objects.get(name='Can view poll')

or

permission = Permission.objects.get(codename='can_view_poll')

then add it to the user permissions set

u.user_permissions.add(permission)