Donald Trump has *never* lost a race

According to him, that is.

(Former president Donald Trump)

In the wake of Daniel Cameron’s loss to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday night, former president Donald Trump had a message for the political world: It’s not my fault!

Here’s his post Wednesday morning on his Truth Social site:

See, Trump did everything he could! Cameron moved up 25 points in the polls! Trump still has it!

The real problem was Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who Cameron was too close to! (Also, Mitt Romney!)

Which, uh, directly contradicts what Trump posted on Truth Social just a few days ago.

The point — at least for Trump — is to deflect blame, whether or not his logic makes any sense or his facts are actually facts. And, for what it’s worth, they’re not. Cameron was NEVER behind Beshear by 25 points — and Trump certainly then can’t take credit for boosting the Republican up in the race’s final days.

What’s remarkable — or, maybe not, considering this is Trump — is that even as he is running away from blame for Cameron’s loss, he is sprinting to take credit for Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves winning reelection in a heavily Republican state. (“Tate Reeves, on the other hand, surged to win for Governor of Mississippi after my involvement,” wrote Trump.)

This is classic heads-I-win-tails-you-lose situation. If a Trump-backed candidate wins, the former president gets all the credit. (Or, more accurately, takes all the credit.) If a Trump-backed candidate loses, it’s either because he (or she) didn’t listen to Trump enough or was too far gone for him to save or, in Cameron’s case, was too damaged by his connections to a less popular politician.

In the runup to the 2022 midterms, Trump literally said that quiet part out loud.

"Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit,” he said of his party’s candidates. “If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” (Yes, that is a REAL quote.)

When Republicans did underperform in the 2022 midterms — due at least in part to poor candidates who Trump backed — the former president (surprise!) sought to put blame elsewhere.

“It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake.”

But, it wasn’t just McConnell’s fault!

“It wasn't my fault that the Republicans didn't live up to expectations in the midterms,” Trump wrote in another post “It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother, that lost large numbers of voters.”

McConnell! Abortion! Definitely NOT Trump!

(Sidebar: It’s not just in elections where Trump sees himself as blameless. In March 2020, amid his administration’s botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump insisted that “I don’t take responsibility at all.”)

In fact — and you may not have heard this — Trump actually WON in the 2022 election. It’s right there on Truth Social:

And, four years earlier — in advance of the 2018 midterms — Trump was, yet again, insisting that no matter what happened, he would win.

Here’s an exchange with the Associated Press in mid October 2018:

AP: So my question is, if Republicans were to lose control of the House on November 6th — or a couple of days later depending on how long it takes to count the votes — do you believe you bear some responsibility for that?

Trump: No, I think I’m helping people. Look, I’m 48 and 1 in the primaries, and actually it’s much higher than that because I endorsed a lot of people that were successful that people don’t even talk about.

Heads I win! Tails you lose!

The obsession with winning is, obviously pathological. Trump has told himself a story of his life in which he is the forever winner. He literally cannot comprehend a reality where he doesn’t emerge on top. It doesn’t compute for him.

This quote, from an interview with the Washington Post in December 2015, is deeply telling on that front:

“My whole life is about winning. I always win. I win at golf. I’m a club champion many times at different clubs. I win at golf. I can sink the three-footer on the 18th hole when others can’t. My whole life is about winning. I don’t lose often. I almost never lose.”

(Sidebar: He is, in fact, not a club champion.)

Now consider all of that in light of the 2020 election and — gulp — the coming 2024 election.

In the former, Trump refused (and refuses) to acknowledge his defeat — choosing instead to allege a widespread national conspiracy of election fraud that is disputed at every turn by a little thing called facts. He incited a crowd gathered on January 6 to protest those results. You know what happened from there.

In the latter, he is already laying the foundation to claim that the election will be rigged. (“Election interference!,” Trump screams about the four indictments he currently faces.) What that rhetoric will mean in November 2024 remains to be seen — but my guess is that it won’t be good.

This then is about a lot more than a man who can’t ever admit he’s lost. It’s about a man whose obsession with winning has already imperiled democracy once. And seems poised to do it again in a year’s time.