Before the first presidential debate was over, my colleague Aaron Blake noticed an unusual ad on The Washington Post’s website. “Trump won,” it declared in large type. “Contribute.”
The timing was awkward, but this wasn’t necessarily an abnormal response from a campaign: Our guy did great, ignore the haters. Trump didn’t win; he was out-debated on nearly every conceivable metric. But campaigns aren’t usually in the business of saying “We did badly.”
Far more awkward is Trump’s subsequent insistence that he actually did win, because of polls. It’s awkward not only because it’s nonsense, but because it’s not clear whether Trump actually believes it. CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post