He’s said that before. I don’t think this is new news. But, even in acknowledging that he didn’t win the election, he has continued to insist that it’s only because of massive fraud and rigging.
It’s not illegal when the President does it!
See, the thing is, does anybody seriously believe that Trump really thought the really won the election, or that his attempts to “hold [the bank] up to get [his] money back” was a permissible way to deal with it? Or that any of the 60+ lawsuits could have been taken seriously?
If Trump was ignorant of any of the realities here, it could only have been really blatant willful ignorance. Does anyone seriously doubt that?
Trump, and many of his cohorts excuse this type of activity because they think that everyone does it. Some of it is rationalization to excuse their behavior. Some believe it.
After all, it’s Trumps business model is to project, deny, delay, sue and lie, lie, lie until it hopefully goes away. He can’t lose. It’s simply beyond his ability to understand that he can.
It’s who he has always been, it’s all he knows. I doubt very much he has ever had a moment of clarity about this. I doubt introspection is in his tool kit.
His supporters from congress to the average Joe want just the same. They freaking admire his ability to skirt laws and lie and con and they also want to do anything with impunity.
I think that that is an open question. With someone as fluid with the truth as Trump its very hard to determine the extent to which he believes his own lies. I don’t think the distinction between truth and falsity plays a large role in Trumps world view. Between the overarching ego and his membership in the Norman Vincent Peale cult, Trump is probably reflexively alters his world to match what he wants to be true.
In fact evidence of his sincerely believing his own hype is evidenced in silenus’ post
in which Trump seems to believe that after hearing his side of things, a group of academic historians are likely to produce a work that puts him in a good light.
Root for the unendorsed candidates to win their primaries, and lose the elections. There’s no excuse* for the all-powerful Democrat election-stealing cabal to lot expand their majorities in '22; they don’t need to waste any resources on stealing a presidential election.
*beyond the fact that it doesn’t actually exist, I mean.