For years, President Donald Trump has claimed any election he lost or even feared losing was rigged. So it was a surprise to many when, on election night after his party was routed in the midterms last week, he said he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results.

That lasted less than a week.

“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” Trump wrote Monday on social media. “How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote. It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!”

Trump has in recent days returned to his penchant for amplifying conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud. On Saturday, he had shared several posts from others questioning the results with convoluted mathematical theories about election rigging.

The posts echo his previous reactions to elections that did not go his way.

He once objected to the results of the Emmys. He falsely claimed that President Barack Obama had not won the popular vote in 2012. He asserted that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas “stole” a primary victory from him in Iowa in 2016. He predicted, before he defeated Hillary Clinton that year to win the presidency, that the general election would be “rigged.” Leading up to the 2020 election, Trump again predicted that he would be cheated out of a victory and refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

This time, Megyn Kelly, the conservative commentator, wrote two words in response to Trump’s post: “Just stop.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Luke Broadwater/Tierney L. Cross
c. 2026 The New York Times Company