On the long playlist of President Trump’s self-pitying complaints, one tune has blared louder than any other: Elections are rigged — against Republicans generally and him specifically. In 2016, he sang that song to discredit the predicted Hillary Clinton victory. In 2018, he sang it with fear as Democrats took the House. In 2020, it served as the soundtrack for Jan. 6, 2021.

He has never given it a rest, and with the midterms almost upon us, it roars everywhere. His administration sued states over voter rolls, and his F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, suggested federal agents at polling sites. This reflects his dedication to fiction, the gullibility of supporters, and the failure of logic to pierce their delusions.

In 2016, Trump claimed elections were rigged until he won, then deemed his victory legitimate while dismissing Clinton's popular vote lead as fraudulent. He convened the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, led by Kris Kobach, which found no proof of fraud and disbanded.

The $787.5 million Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit was an admission of promoting bogus stolen-election theories. Yet Trump's protests and his supporters' belief that the establishment is out to get them remain unshaken, ignoring the inconsistency of Democrats supposedly stealing some elections but not others.