Trump Immediately Declares Himself the Winner of Presidential Debate

Assessing his own performance in Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump gave himself a gold star.

The former president fired off a series of self-congratulatory Truth Social posts in the minutes after the debate, which ran about 15 minutes over its expected 90-minute runtime, beginning with: “People are saying BIG WIN tonight!”

Most pundits weighing in on the major networks in the debate’s aftermath, including ABC and MSNBC, agreed that Vice President Kamala Harris had decisively won the night. CNN’s Chris Wallace, a former Fox News broadcaster, said, “I think Kamala Harris pitched a shut-out on almost every subject I can think of.”

Three minutes after his first post, Trump added, “I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!”

He was seemingly referring to the presence of moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, accusing them of ganging up on him alongside Harris. Furious ring-wing observers generally seemed to agree with the claim, with podcaster Megyn Kelly writing on X in the middle of the debate, “Must be so nice to have the moderators running cover for you as a candidate. Makes it so much easier.”

“The moderators are letting @KamalaHarris get away with murder in this debate,” Arizona’s GOP U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake tweeted. “She’s repeating every debunked left-wing talking point from the last decade. But Moderators always make sure to make bogus ‘corrections’ for Trump after he makes a point.”

Two minutes after that, having seemingly tuned into Fox News, Trump posted, “Thank you to Jesse Watters for the nice words on my Debate performance. It was a GREAT evening!”

Watters had hedged wildly on Trump’s performance, claiming that Americans didn’t think “ any of these people won,” although he did claim that the former president had had “some great knockouts.”

His colleague, Fox commentator Brit Hume, was more acquiescent. “She was composed, she was prepared, she kept her cool,” he said. “She saw advantages, she took them. She baited him successfully, which is the story of the debate.”