Trump starts grappling with reality The Republican nominee is hinting at the idea he may not win in November.

Fifteen days out from Election Day, a tone of resignation has crept into Donald Trump’s talk about his presidential ambitions, even as he still barks loudly about winning in November.

The Republican presidential nominee expressed both sentiments Monday morning, acknowledging during a radio interview that he’s losing, while also boasting “we are winning” to his millions of supporters on Twitter, an incorrect claim that he accused the media of concealing.


“I guess I’m somewhat behind in the polls but not by much,” Trump told Bo Thompson of WBT’s “Charlotte’s Morning News” on Monday. “I mean, in your state, I’m 1 point, 2 points and even in three polls. One point, 2 points and even.”

While it’s unclear what polls Trump is referring to, he trails Hillary Clinton in North Carolina in six separate surveys by a margin of 1 to 4 percentage points. Clinton leads by an average of 2.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics’ average of state polls and by 6.1 percentage points in its average of national surveys.

He also rolled back — slightly — his refusal to say that he’ll accept the outcome of the election, saying “too much is being made” about his declaration on last week’s final debate stage.

“Yes, I think too much is being made,” he said during the radio interview. “But, you know, everybody had me winning the third debate and the second debate handily, easily. And when I made that statement, I made it knowingly because what’s happening is absolutely ridiculous.”

Trump’s surprising nods to the idea that he’s losing the race is a departure from the candidate who often bragged of leading an America that will win so much that citizens will get tired of winning. It’s also a tone that his broader campaign has taken on, with campaign manager Kellyanne Conway conceding on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that “we are behind.” (Although she did add on CNN that “this election doesn’t feel over.”)

But Trump is maintaining his defiant posture on Twitter, as he tries to rile up his supporters and convince them that the only way he won’t win in November is if the election is stacked against him. “We are winning and the press is refusing to report it. Don't let them fool you — get out and vote! #DrainTheSwamp on November 8th!” Trump tweeted.

On the campaign trail in Boynton Beach, Florida, another key battleground state in which Trump trails Clinton — by an average of 3.8 percentage points — he ignored the numbers and vowed to win “big” there.

“I actually think we’re winning,” he told farmers at a roundtable, discrediting “phony polls” he said that oversample Democrats.

He went on to suggest the only polls that matter are the surveys that happen to show him leading.

“They’ll put on a poll where we’re not winning, and everybody says, ‘Oh, they’re not winning.’ It’s a heavily weighted poll with Democrats, like the ABC phony poll that just came in. Totally phony poll,” Trump said. “But the polls that mean something, the polls that have been accurate over the years, we’re leading by 2 [points] nationally. So I just wanna say — and watch the polls, because this is part of a crooked system. It’s part of the rigged system that I’ve been talking about since I entered the race. I understand it. It’s a rigged system.”

While there is no evidence the system or election are rigged to deny Trump’s election, he at times still conveyed confidence that he can prevail.

“Everyone’s amazed at the intensity really of what’s going on, and in other places where early voting is starting, they’re already lining up,” he said to Thompson.

Trump likened his election to the Brexit vote, though in its final stages, polls showed a tight race largely split on whether to remain or leave the European Union, which isn't currently the case with Trump and Clinton. And he touted support that doesn’t appear to actually be there.

“I think we have a much greater — a tremendous enthusiasm — much greater enthusiasm than she has. I just don’t think people — I think African-Americans are gonna be voting for me in large numbers because I’m gonna fix the problems that — I mean, the problems are incredible in the inner cities,” said Trump, who continues to falsely suggest all African-Americans live in inner cities and is polling very poorly among black and other nonwhite voters.

Nevertheless, he blamed Democrats who he said come around only during election time for the alarming conditions he claimed inner cities are in.

“They’re dangerous, you can’t get a job and the education’s no good,” he said. “And I always go: ‘What do you have to lose? I will fix it.’ And I’m gonna fix it. And I have tremendous African-American support and I just, you know, frankly, she’s terrible. She talks and nothing gets done.”

For her part, Clinton is already looking past Trump, hoping to leverage her polling advantage to boost Democratic candidates for Congress in the final stretch of the campaign.

“I don’t even think about responding to him anymore,” she said Saturday.