Everyone has feelings, even the digital denizens of the Internet’s anarchic heart, and on Monday night, Donald Trump hit them where it hurts. The Republican nominee, who has found enthusiastic support among the many anonymous alt-right trolls, hackers, white supremacists, and other mischief-makers who inhabit the Web’s dark corners, was engaged in a rambling diatribe about “cyber” during the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton when he accidentally crossed the line.

“I don’t think anybody knows that it was Russia that broke into the D.N.C.,” Trump asserted, bristling at an accusation by Clinton that he “invited Putin” to hack the U.S. government by applauding the recent cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee this summer. “I don’t—maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China, it could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds, O.K.?” Trump said.

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The stereotype of an obese, possibly bedridden hacker did not go over well with some members of 4chan, the anything-goes online forum that has originated many of the white-supremacist memes that have suffused the Trump campaign. “OK guys, let’s cut the bullshit. Trump actually sucked tonight,” one user wrote, according to the Daily Beast. “Let’s talk about where we go from here. What does Trump need to do better next debate?” Another posted an image of a large man clutching a computer keyboard with the caption: “YFW [Your Feelings When] trump calls you out for being a 400 lb hacker.” The criticism continued. “Trump did terribly,” another user said. “There was so much gold to go after, like her emails, how she sold uranium to Russia, the DNC leaks, etc. and he said maybe 1 or 2 sentences about it while spending 20 minutes ranting and raving trying to defend himself over trivial things while Hillary just sat there looking pleased with herself. Goddamnit Donald, there was so much you could have hit her on. . . . I’m pissed as fuck.”

Despite disappointing, angering, and alienating a portion of his typically devout message-board fan base, 4chan and Reddit users still managed to find it in their hearts to mobilize online for Trump on Monday night. Users on the unofficial pro-Trump subreddit R/The_Donald and 4chan posted links to dozens of unscientific polls from news organizations, including Wired, The Telegraph, USA Today, NBC Nightly News, and CNBC, which were asking readers to vote on who they thought won the first debate. Trump supporters bombarded the easily manipulated polls, creating a false sense that Trump had outperformed his opponent. “Abuse Airplane Mode toggling,” one 4chan user wrote, explaining how Trump supporters could vote again and again in various online polls. And it was successful: Trump ended up winning in the unofficial polls, and then spent the evening tweeting out the poll results, which showed he had won. "Great debate poll numbers - I will be on @foxandfriends at 7:00 to discuss," he wrote Tuesday morning. "Enjoy!" For Trump, it was the perfect result for a campaign not grounded in facts or reality.