On Tuesday, before any of the polls had even closed, Donald Trump began his campaign of whining that the entire election was rigged against him while calling into Fox News.

‘Honestly, look, I want the day to be really, really smooth and really, really good.I understand the importance of that. I was very good at history. And I have been using the word before Bernie Sanders talking about, I guess they all got it from me, it is a rigged system.’

Actually, Bernie Sanders never said the election process was rigged, just an economic and political system that allows billionaires like Donald Trump to skip paying taxes and buy politicians. Trump really likes painting himself as a populist, though, so comparing himself to a true underdog and beleaguered champion of the people sets a good tone for what is sure to be a long and drawn-out tantrum.

Martha MacCallum at Fox News’ America’s Election Headquarters asked the GOP nominee if he foresaw an election that would not end on Nov. 8, but be dragged through the mud of Trump’s refusal to conceded.

“No, I’m not saying that, I’m saying I have to look at what is happening, at reports coming up. There are reports that when people vote for Republicans, the entire ticket switches to Democrat. You have seen that, it is happening at various places today, it is being reported. You put down Republican and it registers as Democrat. We have to be careful, we have to see what it is. There is something really nice about the hold paper ballot system. It takes longer, but there is something awfully nice about the old system. You don’t worry about hacking, you don’t worry about all of the problems that you’re seeing.”

While Democrats have also reported difficulties with the computerized, touch-screen systems incorrectly recording votes, Trump does not seem to understand what hacking is. It would be interesting to watch him go to court insisting that online hackers manipulated the machines in the voting booths.

Trump set this stage weeks ago when he told rally-goers that he knew “something is going on” and that the election would more than likely be rigged against him. Never one to fade away quietly even when he’s wrong about things like birtherism and terrorist attacks, Trump will surely do his level best to turn the election into a reality television show.

After all, that’s the GOP nominee’s specialty.