Trump Says He’d Only Accept ‘Honest’ Wisconsin Election Result

Former President Donald Trump left the door open to not accepting the 2024 election result in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Center bias) released Thursday. 

Key Quote: “If everything's honest, I'd gladly accept the results,” Trump said, adding, “If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country.” The former president, who lost the state of Wisconsin in 2020 by about 21,000 votes, insisted during the interview that he “won the election in Wisconsin.” 

Related: When asked by TIME Magazine (Lean Left bias) earlier this week about whether there would be political violence following the 2024 election, Trump said, “And if we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

How the Media Covered It: Headlines across the spectrum often contradicted one another, saying Trump either “says he’ll accept 2024 election results” or “won’t commit to accepting 2024 election results.” Some on the left, like one New Republic (Left bias) opinion writer, took it further by saying Trump “is revealing the truth about who he is.”

Why the Difference: While Trump technically said he’d “accept the results,” his phrasing leaves room for him to not accept the results if, as in 2020, he deems the results to be “dishonest” — regardless of the evidence. Many media observers, especially those aligned with Trump’s opponents, have learned to treat statements like this with skepticism. Thus, while some headlines repeated Trump’s words, others treated the perceived meaning behind his words as the real story.