In the January 2004 pilot of “The Apprentice,” Donald Trump said something he would never admit now.

“It wasn’t always so easy,” he said in a voice-over, noting that by the late 1980s, “I was seriously in trouble” and “billions of dollars in debt.”

It is one of the few times Trump has ever publicly acknowledged failure. Even then, he was reading a script meant to promote an against-the-odds credentials for viewers — previewing the combative charisma that propelled a political career a decade later.

In his telling now, Trump never loses.

Even when he clearly has been defeated — as he was in the 2020 election — Trump declares victory so often that his supporters believe him. He knows the power of repetition.

“The world for him is divided into winners and losers. And he’s always a winner,” said John Bolton, who was one of Trump’s national security advisers during his first term.

The Supreme Court strikes down his signature tariffs? Trump vows to work around the court, ensuring import taxes can be “used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way.”

His Justice Department stops appealing court rulings blocking executive orders aimed at punishing big law firms, then reverses course and renews those legal fights after coverage of the non-appeals looks like an admission of defeat.

One of the president’s sons, Eric, said his father “has never needed to project a ‘winning image.’ He IS the definition of a winner, based on what he has built and accomplished.”

But for the Republican president, the stakes for winning have never........

© Japan Today