As Republicans absorbed what the source described as a historic smackdown, Donald Trump initially sounded prepared to live with the voters’ verdict. He told The New York Times that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the midterm election results and work with the incoming Democratic majority.

In a phone interview, Trump said, “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them.” He then added, “We’ll probably work something out.”

Trump delivered a similar message to CBS News around the same time. “My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” he said.

The performance was restrained enough to draw praise from comedian Bill Maher. On his HBO program, Maher said Trump had been “amazingly humble” after the devastating Republican defeats.

That version of Trump did not last long. By Monday morning, the president had returned to his social media platform with unsupported claims casting doubt on the honesty of the election.

Trump asked, “How could the Polls be so wrong???” He also claimed that some early voting totals were so large that Republicans could not win, regardless of how many people turned out.

The president then placed voting machines at the center of his latest theory. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” he wrote.

Trump offered nothing resembling evidence to support any of those assertions. His complaint about early voting was particularly rich, given that he has spent years attacking ballots counted later in the process.

The polling complaint also collided with the available data described in the source. The polls performed relatively well and, if anything, underestimated Democratic support, undercutting Trump’s conspiracy theories about the polling industry before the election.

The reported results showed the scale of the Republican defeat. Democrats won Senate control with 54 seats to Republicans’ 44, while an MS NOW estimate placed the House at 256 Democrats and 170 Republicans.

The governor results also favored Democrats, with 28 Democratic governors compared with 20 Republicans. Against that backdrop, Trump’s quick pivot from acceptance to denial looked less like a measured response and more like a familiar retreat into grievance.

The broader concern reaches beyond one bitter social media post. Trump has repeatedly refused to accept electoral outcomes throughout his career in Republican politics, including contests that did not involve a Democratic opponent.

After finishing second to Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Trump claimed the Texas Republican had “stole” the race “illegally.” He demanded an extraordinary remedy rather than accepting the caucus result.

“Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” Trump said at the time. The episode was largely ignored, but it offered an early indication of his refusal to treat the ballot box as the final word.

The latest statement leaves two possibilities raised by the source. Trump may simply be soothing himself after a humiliating defeat by posting conspiratorial misinformation, allowing the episode to fade into the larger record of his presidency.

The other possibility is more serious. His message could be the opening move in a broader attempt to contest the same Democratic victories that he had promised to accept only six days earlier.

Steve Benen, a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor, framed the central question plainly: Was Trump’s statement the end of his reaction or the beginning of a larger challenge? Given his history, the sudden reversal demands attention rather than another round of indulgent surprise.