The former president has jumped headfirst into the race in recent days, head-faking a possible rally that he never held and hosting a tele-rally Monday that lasted mere minutes. He issued statements touting the importance of “my base” and his “complete and total endorsement” of Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate who has tried to keep Trump at arm’s length even as Democrat Terry McAuliffe constantly frames him as a “Trumpkin.” He then took a shot on Fox News at the last Republican who ran for Virginia governor, Ed Gillespie, who “did not embrace Trump in Virginia” and—in Trump’s wording—“got killed” at the polls for it.

The underlying message is hardly subtle: If Youngkin wins, Trump will take credit. If he loses, he won’t take blame.

“If there’s one constant with Donald Trump, it’s that he’s going to declare himself the winner —regardless of the outcome,” said Tucker Martin, an adviser to that Gillespie campaign, which struggled when faced with a similar Trump balancing act back in 2013.