Donald Trump’s Go-To Move When Debates Don’t Go Well

It does not usually involve congratulating the moderators for their impartiality and quietly resolving to do better the next time.

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ABC News’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, center, moderated the presidential debate on Tuesday night. It was “three on one,” Mr. Trump later wrote on social media in all caps.

As former President Donald J. Trump sought to minimize the damage done by Tuesday night’s debate, selling his defensive, angry and frequently fact-challenged performance as a resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, he resorted to a time-tested tactic.

Just seven minutes after it was over, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that the debate had been “THREE ON ONE!” Then, in the spin room, he pressed his case that the moderators had treated him unfairly.

Across the years, Mr. Trump has treated the moderators of debates as useful foils, often working the refs by suggesting beforehand that they were likely to be unfair to him and then, if things did not go so well, pillorying them after the fact.

Here is a look back at some of Mr. Trump’s complaints about debates in which he was widely seen as coming up short.

Aug. 6, 2015: The first G.O.P. primary debate

On Megyn Kelly: ‘These ridiculous questions’

In his first Republican presidential primary debate in the 2016 election cycle, Mr. Trump was asked by the Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly to explain, among other things, why he had called women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

Mr. Trump did not appreciate the question. Afterward, he promoted tweets that called Ms. Kelly a “bimbo” and that said she had “bombed” as a debate moderator. A day later, he complained that Ms. Kelly had treated him unfairly and appeared to suggest that she was menstruating during the debate.

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