‘It works out actually better’: When Trump loses, he’s quick to tout Plan B as the real victory

After fighting for months in court to try to get a citizenship question on the 2020 Census — and briefly overruling his own Justice Department’s legal surrender — Trump abandoned the effort in a manner that had a familiar plot twist: A surprise backup plan that, in Trump’s view, is actually better than the original plan.

“It’s deeply regrettable, but it will not stop us from collecting the needed information — and I think even in greater detail and more accurately,” Trump said during a Rose Garden news conference Thursday. “Ultimately, this will allow us to have an even more complete count of citizens than through asking the single question alone. It will be, we think, far more accurate.”

It’s part of a pattern that Trump has developed during a presidency in which many of his most hard-fought battles have ended in defeat or awkward pivots to secondary options.

View the complete July 13 article by Toluse Olorunnipa on The Washington Post website here.