Hey, voters, you know what Trump is doing with his talk of rigged elections, right? | McClatchy Washington Bureau

For someone who claims that this entire presidential cycle is completely rigged against him, Donald Trump is maintaining a very strong campaign schedule – and even expanding it in these closing days.

Why bother to do three large rallies with three detailed speeches in three separate states on the same day – as Trump just did in crucial Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio – if election results are a foregone conclusion?

That’s a very strenuous day, even for a candidate who isn’t 70 years old, like Trump.

The truth, of course, is this 45th quadrennial selection of a commander in chief isn’t rigged, although saying it is goes over big among his supporters. There are always isolated incidents of voter fraud. Ask Barack Obama; he’s from Chicago’s South Side.

But despite Trumpers’ fervent beliefs, it would be logistically impossible to schedule sufficient fraudulent voters to appear in just the right places in just the right states to produce the necessary electoral votes to swing a close election.

But Trump remains adamant on rigging. “Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day,” Trump tweeted the other day. “Remember folks, it’s a rigged system,” he declared in Pennsylvania.

The rigging claim makes Trump a victim – not a strong presidential profile. And he provides only compelling suspicion, not irrefutable evidence, for the disturbing claim.

But since when, in this aberrant election season, does documentation matter? Hillary Clinton says she turned over all of her emails and the FBI cleared her, there’s no Clinton Foundation influence on her secretary of state work and no Americans died in Libya.

There is a difference, of course. Clinton is lying to assure supporters that despite 30 years’ exposure to the contrary (Whitewater, Cattlegate, Travelgate, Lincoln Bedroom, Monica, Benghazi, etc), she and Bill are as honest as the day is long – in Alaska in midwinter.

Trump repeats undocumented assertions for two reasons: 1) To keep his supporters angry and fearful of victory theft and thus energized to turn out, despite gloomy prognostications that will only worsen. And 2) Let’s be honest, to protect his own south side and ego should he lose on Nov. 8. This is one Trump project that can’t rely on the art of his dealing.

Additionally, Trump has an insatiable need to dominate news, even when it’s bad for his professed goal of winning the presidency. Or by his own behavior could Trump possibly be rigging his own defeat?

Remember, in the first Republican debate last year Trump was the only candidate on the crowded stage to decline a vow to support the GOP nominee, no matter who it was. Of course, the billionaire came around later to sign the meaningless pledge after party pleas and a poll surge.

In the Las Vegas debate last week, Chris Wallace asked whether, after weeks of sowing “rigged” suspicions, Trump would respect the time-honored American tradition of conceding if he lost. “I will tell you at the time,” said Trump, adding a reality-show teaser, “I'll keep you in suspense.”

Later, the candidate softened it to yes, if there’s “a clear election result.”

It got Trump much media attention, which he surely liked. But that attention also smothered positive chatter about his much-improved debate performance.

Obama, who’s also rather fond of spotlights, joined the trumped-up outrage, saying how dangerous such an attitude is to America’s future. Puhleeze! This from the man who lied 36 times about Americans keeping their doctors while imposing a rickety ObamaCare plan and promised, among many other things, hundreds of thousands of new jobs every month starting in the summer of 2010. Still holding your breath?

Trump made the same gloomy rigging forecasts during Republican primaries until – oops! – he won with a record 13.3 million votes.

Trump’s general-election warnings of nefarious doings fall on fertile soil because Americans’ suspicions of government are high and trust in institutions is so low: Congress, both parties, the presidency, Supreme Court, even professional sports. WikiLeaks hacks fuel that cynicism.

Blame belongs all over. But as the country’s alleged leader, Obama has worked assiduously throughout his 405-week reign of error to undermine trust in the court and Congress for his own self-serving political ends.

Keeping opponents divided and fighting amongst themselves is how the Democratic bosses of Chicago have controlled the city’s unruly wards for nearly 90 years.

We’ll hear much more from the president these days as he pursues his second-favorite pastime, after golf: crosscountry fundraising.

There, Obama direly denounces Trump and hails Clinton as the continuation of his legacy. You know, ObamaCare, ISIS, Libya, Syria, Iran, Russia, China, 1 percent economic growth, the nation’s racial harmony and its declining military.