Trump said Bevin losing in Kentucky 'sends a really bad message.' Bevin lost.

Donald Trump and Matt Bevin.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

President Trump made it clear during a rally on Monday that the Kentucky gubernatorial race was actually about him, not incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.

"Here's the story," he told supporters in Lexington. "If you win, they are going to make it like, ho hum. And if you lose, they are going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. You can't let that happen." Trump won Kentucky by 30 points during the 2016 presidential election, and appeared to concede that the very unpopular Bevin might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Bevin is "difficult," he said, and always asking him to give Kentucky money. "He's such a pain in the ass, but that's what you want," Trump added. He went on to declare the Bevin needed to be re-elected for his own sake, because "if you lose, it sends a really bad message."

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Fast forward to Tuesday night, when Bevin lost to Democrat Andy Beshear, the state's attorney general. Trump has yet to comment on the outcome of the election, or the bad message that it sends.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.