Although famous for his business acumen, for Trump, numbers were not a fixed thing, “for him they were surprisingly, even magically elastic.” Elections, like bets, lie in the fickle hands of the Goddess of Wagering and as the aforementioned Axthelm wrote: "The Goddess must be appeased, soothed, tithed. She must never be affronted by statements hinting that a gambler has taken fate into his own firm grip."