I’ve been rolling this around for a while.

Donald J. Trump has said two things about this effort to recount ballots in Wisconsin. They seem to be in direct contradiction with each other.

He calls former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s request for a recount a “scam.” He dismisses the effort as futile, pointless and that it won’t change a thing. Trump will still win.

Then he said, via Twitter, that he would be leading the popular vote nationally if you deduct the millions of votes he said were cast “illegally.” He currently trails by 2.2 million votes nationally.

Do you follow that? Neither do I.

If Trump believes millions of ballots were cast illegally — and if he assumes most of them were cast in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton — shouldn’t he demand a recount as well?

My feelings about an effort to recount the votes in Wisconsin are evolving … but only a little.

I am not overly suspicious of the balloting that took place in Wisconsin that granted the state’s electoral votes to Donald J. Trump. Yet, Jill Stein — the Green Party presidential candidate — says there is sufficient reason to doubt the integrity of the system. She has gotten the state to agree to a recount.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has joined in. She wants to ensure the votes are tabulated accurately and the system is audited properly.

Trump’s view? He calls it a “scam.”

OK, Mr. President-elect. You’ve bitched and griped during the entire campaign about it being “rigged” against you. Why not, then, line up behind this effort to ensure that the ballots were counted properly?

Trump was elected president. A recount isn’t likely to produce any shocking surprises … at least nothing as shocking as Trump winning Wisconsin’s electoral votes in the first place.

If the winner felt compelled to accuse state and local election officials of seeking to rob him of victory, then he ought to stand squarely behind Stein’s effort to ensure that it was all above board.

While I disagree with Dr. Stein’s effort, I don’t see it as a “scam.” Neither should the president-elect.