It's 3 a.m., Trump is tweeting, he says he won third debate

If nothing else this election has taught us that if it's 3 a.m. somewhere there's a good chance Donald Trump is tweeting, and likely self-congratulating too — and so it proved Thursday morning after the Republican candidate landed in Ohio fresh from the final televised presidential debate in Las Vegas.

"Thank you America — I am honored to win the final debate for our MOVEMENT. It is time to #DrainTheSwamp & #MAGA!" Trump said in a post published at 3:14 a.m. ET.

His comments were accompanied by poll numbers from Drudge (Trump 84%; Clinton 16%), the Washington Times (Trump 77%; Clinton 17%), NJ.com (Trump 63%; Clinton 37%) and other media outlets that backed up his claim of victory in an exchange that will probably be defined by what Trump said he might not do: abide by the results of the election in 19 days.

MORE DEBATE COVERAGE:

• Trump slammed for refusing to say if he'd accept election results
• A red line crossed: Takeaways from the final debate
• Analysis: After a brutal campaign, a brutal debate

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Still, according to a CNN/ORC poll of people who watched the debate, it was Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton who beat out Trump in their third debate, by a 13-point margin (Clinton 52%; Trump 39%) — although calling these debates can be more an art than science. That poll nevertheless gave Clinton a "clean sweep" of all three debates.

That Trump is awake between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. has been established previously by — who else? — Donald Trump. "For those few people knocking me for tweeting at three o'clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!" he said in a post on Sept. 30 (with a 2:37 p.m. time-stamp). That was part of his attempt to cast a flurry of accusatory early-morning tweets directed at Clinton for being "duped and used" by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado in a positive light.

Overall, the conversation between the two candidates in Las Vegas was reasonably substantive compared to the previous two rounds. They addressed the Supreme Court, gun rights, abortion policy, immigration, the economy. Trump did not threaten to throw Clinton in jail. There appeared to be fewer interruptions than last time.

But the debate was not entirely without spectacle. The candidates managed to turn a discussion about what Russian President Vladimir Putin might think of their potential presidencies into a yes-you-are-no-I'm-not moment about who was a bigger "puppet":

CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear...

TRUMP: You're the puppet!

CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit...

TRUMP: No, you're the puppet.

The Kremlin said in a fictitious statement it would prefer a puppet to be the next occupier of the White House. The made up remarks did not specify Putin's preferred puppet.