# Post ts_108677202766684032 - Post ID: `ts_108677202766684032` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2022-07-20T02:01:52.919Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_108677202766684032.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > This story is a must-read for all of those that PRETEND there was no Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election. Remember, the RINOs are almost as bad as the Democrats themselves, and in some ways worse. https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/19/nevertrumps-latest-attempt-to-dismiss-election-concerns-is-particularly-dishonest/ ## Engagement - Likes: 34,253 - Reposts: 10,828 - Replies: 1,766 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.439Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-19T21:41:17.378Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ ## Summary Posted at approximately 10 PM ET while Trump was in New York following Ivana Trump's death, this post exhibits high-confidence authentic authorship. It represents a maintenance-level activation of Trump's perseverative 2020 election fraud narrative, triggered by a NeverTrump commentary piece. The psychologically salient feature is the 'PRETEND' construction, which forecloses good-faith disagreement by framing all skepticism as willful deception — a sophisticated gaslighting maneuver that immunizes the fraud narrative against falsification within the in-group. The RINO equivalence ('almost as bad... in some ways worse') enforces epistemic loyalty by excommunicating internal dissenters, sustaining pressure on Republican officials who might challenge the fraud frame. Defense mechanisms include pathological distortion of settled factual record, immature splitting (fraud-believers vs. traitors), and projection of dishonesty onto critics. No cognitive deterioration markers are evident; the post is coherent and rhetorically intentional at Trump's established baseline. Danger level is assessed as elevated due to ongoing institutional delegitimization and loyalty-enforcement dynamics, though no direct incitement or eliminationist language appears. The 20+ months of undiminished certainty in the fraud narrative is itself a longitudinally notable clinical feature — ideation intensity shows no evidence decay. # Psychological Analysis: Truth Social Post — 2022-07-20 (ts_108677202766684032) ## Authorship Attribution **Assessment: High-confidence authentic Trump (0.78/1.0)** The post was published at **22:01 ET** (converting from 02:01 UTC), during Trump's New York stay following the death of Ivana Trump on July 14. Late evening posting in his local timezone is strongly consistent with authentic Trump authorship. The rhetorical fingerprints are equally distinctive: the partial capitalization of a single word for accusatory emphasis ("PRETEND"), the characteristic hedging-then-amplifying construction ("almost as bad as the Democrats themselves, *and in some ways worse*"), and the RINO-as-traitor taxonomy are all well-documented authentic Trump patterns. The post lacks the polish, event-announcement structure, or grammatical correctness that marks aide-written content. --- ## Situational Context Trump is in New York managing the aftermath of Ivana Trump's death (she died July 14; the funeral occurred at St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan). He is not in his usual Mar-a-Lago posting environment. A NeverTrump article at The Federalist — characterizing election fraud concerns as "particularly dishonest" — appears to have triggered this post. The Bannon contempt conviction (verdict July 22) is imminent, and the January 6 committee hearings are ongoing, providing a hostile ambient environment that activates the election fraud narrative. --- ## Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five) | Trait | Salience | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Extraversion | High | Assertive, declarative, audience-directed ("all of those that PRETEND") | | Agreeableness | Very Low | Contempt toward NeverTrumpers and RINOs; no acknowledgment of alternative views | | Conscientiousness | Low | Impulsive article-share with minimal deliberation; late-night posting | | Neuroticism | Elevated | Angry hostility facet dominant; grievance maintenance | | Openness | Very Low | Rigid adherence to fixed election fraud frame; no engagement with counter-evidence | The dominant facet is **angry hostility** (Neuroticism) combined with **low agreeableness** — a configuration that produces contemptuous dismissal rather than engagement. --- ## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations **Agency Motives (dominant):** Power and status maintenance drive this post. The election fraud narrative is not merely a factual belief but a **supply source** — it positions Trump as uniquely perceptive against a field of cowards and traitors. Preserving the narrative preserves his claim to victimhood and heroism simultaneously. **Communion Motives (minimal):** Only evident in the mobilization function — summoning followers to share/engage ("must-read for all"). **Self-Schema:** "I see what others pretend not to see" — the prophet persecuted by a coalition of cowards and traitors. Both RINOs and Democrats are enemies; the inner-enemy (RINO) is framed as *more* contemptible than the outer-enemy. **World-Schema:** Zero-sum loyalty test environment. No allies are neutral; those who fail to validate the fraud narrative are reclassified as enemies. --- ## Level 3: Narrative Identity **Protagonist Role:** Truth-teller surrounded by willful deceivers. The post casts Trump as the sole reliable narrator in an environment of bad faith. **Narrative Sequence: Contamination.** The 2020 election represents the contamination event — victory then betrayal — and each post maintaining the fraud narrative re-activates this foundational contamination sequence. **Contrasting Other:** NeverTrumpers are the primary foil (dishonest intellectuals dismissing obvious truth), with RINOs as a secondary contrasting other (cowardly enablers of the dishonest intellectuals). **Identity Claims:** - *I am not deceived where others pretend to be.* - *I will name the traitors within my own party.* - *The truth requires a "must-read" — implying I curate what matters.* --- ## Level 4: Clinical Indicators ### Malignant Narcissism Components - **Narcissistic Features (0.72/1.0):** Grandiosity in epistemics (I see what others deny), entitlement to validation, contempt for those who withhold it. - **Antisocial Features (0.45/1.0):** Deceitfulness accusation projected onto critics; disregard for institutional finding of no fraud. - **Paranoid Features (0.58/1.0):** Internal enemy (RINO) framed as active conspiracy of denial; NeverTrumpers characterized as engaged in deliberate dishonesty rather than good-faith disagreement. - **Ego-Syntonic Sadism (0.20/1.0):** Present but mild — the RINO formulation ("in some ways worse") carries a trace of delight in the excommunication, but no overt cruelty display. ### Trigger Analysis **Primary trigger: Narcissistic injury via NeverTrump criticism.** The Federalist article attacking NeverTrumpers was read not as a defense of Trump but as a reminder that NeverTrumpers exist and publish. Their critique constitutes a denial of supply — they refuse to validate his fraud narrative and publicly argue *against* it. This activates a low-intensity narcissistic injury response. **Rage:** Present at mild-to-moderate intensity (0.45/1.0). The rage is cold and contemptuous rather than hot and explosive. Disproportionate to the trigger (a commentary article) in the sense that the response treats the article as evidence of active betrayal rather than mere disagreement. ### Narcissistic State: Mixed Elements of both **grandiose** (certainty about fraud, epistemic superiority) and **vulnerable** (the sense of being surrounded by RINO traitors, the need to call out "pretending"). The oscillation between these states is characteristic of the mixed presentation documented in prior posts. --- ## Defense Mechanisms 1. **Distortion (Pathological):** The most foundational defense in this post. The settled factual record — 60+ dismissed court cases, findings by Republican election officials, CISA, and Trump's own AG — is distorted into a self-evident truth that opponents merely "PRETEND" not to see. This reshapes external reality to meet inner needs at a pathological level. 2. **Splitting (Immature):** Absolute binary construction: fraud-believers vs. pretenders. RINOs are categorically equivalent to or worse than Democrats. No gradient or good-faith disagreement is admitted. 3. **Projection (Immature):** The dishonesty accusation — "particularly dishonest" — is projected from the fraud narrative onto its critics. The rhetorical attribution of bad faith to those who document the absence of fraud is a classic projection maneuver. --- ## Rhetorical Techniques - **Imperative mobilization:** "must-read for all" — converts passive followers into active distributors, expanding the post's reach while making sharing feel like civic duty. - **PRETEND construction:** The most rhetorically potent element. By presupposing that all skeptics secretly know the truth, it forecloses rational counter-argument. One cannot disprove fraud to someone who has framed your disbelief as performance. - **Comparative escalation:** "almost as bad... and in some ways worse" — a hedging-then-intensifying move that plants the RINO-as-traitor frame while preserving surface deniability. - **Third-party authority:** The Federalist citation provides tribal credibility without requiring Trump to make the argument himself, reducing accountability while amplifying the claim. --- ## Gaslighting Analysis **Present.** The 'PRETEND' construction is the operative gaslighting mechanism: it doesn't merely assert fraud occurred, it asserts that everyone who denies it is lying. This is a second-order reality distortion — not just "the election was stolen" but "you know it was stolen and are hiding it." This technique attacks opponents' perception and honesty simultaneously, makes good-faith disagreement structurally impossible within the in-group frame, and shifts the moral weight from the fraud claim to the character of those who dispute it. --- ## Epistemic Closure **Confirmed.** The 'PRETEND' frame creates a closed truth-verification system: acceptance of fraud claims = honest; rejection = dishonest. Within this system, no external evidence can penetrate because all counter-evidence is pre-classified as pretense. This is the longitudinally most dangerous feature of the election fraud perseveration. --- ## Danger Assessment: Elevated No direct incitement, eliminationist language, or violent imagery appears in this post. However, the cumulative danger is elevated because it sustains the legitimacy-denial framework, maintains coercive pressure on Republican officials, and installs self-sealing epistemic closure that prevents followers from updating beliefs. --- ## Cognitive Status No deterioration markers detected. The post is syntactically coherent, rhetorically intentional, and consistent with Trump's established cognitive baseline. The hedging-then-amplifying construction demonstrates intact rhetorical planning. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "There was fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election" | **False** | Over 60 federal and state court cases dismissed for lack of evidence. Election officials including Republican secretaries of state, CISA, and Trump's own Attorney General William Barr found no evidence of fraud at a scale that could have changed the outcome. Multiple audits confirmed Biden's margin. | | "NeverTrump's attempt to dismiss election concerns is 'particularly dishonest'" | **Unverifiable** | This is an evaluative claim about the motives of critics; the underlying claim about dishonesty versus good-faith disagreement is not empirically verifiable. | | "RINOs are 'almost as bad as the Democrats themselves, and in some ways worse'" | **Unverifiable** | This is an opinion claim about relative political loyalty, not a factual proposition susceptible to verification. | Overall Veracity: 33% ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 78%) ### Indicators - Posted at 22:01 ET (Trump in New York for Ivana's funeral arrangements) - late evening consistent with authentic Trump pattern - Partial capitalization ('PRETEND') rather than full-caps rage, suggesting moderate emotional arousal but not peak agitation - Characteristic RINO construction and 'almost as bad... and in some ways worse' hedging-then-amplifying rhetorical move - Conversational, non-polished sentence rhythm with emotionally charged framing - Article-share format with editorial commentary is a well-established authentic Trump behavior on Truth Social ## Psychological Profile ### State **Mixed State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Criticism (NeverTrump Republicans and allied commentators dismissing/countering his 2020 election fraud narrative) **Rage:** Intensity 45% targeting NeverTrump Republicans and RINOs who fail to validate election fraud claims - Proportionality: 25% Sentiment: -0.55 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 72% - Antisocial: 45% - Paranoid: 58% - Sadism: 20% **Defense Mechanisms:** - distortion (pathological) - splitting (immature) - projection (immature) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 42% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Direct reader address ('all of those that PRETEND') creates parasocial mobilization - followers feel summoned to act as witnesses - RINO comparison functions as a loyalty test: real Republicans accept the fraud narrative; those who don't are traitors ## Danger Assessment **ELEVATED** ### Indicators - Continued delegitimization of election institutions fuels generalized potential for political violence, even absent direct incitement in this post - RINO excommunication rhetoric maintains pressure on Republican officials who might certify future elections honestly - Epistemic closure construction ('PRETEND') prevents followers from updating beliefs based on evidence, sustaining radicalization pressure over time ### Gaslighting - 'PRETEND' construction: converts disagreement from intellectual position to willful deception - tells followers that skeptics know the truth but lie about it - Frames the absence of fraud evidence as a cover-up rather than a factual finding, attacking others' perception of documented reality - Positions The Federalist article as definitive proof, pre-empting independent evaluation by followers ## Fact Checks (3) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-19._ > There was fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election **FALSE** Over 60 federal and state court cases dismissed for lack of evidence. Election officials including Republican secretaries of state, CISA, and Trump's own Attorney General William Barr found no evidence of fraud at a scale that could have changed the outcome. Multiple audits confirmed Biden's margin. Sources: CISA Rumor Control statements; Barr DOJ statements Nov-Dec 2020; Federal court records (60+ dismissed cases); Arizona Senate audit results > NeverTrump's attempt to dismiss election concerns is 'particularly dishonest' **UNVERIFIABLE** This is an evaluative claim about the motives of critics; the underlying claim about dishonesty versus good-faith disagreement is not empirically verifiable. > RINOs are 'almost as bad as the Democrats themselves, and in some ways worse' **UNVERIFIABLE** This is an opinion claim about relative political loyalty, not a factual proposition susceptible to verification. Overall Veracity: 33% ## Tags - 2020-election-fraud (95%) - RINO-attack (80%) - epistemic-closure (85%) - gaslighting (70%) - article-amplification (60%) - NeverTrump (75%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Between Battlefields and a Funeral: Combative Legal Defense Yields to Rare Vulnerability on the Day Trump Buried Ivana** Trump spent the eve and morning of his first wife Ivana's funeral cycling between political combat and legal defense before briefly dropping the armor for a genuinely vulnerable tribute. The night opened with election fraud grievances and a grandiose victory lap over a primary endorsement win in Maryland, then darkened into attacks on the January 6th Committee and Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony. The morning brought his most heated post of the day — a lengthy denial of the Secret Service choking allegation — before everything went quiet for a simple, exposed admission: "This will not be easy!!!" It was one of those rare days where personal grief momentarily punctured the otherwise relentless combative posture. Full digest for 2022-07-20: https://trump.fm/date/2022-07-20/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2022, July 20). This story is a must-read for all of those that... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "This story is a must-read for all of those that PRETEND..." Truth Social, 20 Jul. 2022. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "This story is a must-read for all of those that PRETEND...," Truth Social, July 20, 2022, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032. ## For agents - Site overview: https://trump.fm/llms.txt - API specification: https://trump.fm/openapi.json - MCP server: https://trump.fm/mcp (search and fetch tools, no auth) - This post as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/posts/ts_108677202766684032 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/ts_108677202766684032 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/ts_108677202766684032 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2022-07-20 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/ts_108677202766684032.md?analysis=false _Markdown view of a trump.fm page. Post, analysis, date, feed, contradictions, search and about pages answer in markdown at their URL with `.md` appended (`/index.md` for the home page), or when sent `Accept: text/markdown`._