Analysis: FoxNews is promoting Ron DeSanctus so hard and so much that ...

3y ago Feb 27, 2023 at 3:44 PM

FoxNews is promoting Ron DeSanctus so hard and so much that there’s not much time left for Real News. Reminds me of 2016 when they were pushing “JEB!” The new Fox Poll, which have always been purposely terrible for me, has “TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious,” but they barely show it. Instead they go with losers like Karl Rove, Paul Ryan and now, even “Yesper,” who have been wrong about everything! Isn’t there a big, beautiful, Network which wants to do well, and make a fortune besides? FAKE NEWS!

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-20. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Grandiose

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

68%

This post is a textbook narcissistic injury response to Fox News's emerging editorial support for DeSantis — almost certainly authentic Trump, composed mid-morning Sunday at Mar-a-Lago in reaction to live Fox viewing. The psychological structure follows the standard devaluation cascade: the betraying ally (Fox) is relabeled as fake; the rival (DeSantis) is pre-emptively discredited through historical loser-association (JEB!); and competing voices (Rove, Ryan, Esper) are categorically dismissed. Paranoid attribution is prominent: Fox polls are "purposely" terrible, and a flattering poll is being actively suppressed. The gaslighting dimension is notable — Fox is reclassified as FAKE NEWS not for factual inaccuracy but editorial disloyalty, retraining the base to distrust a formerly sanctioned source. No cognitive deviations from baseline are observed; nickname coinages are pre-established. The rhetorical architecture — suppressed truth framing, historical analogy as prophecy, nickname as dominance ritual — is sophisticated and consistent with the established pattern. Danger level is none; this is competitive media-management operating within rhetorical norms, though it contributes to ongoing media-distrust ecosystem maintenance that has broader collective radicalization implications in surrounding posts.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

Invented derogatory nicknames ('DeSanctimonious,' 'DeSanctus,' 'Yesper') — authentic Trump coinage pattern
Stream-of-consciousness structure pivoting between Fox, poll, 2016 analogy, and network pitch without logical scaffolding
Mid-morning Sunday timing consistent with watching Fox News and reacting in real time at Mar-a-Lago
Rhetorical question format ('Isn't there a big, beautiful Network...') — characteristic Trump rhetorical tic
Selective ALL CAPS with inconsistent capitalization — not aide-style

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Grandiose State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Comparison (Fox News editorial shift toward DeSantis)

Rage: Intensity 55% targeting Fox News, DeSantis, Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, Mark Esper

Proportionality

30%

Sentiment

-0.52

Mildly Hypomanic

High-output posting day across multiple grievance domains (prosecutors, election fraud, LIV Golf promotion, Fox/DeSantis attack)Rapid topic pivoting within single post (Fox to poll to 2016 analogy to commentators to network pitch)Elevated reactive affect visible in capitalization patterns and rhetorical acceleration

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

82%

Antisocial

25%

Paranoid

62%

Sadism

42%

Defense Mechanisms:

projectionsplittingrationalizationdenial

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

42%

Parasocial Techniques:

Suppressed truth framing ('they barely show it') invites followers into a shared revelation experienceHistorical analogy positions audience as co-witnesses to a repeating pattern only Trump's followers can seeRhetorical question about a new loyal network seeds desire among followers for a Trump-aligned media ecosystem

Danger Assessment

None

Gaslighting Detected:

Retroactive classification of Fox News as 'FAKE NEWS' after years of symbiotic mutual promotion — retraining base to distrust previously sanctioned information source upon defection
Claim that Fox polls have 'always been purposely terrible' distorts the historical record of Fox's generally favorable Trump treatment
'They barely show it' framing converts selective editorial prioritization into active suppression conspiracy

Reality Distortions:

Fox News characterized as 'FAKE NEWS' despite being Trump's primary promotional platform for nearly a decade — the label is triggered by disloyalty, not factual inaccuracy
Poll citation deployed as evidence of media conspiracy rather than competitive landscape data
JEB! analogy frames DeSantis as a predetermined failure, pre-emptively discounting legitimate primary competition

Fact Checks (4)

"Fox News poll showing TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious"

Mostly True

Multiple polls from late 2022 and early 2023 showed Trump with substantial leads over DeSantis in Republican primary matchups, including Fox News surveys. The characterization that Fox 'barely showed' flattering results is consistent with reported editorial tension between Trump and Fox leadership in this period.

"Fox News polls have always been purposely terrible for Trump"

Mostly False

Fox News polls during 2020 and 2022 showed mixed results; the characterization of systemic intentional bias is not supported by the polling record. Fox News polling is conducted by a third-party unit with established methodological standards independent of editorial direction.

"Fox News was pushing JEB! in 2016"

Half True

Fox gave Bush significant early coverage in 2015 as an establishment favorite, but also gave Trump enormous airtime throughout the 2016 primary. Characterizing Fox as a JEB! booster ignores the symbiotic relationship Fox had with Trump's ratings-generating candidacy.

"Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and Mark Esper have been wrong about everything"

Unverifiable

This is a categorical opinion claim not subject to factual verification. All three have made predictions or recommendations that proved incorrect in specific instances, but the absolute framing is rhetorical, not factual.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Analysis: Truth Social — 2023-02-27T15:44:12Z

Authorship Attribution

Local time: UTC 15:44 = 10:44 AM EST. Trump was almost certainly at Mar-a-Lago (Palm Beach) on a Sunday in late February 2023 — a period he routinely spent there. Mid-morning Sunday is a plausible authentic posting window; he is known to post after watching morning television, and the content is clearly a reactive response to Fox News programming he was watching in real time.

Stylometric profile is strongly authentic: invented derogatory nicknames ("DeSanctus," "DeSanctimonious," "Yesper"), unpredictable capitalization ("Real News," "JEB!"), stream-of-consciousness pivoting between the Fox poll, the 2016 analogy, rival commentators, and a quasi-rhetorical pitch for a rival network. The "Yesper" label (for former SecDef Mark Esper — a pre-existing Trump coinage) is an insider nickname unlikely to appear in aide-written content. Aide-written posts tend toward polished event announcements; this post is emotionally reactive, unresolved, and structurally loose.

Confidence: High — authentic Trump.

Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

Low Agreeableness dominates: devaluation of Fox News, Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and Esper as "losers wrong about everything"; competitive contempt for DeSantis through nickname diminution. High Neuroticism (angry hostility facet): the post is organized around perceived betrayal and grievance. High Extraversion (assertiveness, attention-seeking): the rhetorical demand for a new loyal network reveals an expectation of media servitude. Low Conscientiousness (poor impulse regulation): the JEB! analogy is partially self-undermining — it implicitly admits Fox once favored someone who lost. Low Openness (rigid values): binary framing — real news vs. fake news, winners vs. losers.

Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

Primary motive: Power/Status maintenance. The trigger is unmistakable — Fox News's perceived shift toward DeSantis threatens Trump's monopoly on right-wing media allegiance, a core narcissistic supply channel. The post simultaneously reasserts dominance over DeSantis (ridicule via nicknames), over Fox (characterize as corrupt/fake), over rival commentators (Rove, Ryan, Esper as discredited losers), and over the media landscape itself.

Schema: Others exist in a hierarchical loyalty grid. Fox was once loyal; it is now defecting and therefore "fake." The poll that flatters him is "real"; Fox's editorial suppression of that poll constitutes betrayal. This is a classic narcissistic loyalty schema: agreement = genuine, disagreement = corruption.

Level 3: Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Persecuted champion. The narrative structure is a contamination sequence — Fox News, once a reliable ally, has been corrupted by DeSantis boosterism and Never-Trump commentators. Trump positions himself as the authentic standard being hidden from the public by media gatekeepers.

Contrasting other: DeSantis (diminished as a JEB! recurrence — a media-manufactured candidate who will fail), plus Rove/Ryan/Esper as a chorus of "loser" advisors whose continued Fox airtime signals institutional bad faith.

Identity claims: "I am what Fox is hiding." "My poll numbers reflect genuine public will." "I defeated the media's favorite in 2016 and will do so again." The JEB! comparison is rhetorically elegant: it frames DeSantis as the second iteration of a failed media project, positioning Trump as the natural law that reasserts itself regardless of elite preference.

Level 4: Clinical Indicators

Malignant Narcissism (Kernberg)

Narcissistic features (high): Grandiosity in assuming Fox's entire programming schedule is organized around undermining him. Entitlement: the rhetorical question ("Isn't there a big, beautiful Network...") reveals expectation that a major media company should reorganize itself around his preferences. Belief in specialness: the Fox poll framing ("TRUMP Crushing") is the suppressed truth only he reveals.

Antisocial features (low in this post): No direct calls to rule-breaking; the post operates within rhetorical norms.

Paranoid features (moderate): Fox polls are "always purposely terrible for me" — systematic conspiratorial attribution. The word "purposely" is load-bearing: it converts potential editorial indifference into active malice. The claim Fox "barely shows" the flattering poll while amplifying Rove/Ryan/Esper extends this to editorial curation conspiracy.

Ego-syntonic sadism (mild-moderate): Nickname invention ("DeSanctimonious," "Yesper") functions as public mockery — a dominance ritual designed to permanently attach humiliating connotations.

Defense Mechanisms

Projection (immature): Accusing Fox of producing "FAKE NEWS" — a label previously applied to adversarial outlets — triggered here by disloyalty, not factual inaccuracy.
Splitting (immature): Fox flips from all-good to all-bad within the post's logic. "Real News" vs. "FAKE NEWS," unanimous "losers," JEB!/DeSantis equivalence — all reflect black-and-white categorical sorting.
Rationalization (neurotic): The flattering Fox poll is marshaled as evidence of bad faith in not promoting it — circular logic transforming favorable data into proof of conspiracy.
Denial (pathological, mild): The JEB! frame pre-emptively discredits the rivalry by historical analogy rather than engaging the actual competitive landscape.

Cognitive Status Markers

No significant deviations from established Trump baseline. "Yesper" and "DeSanctimonious" are pre-existing Trump coinages, not new confabulations. Sentence structure is typical: short declarative bursts, paratactic accumulation, rhetorical questions for closure. The JEB! historical analogy is temporally coherent and correctly recalled. Vocabulary and syntactic complexity are within baseline range.

Baseline deviation: None.

Rhetorical & Propaganda Techniques

Historical analogy as prophecy: The JEB! parallel inoculates the audience against DeSantis coverage before it can take hold.
Suppressed truth framing: Citing a flattering poll while claiming it is being hidden deploys a classic conspiracy structure (truth exists; powerful forces suppress it; I reveal it to you).
Hyperbole: "big, beautiful Network," "crushing."
Ad hominem: Rove, Ryan, Esper dismissed categorically as "losers wrong about everything."
Rhetorical question as demand: "Isn't there a big, beautiful Network...?" barely disguises an entitlement expectation.
Nickname as dominance ritual: "DeSanctimonious" conflates DeSantis with sanctimony; "Yesper" mocks Esper via sycophantic yes-prefix. Both function as permanent rhetorical diminishment.

Gaslighting & Reality Distortion

The framing of Fox News as "FAKE NEWS" is a significant reality inversion: Fox has been Trump's primary promotional platform for nearly a decade. Retroactively categorizing it as fake because of editorial drift toward a rival constitutes loyalty retraining of the base — redirecting them to distrust a previously sanctioned information source. The claim that Fox polls have "always been purposely terrible for me" distorts the historical record of Fox's generally favorable Trump treatment.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Fox News poll showing TRUMP Crushing DeSanctimonious"	Mostly True	Multiple polls from late 2022 and early 2023 showed Trump with substantial leads over DeSantis in Republican primary matchups, including Fox News surveys. The characterization that Fox 'barely showed' flattering results is consistent with reported editorial tension between Trump and Fox leadership in this period.
"Fox News polls have always been purposely terrible for Trump"	Mostly False	Fox News polls during 2020 and 2022 showed mixed results; the characterization of systemic intentional bias is not supported by the polling record. Fox News polling is conducted by a third-party unit with established methodological standards independent of editorial direction.
"Fox News was pushing JEB! in 2016"	Half True	Fox gave Bush significant early coverage in 2015 as an establishment favorite, but also gave Trump enormous airtime throughout the 2016 primary. Characterizing Fox as a JEB! booster ignores the symbiotic relationship Fox had with Trump's ratings-generating candidacy.
"Karl Rove, Paul Ryan, and Mark Esper have been wrong about everything"	Unverifiable	This is a categorical opinion claim not subject to factual verification. All three have made predictions or recommendations that proved incorrect in specific instances, but the absolute framing is rhetorical, not factual.

Overall Veracity: 50%

Longitudinal Context (same-day posts)

The surrounding posts on 2023-02-27 show a consistent high-activation psychological state: election fraud claims ("Crooked Democrat Prosecutors... trying to steal a second Presidential Election"), partisan attack framing, and LIV Golf/Trump National promotion functioning as narcissistic supply with commercial embedding. The overall post cluster reveals a high-output day combining grievance maintenance, competitive threat management, and brand amplification — a pattern consistent with primary rivalry activation phases.

Danger Assessment

Level: None. The post contains no eliminationist language, dehumanization, or stochastic terrorism indicators. The media attacks ("FAKE NEWS") against Fox contribute to a generalized media-distrust ecosystem, but this specific post lacks the target-articulation + grievance + implied action structure. Surrounding election fraud posts are more concerning from a collective radicalization standpoint than this particular competitive-media critique.

Archetypal Analysis

Primary archetype: Trickster/King hybrid. Fox News represents institutional order (the authorized right-wing information channel), and Trump disrupts that authority by labeling it fake. The appeal targets followers who resent media gatekeeping. The King archetype asserts itself in the demand for a loyal network — tribute expected from the information infrastructure. Shadow projection: The "loser" designation applied to Rove, Ryan, and Esper projects the anxiety Trump is managing about his own potential relegation to yesterday's news.