# Post ts_110373156085945104

- Post ID: `ts_110373156085945104`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2023-05-15T14:25:06.887Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110373156085945104
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110373156085945104/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_110373156085945104.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> Page 2: Fox News is way down in the Ratings. After firing Tucker Carlson and refusing to fight against a VERY Corrupt and Rigged 2020 Presidential Election, which just cost them plenty of money, prestige, and RATINGS, they are a far cry from what they used to be. FoxNews has become the DeSanctimonious Network, but it will never work because he doesn’t have the goods. Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking. Even with Fox, he’s already pretty close to that again!

## Engagement

- Likes: 20,580
- Reposts: 5,054
- Replies: 876
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.412Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T04:46:02.712Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

This post represents a high-intensity grandiose rebound following a cluster of narcissistic injuries: the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse liability verdict (May 9, $5M damages), Fox News' structural pivot toward DeSantis, and ongoing 2024 primary pressure. The post's most clinically significant feature is the retroactive sovereignty claim — 'dead man walking without my Endorsement' — which functions to reabsorb all externally-originated success back into the self. DeSantis had won his 2022 gubernatorial race by ~19 points; the claim is demonstrably exaggerated and serves a defensive rather than factual function.

The central reality distortion inverts the Dominion settlement: Fox paid $787.5M because it spread Trump's election lies; Trump reframes this as Fox's punishment for insufficient loyalty. This is a closed factual loop requiring followers to adopt a reality incompatible with documented public record — consistent with shared psychosis dynamics.

Defense mechanisms are predominantly immature (splitting, displacement, devaluation) with a pathological projection element: 'dead man walking' status assigned to DeSantis maps more accurately onto Trump's own legal and electoral position. Sadism is ego-syntonic and undisguised.

Authorship is confidently authentic. Cognitive functioning within Trump's established baseline. Danger level elevated due to 'dead man walking' eliminationist framing applied to a named political rival, though no direct mobilization call is present.

# Psychological Analysis — ts_110373156085945104 (2023-05-15)

## Authorship
**High confidence: authentic Trump.** The 'Page 2' designation is the primary tell — this is a spontaneous overflow of a prior post that ended mid-word ('He sucks, & so does F...'). Aide-authored content does not begin with 'Page 2' to continue an unplanned rant. The 10:25 AM EDT timing is consistent with Trump's documented pattern of reactive morning media consumption. The 'DeSanctimonious' coinage, emotional escalation structure, and 'dead man walking' register are incompatible with staff-polished messaging.

## Psychological State and Triggers

**Primary trigger: Composite narcissistic injury.** The E. Jean Carroll verdict (May 9, six days prior — $5M in damages for sexual abuse and defamation) represents a severe public humiliation with financial and reputational dimensions. This post shows the characteristic delayed-but-intense grandiose rebound, with rage displaced away from the Carroll wound onto a more aggressive battlefield (Fox, DeSantis).

The Fox News pivot to DeSantis following Tucker Carlson's April 24 firing constitutes a secondary injury: loss of a critical media patron. Trump's response is to preemptively reframe Fox's defection as a strategic error that will doom both the network and DeSantis, restoring Trump to causal primacy.

**Narcissistic state: Grandiose (compensatory intensity).** The claim that DeSantis was a 'dead man walking' without Trump's endorsement is historically questionable — DeSantis won his 2022 reelection by ~19 points on the strength of his own gubernatorial record — but it serves to retroactively subordinate all DeSantis success to Trump's patronage. This kind of retroactive ownership is a signature grandiose maneuver: no success can exist independent of the self.

## Defense Mechanisms

**Splitting (immature):** Fox is cleanly divided into good-Fox (Tucker, election fighter) and bad-Fox (DeSanctimonious Network). No ambiguity is tolerated. **Displacement (immature):** The Carroll liability and primary anxiety are redirected onto Fox News ratings trajectories. **Devaluation (immature):** DeSantis reduced to empty vessel ('doesn't have the goods'). **Projection (pathological):** The 'dead man walking' status Trump assigns to DeSantis maps more accurately onto Trump's own legal and electoral position at this moment.

## Malignant Narcissism Indicators

- **Narcissistic features (0.88):** Grandiosity, entitlement as kingmaker, contempt for the rival's independent value
- **Paranoid features (0.62):** Fox coded as active enemy; its ratings decline read as consequence of disloyalty rather than market forces
- **Sadism (0.65):** Pleasure in DeSantis' predicted demise is undisguised and ego-syntonic — 'he's already pretty close to that again' is savored, not reluctant
- **Antisocial features (0.50):** False causation deployed deliberately; the Dominion settlement (caused by Fox spreading Trump's election lies) is reframed as Fox's punishment for insufficient loyalty

## Cognitive Assessment

Language production within normal range for Trump's established baseline. Coherent logical arc maintained across the post. 'Dead man walking' is contextually appropriate and vivid. The 'Page 2' structure shows awareness of platform limits. Mild tangentiality (Fox → DeSantis → endorsement power → DeSantis again) is within baseline parameters. No phonemic paraphasias, temporal confusion, or name errors detected. **Complexity score: 0.35** (baseline-consistent for Trump's modern posting register).

## Rhetorical Techniques

**Nickname warfare** remains the primary branding tool: 'DeSanctimonious' transforms DeSantis from rival into caricature. **False causation** is central: Fox's Dominion settlement ($787.5M, April 2023) resulted directly from Fox's propagation of Trump's 2020 election lies — the settlement is being reframed as Fox's punishment for *not* supporting Trump, inverting causality. **Manufactured dependency** retroactively makes all DeSantis success conditional on Trump's past patronage. **Violent imagery**: 'dead man walking' imports eliminationist finality — a political rival is not losing but condemned.

## Gaslighting / Reality Distortion

The post's central reality distortion is the Dominion reframe. Fox News paid $787.5M specifically because it propagated Trump's 2020 election fraud claims while internal communications showed anchors and executives knew the claims were false. Trump inverts this: Fox's financial damage is attributed to *insufficient* commitment to the very claims that caused the damage. This is a closed loop of factual inversion that requires followers to reject documented public record.

**DARVO present:** Fox is positioned as the aggressor who betrayed Trump, with Trump as the wronged party whose warnings were ignored.

## Narrative Identity

**Protagonist role: Kingmaker/Sovereign.** This post is less about defeating DeSantis than about establishing the axiom that Trump controls political viability itself. DeSantis is the contrasting other: a pretender whose only value derived from proximity to the true source of power. The narrative sequence is **contamination** (Fox was great under Tucker → now corrupted by DeSantis allegiance → declining accordingly) nested within an overall **redemption arc** (Trump will remain while Fox and DeSantis fall).

**Archetypal register: King/Tyrant.** The sovereign claiming exclusive rights to grant political legitimacy. DeSantis casts as the ungrateful vassal who forgot where his power came from. There is also a **Trickster** subtext: the delight in chaos — Fox destabilized, DeSantis doomed — that carries appeal beyond the content.

## Danger Assessment: **ELEVATED**

'Dead man walking' applied to a named political rival exceeds competitive rhetoric into eliminationist register. The phrase originates in death-row imagery and imports finality and condemned status onto a living political opponent. While not a direct incitement, this framing — repeated across multiple posts — normalizes the framing of political rivals as existentially condemned. Combined with the broader rhetorical ecosystem in which Trump's base receives such language, this warrants elevated (not high) flagging absent a specific mobilization call.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Fox News is way down in the Ratings" | **Mostly True** | Post-Tucker Carlson firing (April 24, 2023), Fox primetime ratings fell significantly. Fox & Friends and primetime shows saw notable audience declines in the weeks following. |
| "Fox fired Tucker Carlson" | **True** | Fox News and Tucker Carlson parted ways on April 24, 2023, in what was widely described as a firing despite network's neutral statement. |
| "2020 Presidential Election was 'VERY Corrupt and Rigged'" | **False** | Dozens of courts, the DOJ, CISA, state election officials (including Republican-controlled states), and the Dominion/Smartmatic litigations all produced no evidence of systematic fraud. Fox News paid $787.5M in the Dominion settlement specifically because it spread these claims while internally doubting them. |
| "Firing Tucker and refusing to fight the election 'just cost them plenty of money'" | **False** | The $787.5M Dominion settlement cost resulted directly from Fox's decision to spread Trump's election fraud claims, not from refusing to fight them. Causality is inverted. |
| "Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking" | **Mostly False** | Trump endorsed DeSantis for his first gubernatorial run in 2018, which was consequential in a competitive primary. However, DeSantis won his 2022 reelection by ~19.4 points, had built significant independent political identity, and had $200M+ in his own fundraising infrastructure. The claim retroactively overstates endorsement dependency. |
| "DeSantis is 'dropping like a rock' and 'down 20 points in Florida'" | **Half True** | DeSantis had declined from his late-2022 polling peak relative to Trump. Some Florida polls showed Trump leads of 15-25 points by May 2023. However 'dropping like a rock' exaggerates the trajectory given DeSantis had not yet formally announced his candidacy. |

Overall Veracity: 42%

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 92%)

### Indicators

- 'Page 2' label indicates authentic multi-part posting session, continuation of prior truncated post ending '...He sucks, & so does F...'
- Stream-of-consciousness structure with mid-thought pivots between Fox, DeSantis, and endorsement power
- 'DeSanctimonious' nickname — a signature Trump coinage used repeatedly in authentic posts
- Emotional escalation arc within the post (ratings → betrayal → dominance claim)
- UTC 14:25 = ~10:25 AM EDT; consistent with mid-morning posting window Trump uses for reactive media consumption posts

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Comparison (Fox News pivot to DeSantis, compounded by E. Jean Carroll liability verdict (May 9, 2023))

**Rage:** Intensity 72% targeting Fox News / Ron DeSantis
- Proportionality: 20%

Sentiment: -0.72

**Mildly Hypomanic**
- Multiple same-day high-intensity posts across multiple targets (CNN, Fox, DeSantis, AOC) suggesting elevated output and reduced impulse filtration
- Post overflows character limit requiring 'Page 2' continuation — loss of normal editorial restraint
- Escalating superlatives and certitude across post cluster

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 88%
- Antisocial: 50%
- Paranoid: 62%
- Sadism: 65%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- splitting (immature)
- displacement (immature)
- devaluation (immature)
- projection (pathological)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 35%

Cognitive Markers:
- tangentiality

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Invites audience to enjoy DeSantis' political diminishment vicariously
- Positions Trump as audience's political patron ('my Endorsement')
- Frames Fox pivot as betrayal of a shared cause, not just Trump personally

## Danger Assessment

**ELEVATED**

### Indicators

- 'Dead man walking' applied to named political rival — death-row eliminationist imagery normalizing condemned status for DeSantis
- Pattern of dehumanizing reduction across multiple same-day posts (Fox, CNN, DeSantis, AOC) suggesting sustained target-identification rhetoric
- False causation narrative about 2020 election reaffirms grievance framework that has historically preceded mobilization calls

### Gaslighting

- Dominion inversion: Fox's $787.5M settlement (caused by spreading Trump's election lies) reframed as punishment for insufficient loyalty to Trump — requires followers to reject documented public record
- Carroll verdict absent from post entirely despite being the most probable proximate trigger — denial via omission
- 2020 election described as 'VERY Corrupt and Rigged' in context designed to make Fox's refusal to fight it seem commercially catastrophic, normalizing the false premise

**Violent Imagery Present**

## Fact Checks (6)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-03-20._

> Fox News is way down in the Ratings

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Post-Tucker Carlson firing (April 24, 2023), Fox primetime ratings fell significantly. Fox & Friends and primetime shows saw notable audience declines in the weeks following.

Sources: Nielsen ratings reporting, May 2023

> Fox fired Tucker Carlson

**TRUE**

Fox News and Tucker Carlson parted ways on April 24, 2023, in what was widely described as a firing despite network's neutral statement.

Sources: Contemporaneous reporting April 24, 2023

> 2020 Presidential Election was 'VERY Corrupt and Rigged'

**FALSE**

Dozens of courts, the DOJ, CISA, state election officials (including Republican-controlled states), and the Dominion/Smartmatic litigations all produced no evidence of systematic fraud. Fox News paid $787.5M in the Dominion settlement specifically because it spread these claims while internally doubting them.

Sources: Federal and state court records 2020-2022; Dominion v. Fox settlement April 2023

> Firing Tucker and refusing to fight the election 'just cost them plenty of money'

**FALSE**

The $787.5M Dominion settlement cost resulted directly from Fox's decision to spread Trump's election fraud claims, not from refusing to fight them. Causality is inverted.

Sources: Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network, settlement April 18, 2023

> Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking

**MOSTLY FALSE**

Trump endorsed DeSantis for his first gubernatorial run in 2018, which was consequential in a competitive primary. However, DeSantis won his 2022 reelection by ~19.4 points, had built significant independent political identity, and had $200M+ in his own fundraising infrastructure. The claim retroactively overstates endorsement dependency.

Sources: Florida 2022 election results; DeSantis fundraising records

> DeSantis is 'dropping like a rock' and 'down 20 points in Florida'

**HALF TRUE**

DeSantis had declined from his late-2022 polling peak relative to Trump. Some Florida polls showed Trump leads of 15-25 points by May 2023. However 'dropping like a rock' exaggerates the trajectory given DeSantis had not yet formally announced his candidacy.

Sources: Florida primary polls, Q1-Q2 2023

Overall Veracity: 42%

## Tags

- DeSantis-rivalry (90%)
- Fox-News-relationship (85%)
- endorsement-power-claim (82%)
- 2020-election-denial (78%)
- narcissistic-grandiosity (88%)
- eliminationist-rhetoric (65%)
- displacement-Carroll-verdict (70%)
- reality-inversion-Dominion (80%)
- kingmaker-narrative (85%)
- splitting-Fox-Tucker (75%)

## That day

_From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._

**Durham Report Ignites Vindication Cascade as Trump Displaces Carroll Verdict Into Six-Post Evening Rage Spiral**

Trump spent the day cycling between grievance targets before the Durham Report's release triggered a rapid-fire evening posting spree. The morning was dominated by attacks on Fox News for promoting DeSantis, with a brief victory-lap poll post wedged in between. When the Durham Report dropped in the afternoon, Trump seized on it as total exoneration and escalated across six posts in under half an hour -- from detailed claims of election fraud to a single-word accusation of treason, then demands for Congressional action and attacks on Jack Smith. Throughout all of it, the E. Jean Carroll verdict from the previous week went entirely unmentioned, suggesting the Durham news served as psychological cover for that unprocessed wound.

Full digest for 2023-05-15: https://trump.fm/date/2023-05-15/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, May 15). Page 2: Fox News is way down in the Ratings.... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_110373156085945104
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "Page 2: Fox News is way down in the Ratings. After firing..." Truth Social, 15 May. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110373156085945104. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "Page 2: Fox News is way down in the Ratings. After firing...," Truth Social, May 15, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110373156085945104.

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