Analysis: I never praised Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, as the dying N...

3y ago Jun 2, 2023 at 9:27 PM

I never praised Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, as the dying New York Post is suggesting. I thought he was a horrible Governor, and have made that point for years. He was the enemy, and I would rip his Fake (Sanctimonious?) News Conference’s apart. I did a lot to help New York, but he didn’t even use the Convention Center or Medical Ship. Crazy! But as bad as he was, all I said was that New York (4th worst) had fewer actual Covid deaths than DeSanctus run Florida (3rd worst). Those are the facts!

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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

Mixed

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

55%

Triggered by a New York Post article associating him with Democrat "enemy" Andrew Cuomo, Trump deploys a textbook DARVO response: flat denial of the praise, immediate retaliatory attack on the Post as "dying," and a rapid pivot to weaponized COVID death statistics against DeSantis. The injury is narcissistic in nature — association with a Democrat opponent threatens the core identity binary — and the response is disproportionate to the trigger (attacking an allied media outlet, relitigating 2020 pandemic politics, and opening a second front against his primary rival, all in one paragraph). Clinically notable is the complete absence of empathy toward COVID's human toll; the death counts are instrumentalized purely as competitive ammunition. The '(Sanctimonious?)' parenthetical is a rare observable window into Trump's real-time rhetorical decision-making. Authorship is high-confidence authentic based on apostrophe errors, stream-of-consciousness structure, and visible self-editing. The post's fact record is mixed: the Cuomo praise denial is contradicted by documented 2020 statements; the 'dying NYP' label is false; the COVID death rankings are approximately accurate but strip context about Florida's documented underreporting. Danger level is none — targets are political institutions and rival figures, no eliminationist language.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

Apostrophe error in 'News Conference's' (possessive for plural)
Real-time self-editing parenthetical '(Sanctimonious?)' showing interior monologue transcribed
Stream-of-consciousness pivot across three attack targets in one paragraph
'Crazy!' single-word interjection characteristic of authentic posts
Emotional reactivity to perceived slight from ally media (NYP)

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Mixed State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Criticism (New York Post)

Rage: Intensity 50% targeting New York Post, Andrew Cuomo, Ron DeSantis

Proportionality

30%

Sentiment

-0.58

Mildly Hypomanic

Rapid multi-target attack (NYP, Cuomo, DeSantis) in a single short postElevated energy and combativeness relative to subject matter severityDisinhibited labeling of allied media as 'dying'

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

75%

Antisocial

45%

Paranoid

55%

Sadism

35%

Defense Mechanisms:

denialacting outrationalizationdisplacementsplitting

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

35%

Cognitive Markers:

semantic paraphasia

Parasocial Techniques:

Retroactive validation-seeking from MAGA base re: Cuomo enmityPositioning audience as witnesses to unjust media attackImplied call for audience to reject NYP framing

Danger Assessment

None

Gaslighting Detected:

'Dying New York Post' — preemptive source delegitimization to inoculate audience against crediting the reporting
Flat denial of documented praise for Cuomo contradicted by April 2020 public record
DARVO sequence: positions himself as victim of NYP's false suggestion while attacking both NYP and DeSantis

Reality Distortions:

'Dying New York Post' — Post is a financially stable News Corp property
Denial of documented Cuomo praise from April 2020
COVID death statistics presented as clean comparative fact, stripping Florida underreporting controversy and timing/per-capita context

Fact Checks (4)

"I never praised Former Governor Andrew Cuomo"

Mostly False

In April 2020, Trump publicly stated 'I think he's done a very good job' and praised Cuomo's COVID press conferences. The NY Post's characterization has documented basis in the public record.

"The dying New York Post"

False

The New York Post is owned by News Corp, a major publicly-traded media company. The Post is not financially distressed. Trump applies this label as retaliatory delegitimization against an outlet that published unfavorable coverage.

"New York (4th worst) had fewer actual Covid deaths than DeSanctus run Florida (3rd worst)"

Half True

Absolute cumulative COVID death rankings circa mid-2023 placed California #1, Texas #2, Florida #3 (~86K), New York ~#4 (~78K) — broadly consistent with Trump's claim on raw numbers. However, Florida's COVID death reporting was subject to documented underreporting concerns (peer-reviewed studies, BMJ), and New York's catastrophic early 2020 surge occurred in a distinct epidemiological context. The claim is approximately true on absolute numbers but misleading in comparative implication.

"He didn't even use the Convention Center or Medical Ship"

Mostly True

The USNS Comfort (deployed to NYC, treated ~182 patients vs. much higher capacity) and the Javits Center field hospital (peaked ~1,100 vs. 2,500+ capacity) were both substantially underutilized during the spring 2020 COVID surge while nursing homes simultaneously received COVID-positive patients. This is documented and the criticism has factual basis, though the decision-making involved multiple actors.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Analysis: ts_110476737584875267 — June 2, 2023

Overview

This post is a defensive denial triggered by a New York Post article apparently suggesting Trump had praised former Governor Andrew Cuomo. What begins as an image-management exercise rapidly transforms into an opportunistic attack on DeSantis via COVID death statistics — a characteristic Trump maneuver: convert any defensive moment into forward aggression. The post is clinically significant for its clean demonstration of DARVO, simultaneous dual-target attack, and the instrumentalization of factual data as rhetorical weapon.

Authorship Attribution

Verdict: Authentic Trump (high confidence)

UTC 21:27:15 converts to 5:27 PM EDT (Trump was at Bedminster, NJ in early June 2023 — EDT, UTC−4). This is late afternoon, not the canonical late-night window, but not disqualifying. The preponderance of stylistic evidence is strongly authentic:

"News Conference's" — apostrophe used for plural, a non-standard error inconsistent with polished aide drafting
"(Sanctimonious?)" — a real-time parenthetical self-questioning about whether to apply his "DeSanctimonious" coinage retroactively to Cuomo; this is interior monologue transcribed, not aide prose
"Crazy!" — characteristic single-word exclamatory interjection
"DeSanctus" — his campaign-mode nickname for DeSantis, deployed naturally mid-sentence
Stream-of-consciousness pivot from denial → Cuomo attack → COVID statistics → DeSantis attack, all within one paragraph
Emotional reactivity and personal grievance tone ("He was the enemy")

Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

Extraversion (high): Dominant, assertive, publicly performative in attack posture. "I did a lot to help New York" is an unprompted self-promotion insert.
Agreeableness (very low): Combative throughout. No concession, no nuance. "He was the enemy" reflects zero capacity for diplomatic ambiguity.
Conscientiousness (low): Impulsive, reactive. No restraint on "dying New York Post" attack against an ostensible ally. Apostrophe error.
Neuroticism (elevated): Post is emotionally reactive to a perceived slight, escalates quickly. The perceived injury (being associated with Cuomo) is treated as an existential threat to identity.
Openness (low): Rigid, binary framing. Cuomo = enemy, Trump = helper. DeSantis = inferior on COVID. No complexity entertained.

Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations (Motives & Schemas)

Dominant motive: Power / Status protection

The core schema operating here: association with a Democrat enemy is catastrophically threatening to identity. Being framed as having praised Cuomo — even once, even mildly — is intolerable because it undermines the binary (Trump = winner/patriot; Democrats = enemies) that structures his political persona.

Secondary motive: Supply-seeking via DeSantis attack

The COVID statistics comparison isn't defensive — it's a gift: the NYP story gave him a reason to drag DeSantis into a Cuomo-adjacent narrative. "DeSanctus run Florida (3rd worst)" weaponizes epidemiological data as competitive ammunition.

Schema of world: Zero-sum, adversarial. The NY Post — traditionally a Murdoch/conservative tabloid and historical Trump ally — is reframed as "dying" the moment it publishes something unfavorable. Loyalty is total or it signals death.

Level 3: Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Wronged truth-teller / reluctant New York benefactor

Narrative sequence: Contamination — "I did a lot to help New York" (good) → "he didn't even use the Convention Center or Medical Ship" (betrayal by ingrate). The classic pattern: Trump the provider, Democrat the ingrate.

Identity claims:

"I thought he was a horrible Governor" (consistent enemy of Democrats)
"I did a lot to help New York" (magnanimous helper despite political opposition)
"Those are the facts!" (sole arbiter of empirical truth)

Contrasting others: Three simultaneous foils — Cuomo (incompetent enemy), New York Post (dying/disloyal media), DeSantis (statistically inferior rival). This is unusual density of antagonists in a single short post.

Redemption arc attempted but incomplete: The post tries to rehabilitate Trump's image (not a Cuomo-praiser) but ends on an attack rather than a triumph, reflecting the unresolved nature of the grievance.

Level 4: Clinical Indicators

Malignant Narcissism (Kernberg)

A. Narcissistic features:

Grandiosity: "I did a lot to help New York"
Entitlement: Treats the NYP's reporting as an act of personal betrayal requiring public punishment
Lack of empathy: COVID death statistics are purely instrumental — counting the dead as rhetorical ammunition against a rival, with no acknowledgment of human loss

B. Antisocial features:

Calling the NYP "dying" is a retaliatory false claim deployed to punish media for critical coverage — a pattern of using public reach to attack those who cross him

C. Paranoid features:

The NYP is immediately reframed as an enemy: "dying New York Post is suggesting" treats a news story as a hostile act requiring response
"He was the enemy" retroactively confirms ongoing enemy schema applied to Cuomo

D. Ego-syntonic sadism (mild):

Visible pleasure in the "rip his Fake (Sanctimonious?) News Conference's apart" — reliving dominance over Cuomo

Narcissistic Dynamics

Trigger: Narcissistic injury — the NY Post, a historically allied outlet, published content associating Trump with a Democrat enemy (Cuomo). Being linked to an "enemy" as a praiser violates the core identity binary.

Narcissistic rage: Present but modulated. Intensity moderate (~0.5). The rage is channeled quickly into the rhetorical attack rather than expressed as raw fury, suggesting some ego-management — or that the COVID pivot provided a satisfying outlet.

State: Mixed — briefly vulnerable (denial posture) → rapidly grandiose (I helped New York, I'm up on COVID stats, NYP is dying).

Defense Mechanisms

Denial (pathological): "I never praised... Cuomo" — flat denial of the reported content
DARVO pattern (acting out + projection): Deny → attack NYP as "dying" → reverse to victim-of-media framing
Rationalization (neurotic): COVID statistics are deployed as though they were the only thing he said, reframing a political moment as neutral data presentation
Displacement: The injury from NYP is redirected as an attack on DeSantis (a safer target who can't retaliate via news cycle as NYP can)
Splitting: Cuomo = total enemy; Trump = pure helper; DeSantis = inferior; NYP = dying traitor. No intermediate gradations.

Rhetorical Analysis

Devices employed:

Ad hominem: "dying New York Post" — attacks the source rather than the claim
False precision: "(4th worst)" and "(3rd worst)" lend an air of data authority to comparative claims that are contested
Retroactive epithet application: "(Sanctimonious?)" — self-consciously extending his DeSanctimonious nickname to Cuomo's press conferences, visible in real-time
Authority assertion: "Those are the facts!" — closes the data argument by fiat
Hyperbole: "dying" applied to a major News Corp tabloid

Propaganda techniques:

RAND Firehose element: reality distortion via confident false/contested factual claims
Parallel processing: forces audience to track three simultaneous narratives (NYP betrayal, Cuomo incompetence, DeSantis inferiority)

Dehumanizing language: Absent Violent imagery: Absent ("rip apart" is figurative and low-level) Stochastic terrorism indicators: None

Gaslighting & Reality Distortion

"Dying New York Post" — factually false; the Post is owned by News Corp and financially stable. Classic Trump label to preemptively delegitimize unfavorable coverage.
DARVO structure: Deny the praise → Attack the Post → Reverse to "I actually helped New York"
The COVID statistics comparison strips all context (timing differences, reporting methodology disputes, per-capita vs. absolute counts) to present raw rankings as settled fact

Cognitive Status

Baseline comparison: Relative to Trump's baseline in this period (mid-2023 campaign trail), this post is within normal parameters.

Markers:

"News Conference's" — apostrophe error (possessive for plural); a minor production error, likely impulsive typing rather than significant cognitive marker
"(Sanctimonious?)" — parenthetical uncertainty is actually cognitively interesting: it shows real-time self-editing, which can indicate preserved metacognition
Logical sequence is functional: denial → historical context → counter-evidence → pivot to attack
No temporal confusion, name confusion, or confabulation observed

Complexity score: Low-moderate (0.35). Short sentences, simple vocabulary, no embedded clauses. Consistent with Trump's well-documented speech register, not a significant deviation.

Baseline deviation: None / slight.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"I never praised Former Governor Andrew Cuomo"	Mostly False	In April 2020, Trump publicly stated 'I think he's done a very good job' and praised Cuomo's COVID press conferences. The NY Post's characterization has documented basis in the public record.
"The dying New York Post"	False	The New York Post is owned by News Corp, a major publicly-traded media company. The Post is not financially distressed. Trump applies this label as retaliatory delegitimization against an outlet that published unfavorable coverage.
"New York (4th worst) had fewer actual Covid deaths than DeSanctus run Florida (3rd worst)"	Half True	Absolute cumulative COVID death rankings circa mid-2023 placed California #1, Texas #2, Florida #3 (~86K), New York ~#4 (~78K) — broadly consistent with Trump's claim on raw numbers. However, Florida's COVID death reporting was subject to documented underreporting concerns (peer-reviewed studies, BMJ), and New York's catastrophic early 2020 surge occurred in a distinct epidemiological context. The claim is approximately true on absolute numbers but misleading in comparative implication.
"He didn't even use the Convention Center or Medical Ship"	Mostly True	The USNS Comfort (deployed to NYC, treated ~182 patients vs. much higher capacity) and the Javits Center field hospital (peaked ~1,100 vs. 2,500+ capacity) were both substantially underutilized during the spring 2020 COVID surge while nursing homes simultaneously received COVID-positive patients. This is documented and the criticism has factual basis, though the decision-making involved multiple actors.

Overall Veracity: 38%

Order/Chaos Dynamics

Trump positions as order restorer — the competent actor who provided federal resources (Convention Center, Medical Ship) against a chaotic, ungrateful Democrat governor who wasted them. The chaos is assigned to Cuomo/DeSantis/NYP. The order is Trump-provided but spurned.

Archetypal Analysis

Primary: Warrior archetype — "He was the enemy, and I would rip his... conferences apart." Active combat framing, no diplomatic register.

Secondary: King (Tyrant valence) — "I did a lot to help New York" positions him as sovereign benefactor, dispensing resources to an undeserving governor.

Shadow projection: The charge he is leveling against DeSantis (inferior COVID management) is precisely the kind of claim that was made against Trump's own pandemic response nationally. The shadow (failed COVID response) is displaced onto competitors.

Danger Assessment

Level: None. This post is entirely within the register of political rivalry attacks. No dehumanizing language, no eliminationist rhetoric, no mobilization signals. The targets (NYP, Cuomo, DeSantis) are political and institutional, not private citizens or vulnerable groups.