# Post ts_110720143396978604

- Post ID: `ts_110720143396978604`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2023-07-15T21:08:33.108Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110720143396978604
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110720143396978604/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_110720143396978604.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> The DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing because of his stance on Obliterating Social Security and Medicare. Nothing he will ever do is going to change his votes against. Attracting small crowds that leave early, never a good sign!

## Engagement

- Likes: 13,176
- Reposts: 3,185
- Replies: 514
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.406Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T06:17:20.950Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

A textbook intra-primary dominance display targeting Ron DeSantis, deployed on a rally day when Trump was already signaling high energy across five posts. The post operates on three simultaneous attack vectors: brand contamination via the coined nickname "DeSanctimonious," policy toxification by linking DeSantis to Social Security/Medicare cuts in language far stronger than DeSantis's actual positions ("Obliterating"), and crowd-size humiliation — Trump's most persistent personal legitimacy metric.

The crowd-size attack is psychologically the most revealing element. For Trump, attendance figures function as a real-time measure of the narcissistic supply he regards as essential proof of political and personal worth. Mocking crowd departure is thus not strategic messaging — it is ego-syntonic pleasure in a rival's failure to generate adulation Trump treats as currency.

The sentence "Nothing he will ever do is going to change his votes against" drops its grammatical object, leaving "against" dangling. Intended meaning appears to be that DeSantis's congressional votes against entitlement programs are a permanent record no repositioning can erase. This is a mild syntactic compression worth logging longitudinally but does not constitute a standalone clinical marker.

Authorship attribution is high-confidence authentic: the nickname is Trump's own coinage, crowd-size fixation is a personal obsession, and the slightly unedited construction matches unpolished composition. No danger indicators; no gaslighting; grandiose narcissistic state dominant throughout.

# Psychological Analysis: Truth Social Post — 2023-07-15

## Contextual Frame

Trump was en route to a Turning Point USA rally in West Palm Beach when this post was published at **5:08 PM EDT** on a Saturday. The day's posting sequence — Newsweek insurance article (anti-DeSantis), rally announcement, "ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" standalone, self-flattering Lincoln-Douglas quote, Breitbart poll showing 37-point lead, and now this direct attack — reveals elevated output and competitive arousal consistent with rally-day hypomanic amplification.

---

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits

- **Extraversion (assertiveness facet, very high):** Dominant, confrontational, publicly performative.
- **Agreeableness (very low):** Zero epistemic charity toward DeSantis; immediate devaluation without acknowledgment of rival's perspective.
- **Neuroticism (angry hostility facet, moderate):** Controlled aggression rather than raw panic — closer to grandiose than vulnerable narcissistic state.
- **Openness (very low):** Rigid binary framing; DeSantis is simply losing, and crowd sizes confirm this self-evident truth.

---

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

**Agency motives dominate entirely.** Power, status, and dominance over DeSantis are the operational goals. Communion motive is absent — no appeal to shared values, no attempt to bring DeSantis supporters into Trump's coalition through persuasion.

**Crowd size schema:** Attendance at public events functions in Trump's worldview as a real-time approval rating, a physical manifestation of love and legitimacy. This is a well-documented schema persisting from the inauguration crowd controversy (January 2017) through the present cycle. It is not merely political strategy — it reflects a core belief that crowd magnitude = worth.

---

## Level 3: Narrative Identity

- **Protagonist role:** The dominant, unchallenged champion who observes a lesser rival's collapse from a position of secure altitude.
- **Contrasting other:** DeSantis — "DeSanctimonious," a sanctimonious pretender, small-crowd-drawing, Social Security-cutting, polls-crashing failure.
- **Narrative sequence:** Neutral — no personal redemption or contamination arc is constructed. This post is purely about diminishing DeSantis.
- **Identity claims (implicit):** Protector of Social Security and Medicare (by contrast with DeSantis the obliterator); true crowd-magnet whose events generate devotion so intense departure is inconceivable.

---

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators

### Narcissistic Dynamics

**State: Grandiose.** The 37-point poll lead is the backdrop; Trump is not threatened, he is performing dominance for his audience. The grandiose state enables ego-syntonic pleasure in the rival's polling decline.

**Trigger:** Preemptive attack / competitive comparison. Even commanding leads do not eliminate the standing irritant of a rival's continued existence in the race.

**Rage assessment:** Mild-to-moderate controlled aggression (intensity 0.55). This is not white-hot narcissistic rage — it is contemptuous dismissal, which in Kohut's framework indicates a more stable grandiose position than the spasmodic rage associated with acute narcissistic injury.

**Ego-syntonic sadism (mild):** "Never a good sign!" carries a satisfied, almost amused quality. The exclamation point performs glee rather than outrage. Pleasure in the rival's failure to generate crowd warmth is consistent with Kernberg's ego-syntonic sadism construct.

### Defense Mechanisms

1. **Devaluation (immature):** "DeSanctimonious," "small crowds that leave early" — the rival is not simply behind in polls, he is comprehensively diminished as a person and political figure.
2. **Distortion (pathological):** "Obliterating Social Security and Medicare" reshapes DeSantis's congressional record (votes for budget frameworks with entitlement adjustments) into categorical elimination — grossly overstated to meet the emotional needs of the attack.
3. **Splitting (immature):** Trump commands enormous devoted crowds; DeSantis generates small disloyal ones. No middle ground exists.

### Cognitive Status

**One mild flag:** *"Nothing he will ever do is going to change his votes against"* — the sentence drops its grammatical object. The intended completion ("votes against [Social Security and Medicare]") is inferentially reconstructable but syntactically absent.

**Assessment:** Consistent with rushed, emotionally-driven composition. Vocabulary and overall logical coherence remain within Trump's established baseline. This should be logged for longitudinal tracking but does not warrant standalone clinical inference.

---

## Rhetorical Analysis

**Three-vector attack structure:**

1. **Brand contamination:** "DeSanctimonious" codes DeSantis as a self-righteous moralist, activating latent Republican anti-preachy sensibilities. The nickname does ideological work beyond mere mockery — it implies DeSantis is performing virtue while hiding his true record.

2. **Policy toxification:** By framing DeSantis as an agent of "Obliterating Social Security and Medicare," Trump targets the GOP's elderly base with the most emotionally resonant entitlement programs. Partly grounded in DeSantis's congressional record but wildly overstated.

3. **Social proof destruction:** Crowd size functions as a legitimacy thermometer. Mocking crowd departure activates the rally-attending base's identity as part of an overwhelming, enthusiastic movement that DeSantis cannot replicate.

**RAND Firehose dynamics:** Five posts on this day — volume is part of the strategy. Anti-DeSantis messaging is delivered through multiple vectors across a single news cycle.

---

## Archetypal Analysis

- **Primary — King/Tyrant:** Asserting dominance over a pretender to the throne, confirming existing hierarchy.
- **Secondary — Trickster:** "DeSanctimonious" punctures DeSantis's carefully constructed policy-serious image with a single coinage.
- **Shadow projection:** DeSantis is assigned the role of the politician who cuts programs he claims to support — a shadow trait (hidden betrayal of constituents) projected outward.

---

## Order/Chaos Dynamics

Trump functions as **order enforcer** within the Republican primary hierarchy — reaffirming that the natural pecking order (Trump at top) is reasserting itself against a challenger who briefly disrupted it. The audience receives the message: all is right; the interloper is receding.

---

## Danger Assessment

**Level: None.** Intra-party competitive politics. No dehumanizing language directed at persons, no violent imagery, no stochastic terrorism indicators. Target is a rival political figure; weapons are polling data and crowd sizes.

---

## Authorship Attribution

**Confidence: High (0.88 authentic).** "DeSanctimonious" is Trump's own invention — a reliable authorship fingerprint. Crowd-size obsession is documented as a personal fixation. Syntactic object-drop is consistent with unedited personal composition. 5:08 PM EDT on a Saturday rally day is plausible for personal posting.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing" | **Mostly True** | DeSantis polling had declined significantly from early-2023 highs when he was seen as a serious Trump challenger. The Breitbart poll Trump shared that same day showed a 37-point Trump lead in New Hampshire, consistent with a DeSantis collapse from competitive territory. |
| "His stance on Obliterating Social Security and Medicare" | **Mostly False** | DeSantis had previously supported entitlement reform positions including as a congressman voting for budgets with Medicare/Social Security adjustments and discussed raising the retirement age. However, 'obliterating' is extreme hyperbole. DeSantis had not proposed eliminating either program. Trump routinely weaponizes this framing against rivals who touched entitlement reform. |
| "Attracting small crowds that leave early" | **Half True** | DeSantis had faced some criticism for crowd sizes not meeting expectations at early 2023 campaign events and there were reports of thin turnout at some rallies. 'Leave early' is a specific embellishment that is unverifiable from available evidence. |

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 88%)

### Indicators

- 'DeSanctimonious' is Trump's own coinage — a personal nickname he invented and uses exclusively
- Crowd size fixation is a signature Trump dominance metric dating to inauguration controversy
- Syntactically compressed/garbled construction: 'change his votes against' trails off without object
- Punchy declarative fragments ('never a good sign!') match authentic Trump rhythm
- Subject is Trump's personal primary rival — high emotional investment makes aide authorship less likely

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Preemptive Attack — Comparison (Ron DeSantis)

**Rage:** Intensity 55% targeting Ron DeSantis
- Proportionality: 60%

Sentiment: -0.72

Baseline Deviation: slight

**Mildly Hypomanic**
- Five posts on a single day including an event announcement, reposted poll, decontextualized self-flattering quote, and two DeSantis attacks — elevated output
- Rally-day energy amplifying posting frequency
- Punchy rapid-fire attack style with exclamation point closure

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 75%
- Antisocial: 35%
- Paranoid: 30%
- Sadism: 40%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- devaluation (immature)
- distortion (pathological)
- splitting (immature)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 38%

Cognitive Markers:
- word finding difficulty

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Shared contempt bonding — invites followers to laugh at DeSantis together
- Poll citation as social proof of Trump's dominance
- Crowd-size appeal activates follower identity as part of Trump's massive movement

## Fact Checks (3)

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

> DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing

**MOSTLY TRUE**

DeSantis polling had declined significantly from early-2023 highs when he was seen as a serious Trump challenger. The Breitbart poll Trump shared that same day showed a 37-point Trump lead in New Hampshire, consistent with a DeSantis collapse from competitive territory.

Sources: Breitbart/NH poll cited in same-day Truth Social post

> His stance on Obliterating Social Security and Medicare

**MOSTLY FALSE**

DeSantis had previously supported entitlement reform positions including as a congressman voting for budgets with Medicare/Social Security adjustments and discussed raising the retirement age. However, 'obliterating' is extreme hyperbole. DeSantis had not proposed eliminating either program. Trump routinely weaponizes this framing against rivals who touched entitlement reform.

Sources: General knowledge of DeSantis congressional record

> Attracting small crowds that leave early

**HALF TRUE**

DeSantis had faced some criticism for crowd sizes not meeting expectations at early 2023 campaign events and there were reports of thin turnout at some rallies. 'Leave early' is a specific embellishment that is unverifiable from available evidence.

Sources: General knowledge of 2023 DeSantis campaign reporting

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Tags

- DeSantis (95%)
- primary_competition (90%)
- crowd_size_fixation (85%)
- derogatory_nickname (85%)
- entitlement_policy_attack (75%)
- devaluation (80%)
- grandiose_state (80%)

## That day

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

**Rally Day Punctuated by Indictment Anxiety as Trump Oscillates Between Campaign Promotion and Legal Grievance**

Trump spent a concentrated afternoon posting window promoting his campaign and attacking Ron DeSantis ahead of a Turning Point Action rally in West Palm Beach. The mood was mostly self-congratulatory — sharing favorable polls, fundraising numbers, and flattering debate comparisons — but twice broke sharply into legal grievance territory with an all-caps "ELECTION INTERFERENCE!" outburst and a lengthy whataboutism rant comparing his classified documents case to Biden's. The DeSantis rivalry was a persistent thread, with three posts mocking his polls, crowds, and policy positions. The day ended calmly with a link to his rally livestream.

Full digest for 2023-07-15: https://trump.fm/date/2023-07-15/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, July 15). The DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing because of... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_110720143396978604
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "The DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing because of his..." Truth Social, 15 Jul. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110720143396978604. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "The DeSanctimonious Polls are crashing because of his...," Truth Social, July 15, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110720143396978604.

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