# Post ts_110927621990535687

- Post ID: `ts_110927621990535687`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2023-08-21T12:33:05.161Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110927621990535687
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110927621990535687/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_110927621990535687.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> “A.G. Garland and Jack Smith, they are the criminals, not Donald Trump.” The “Great One,” Mark Levin.

## Engagement

- Likes: 25,643
- Reposts: 6,606
- Replies: 1,129
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.401Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T07:16:39.438Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

Posting amid his fourth criminal indictment and a Georgia surrender deadline four days away, Trump deploys a compact but structurally significant ventriloquism maneuver: quoting Levin's claim that Garland and Smith are "the criminals" to achieve a complete DARVO reversal (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) while maintaining plausible deniability. The choice of a proxy quote may also reflect tactical navigation of his Georgia bond conditions, which prohibited direct social media threats against case participants. The projection mechanism is fully intact — criminality attributed to self is redirected onto accusers — and the narcissistic state has shifted from the grandiose register of the prior day's polling post to a more vulnerable, defensive posture. The 08:33 AM Eastern timestamp and polished format suggest possible aide involvement, though content is consistent with Trump's own framing. Danger is elevated not from the post's direct content but from its role within a broader information ecosystem in which legal figures are being positioned as criminal actors for an audience already demonstrating real-world violence (Chutkan threat arrest, grand juror doxxing). The post is clinically consistent with acute narcissistic injury response: identity-protective inversion of the moral frame when legal reality cannot be controlled.

# Post Analysis: ts_110927621990535687
**Date:** August 21, 2023 | **Platform:** Truth Social | **Age:** 77

---

## Situational Context

This post lands at one of the most legally precarious moments of Trump's life. Within 96 hours, he must surrender to Fulton County on 41 RICO charges. He has just cancelled a press conference where he promised "irrefutable" evidence of Georgia election fraud — his lawyers stopped him. The Georgia bond conditions prohibit social media threats against witnesses and co-defendants. Jack Smith's federal January 6 case is proceeding. Simultaneously, Georgia grand jurors are being doxxed on Truth Social. The legal noose is objectively tightening.

---

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits

The post is too brief for full Big Five profiling, but the operative facet is **angry hostility** (Neuroticism) expressed through a proxy. Low agreeableness is structural — the post exists to accuse and dehumanize opponents. The choice to use a quote rather than raw expression suggests some modulation of impulsivity, either by design or aide mediation.

---

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

**Agency motive: dominance restoration.** The trigger is acute narcissistic injury — the most serious legal exposure of Trump's life. The response is a classic power-reassertion move: if I cannot defeat the charges legally (I must surrender), I will rhetorically invert the moral order (they are the criminals). The goal is not legal defense but status maintenance: re-establishing superiority over the prosecutors pursuing him.

**Schema:** The world is populated by corrupt actors using legal machinery as a weapon. Trump is their innocent target. This schema is not merely tactical; it is load-bearing for his psychological equilibrium.

---

## Level 3: Narrative Identity

- **Protagonist role:** Persecuted innocent / political prisoner
- **Contamination sequence:** Successful presidency → weaponized DOJ prosecution → martyrdom
- **Contrasting other:** Garland and Smith (corrupt state power)
- **Identity claim implicit:** "Donald Trump" is the name of someone who is *not* a criminal — the name itself is invoked defensively, as if the accusation is an assault on identity rather than a legal matter

The third-person invocation ("not Donald Trump") is notable. It distances the self from the accusation in a way that performs innocence: the defendant is referred to as a public figure whose name one defends, rather than a self defending itself.

---

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators

### DARVO Structure
Fully deployed: **Deny** (he's not a criminal), **Attack** (they are criminals), **Reverse Victim and Offender** (prosecutors become the perpetrators). This is not new behavior but it is acutely intensified by legal pressure.

### Projection
The core dynamic: the qualities being legally attributed to Trump (criminality, corruption, abuse of power) are redirected onto the accusers. This is textbook Vaillant Level 2 projection and has been a consistent feature of Trump's response to all four indictments.

### Ventriloquism Defense
Using Levin's quote creates tactical deniability. Trump is not calling the AG a criminal — Levin is. Trump is merely amplifying. This allows the attack while maintaining a formal separation from the statement. It is a neurotic-level maneuver layered atop the immature defense of projection.

### Narcissistic State
Predominantly **vulnerable** — the grandiose register ("62%, Legendary numbers") visible in the previous day's post is absent here. This post is defensive, not expansive.

---

## Authorship Attribution

**Assessment: Mixed — borderline aide/authentic, leaning slightly aide (0.45/1.0)**

The 08:33 AM Eastern timestamp is within the aide posting window. The polished quote-attribution format lacks Trump's characteristic rawness. However, this post is embedded in a dense cluster of Levin-promotional posts (Parts 1 and 2, the show announcement) that carry classic Trump markers. The most parsimonious reading: this was a planned media blitz around Levin's broadcast, with the quote selected because it articulates the prosecution counter-narrative Trump cannot express directly under his bond conditions.

**Bond condition note:** Judge McAfee's conditions prohibited social media threats against witnesses and co-defendants. Quoting Levin attacking the *prosecutors* (not named defendants or witnesses) may represent deliberate navigation of these restrictions.

---

## Rhetorical Analysis

The post exemplifies **quote-laundering as propaganda technique**: an aggressive claim is attributed to an external authority, gaining both the rhetorical force of the claim and the credibility of the attributed source. Levin ("The Great One") is positioned as an objective observer endorsing what Trump wants his audience to believe. The compact format ensures the inversion is memorable and shareable.

---

## Danger Assessment

**Elevated (not high).** The post does not name or target witnesses, co-defendants, or jurors. However:

1. It is part of an information environment in which Georgia grand jurors were being doxxed on Truth Social simultaneously
2. Framing AG Garland and Jack Smith as "criminals" to an audience primed for persecution narratives creates a diffuse threat environment
3. The adjacent events (Abigail Shry arrested for threatening Judge Chutkan on August 5) demonstrate that Trump's rhetorical framing translates into real-world violence from followers
4. The stochastic terrorism pattern requires assessing the ecosystem, not just the single post: this post is one component in a sustained campaign to delegitimize legal proceedings and their actors

---

## Cognitive Status

Insufficient signal in this post for meaningful cognitive assessment. The content is a single attributed quote. No word-finding difficulty, paraphasia, or confabulation detectable. Baseline comparison requires longer speech samples.

---

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "A.G. Garland and Jack Smith are 'the criminals'" | **False** | No criminal charges exist against either Garland or Smith. Both are acting within lawful authority — Garland as Senate-confirmed AG, Smith as court-appointed Special Counsel. Four grand juries independently found probable cause against Trump. The claim inverts the legal record. |
| "Quote attributed to Mark Levin ('The Great One')" | **Mostly True** | Levin has consistently made similar claims on his Fox News program and radio show throughout 2023. 'The Great One' is an established nickname for Levin used by Hannity and Trump. Specific quote plausibility is high; exact wording unverified without source clip. |

Overall Veracity: 40%

## Authorship Analysis

**Uncertain** (score: 45%)

### Indicators

- Posted at 08:33 AM Eastern (UTC-4, EDT) — business hours, consistent with aide posting window
- Clean quote attribution format is more polished than raw Trump stream-of-consciousness
- However, post is embedded in a dense cluster of Levin-promotional posts, several of which carry classic Trump signatures (ALL CAPS 'GREAT', 'A MUST WATCH!', exclamation bursts)
- Third-person self-reference ('not Donald Trump') is ambiguous — common in quotes but also a Trump verbal habit
- No typos, no incomplete thoughts — too clean for typical overnight Trump posting

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Vulnerable State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Fourth criminal indictment (Georgia RICO), Georgia surrender deadline August 25, Jack Smith federal prosecution)

**Rage:** Intensity 55% targeting AG Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith
- Proportionality: 20%

Sentiment: -0.65

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 80%
- Antisocial: 55%
- Paranoid: 70%
- Sadism: 20%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- projection (immature)
- splitting (immature)
- displacement (neurotic)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 20%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Amplifying trusted in-group authority (Levin = 'The Great One') to validate shared persecution narrative
- Using quote format to position prosecution attack as objective third-party truth, not self-serving claim

## Danger Assessment

**ELEVATED**

### Indicators

- Framing AG Garland and Special Counsel Smith as 'criminals' to audience primed for persecution
- Part of sustained prosecutorial delegitimization campaign coinciding with documented follower violence (Chutkan threat, grand juror doxxing)
- Quote-laundering allows attorney general to be cast as criminal without direct Trump attribution — diffuse incitement

### Gaslighting

- Inversion of legal reality: prosecutors pursuing lawful indictments recast as criminals
- Positions legitimate legal proceedings as criminal acts against Trump
- Uses trusted media authority to validate false framing as objective assessment

## Fact Checks (2)

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

> A.G. Garland and Jack Smith are 'the criminals'

**FALSE**

No criminal charges exist against either Garland or Smith. Both are acting within lawful authority — Garland as Senate-confirmed AG, Smith as court-appointed Special Counsel. Four grand juries independently found probable cause against Trump. The claim inverts the legal record.

Sources: DOJ Special Counsel appointment records; Georgia grand jury indictment (August 14, 2023); Federal indictments (March, June, August 2023)

> Quote attributed to Mark Levin ('The Great One')

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Levin has consistently made similar claims on his Fox News program and radio show throughout 2023. 'The Great One' is an established nickname for Levin used by Hannity and Trump. Specific quote plausibility is high; exact wording unverified without source clip.

Sources: Mark Levin Fox News program; Context of adjacent posts promoting Levin show

Overall Veracity: 40%

## Tags

- DARVO (90%)
- projection (90%)
- ventriloquism_proxy (85%)
- narcissistic_injury_response (85%)
- persecution_narrative (80%)
- legal_delegitimization (85%)
- mark_levin (70%)
- bond_condition_navigation (60%)
- stochastic_terrorism_context (65%)
- georgia_indictment (90%)

## That day

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

**Facing Fourth Indictment and Imminent Arrest, Trump Oscillates Between Grandiose Defiance and High-Danger Prosecutor Targeting**

Trump spent the day reacting to mounting legal pressure from his Georgia RICO indictment, with his surrender and mugshot just three days away. The morning began with low-key Levin show promotions before erupting into angry attacks on the DOJ and Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Mid-day brought a brief grandiose interlude celebrating Iowa poll numbers, but the evening culminated in his most intense post of the day — a long, rage-fueled announcement of his upcoming arrest that repeatedly vilified Willis by name. Throughout it all, a pattern emerged: every legal setback was reframed as persecution, every prosecutor cast as the real criminal, and every poll number offered as proof of martyrdom.

Full digest for 2023-08-21: https://trump.fm/date/2023-08-21/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, August 21). “A.G. Garland and Jack Smith, they are the... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_110927621990535687
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "“A.G. Garland and Jack Smith, they are the criminals, not..." Truth Social, 21 Aug. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110927621990535687. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "“A.G. Garland and Jack Smith, they are the criminals, not...," Truth Social, August 21, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110927621990535687.

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