# Post ts_110941718356227875

- Post ID: `ts_110941718356227875`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2023-08-24T00:17:58.628Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941718356227875
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941718356227875/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_110941718356227875.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> RT: https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/statuses/110941695094977026“In other comments, the Florida governor (DeSantis) said he deferred to Fauci’s guidance on COVID-19 restrictions and later cited his guidance when communicating the policies he was putting in place early in the pandemic in the state of Florida.” https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/politics/ron-desantis-fauci-trump-covid-kfile/index.html

## Reposted post

Original: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941695094977026 (2023-08-24T00:12:03.698Z (UTC))

> “Ron DeSantis praised Anthony Fauci for Covid response in spring 2020 for ‘really doing a good job’” https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/politics/ron-desantis-fauci-trump-covid-kfile/index.html

- image: https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/110/941/695/060/763/130/original/3f343bb51aafc54d.jpg

## What the media says

**Video transcript** (1:38), transcribed automatically, so names and numbers may be wrong. Speakers aren't identified, so a voice in it may not be his:

> >> It's a travel checkpoint unlike anything most Americans have ever seen. >> Backing up traffic for miles. >> Yesterday we saw huge delays there, some people waiting hours to get to that checkpoint. >> Kim knows State Boarder checkpoints in Alabama, but as you can see here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order. >> I am recommending to the Board of Governors who are going to talk to the university presidents about going to remote learning for the rest of the spring semester at all Florida universities. Restaurants, we're going to do similar to what California did. Bars and nightclubs, effective 5 p.m. today. They're going to be suspended for 30 days. I worked with Miami Beach Mayor in Fort Lauderdale, supported their closures of some of their beaches. >> More restrictions put in place tonight. In Miami Beach, the entertainment district between 5th and 15th streets is getting an 8 p.m. curfew. >> We're going to suspend for two weeks any vacation, new vacation rentals in the state of Florida. >> The governor issuing executive order 2087, ordering vacation rental properties to suspend operations. I talked with one business owner that said he's tired of hearing about closures. He wants some good news. >> Daytona Beach Shores police say last night their officers went around to all restaurants and bars handing them a copy of the governor's executive order. They say they're out tonight patrolling to make sure everyone's in compliance. >> Theme parks, restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses are still closed. >> For those of you who aren't from Florida, welcome to our Oasis of Freedom.

## Media

- video: https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/110/941/718/182/152/517/original/1c97edf540562e96.mp4

## Engagement

- Likes: 7,875
- Reposts: 2,476
- Replies: 222
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.401Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T07:53:07.162Z (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 — third in a rapid saturation campaign — deploys the "Fauci" political symbol against DeSantis on the same day as Trump's Fulton County booking and mugshot. Authorship analysis points strongly to aide execution (likely Scavino) of a Trumpian strategic directive: the 8:17 PM EDT timing, mechanical repost structure, and absence of authentic stylistic markers (typos, ALL CAPS, emotional punctuation) are consistent with managed posting. The psychological engine is preemptive competitive aggression — supply protection through rival neutralization — operating in a controlled grandiose mode rather than hot narcissistic rage. The rhetorical architecture is efficient: Fauci functions as a condensed grievance symbol requiring no elaboration, and three posts amplifying a single CNN article constitute a saturation strategy creating the impression of accumulated evidence. Most clinically noteworthy is the expedient use of CNN as an authoritative source, revealing that "fake news" is a tactical designation rather than a sincere epistemic framework. The juxtaposition with the prior day's authentically-produced post (hot, all-caps, dysregulated) illustrates the characteristic oscillation between managed aide-mediated messaging and unfiltered authentic expression. No danger indicators present. Post is politically aggressive but within conventional primary competition parameters.

# Analysis: Truth Social Post — 2023-08-24 (ts_110941718356227875)

## Contextual Frame

This post arrives on one of the most historically significant days in Trump's political life: August 24, 2023, the date of his Fulton County booking and the first presidential mugshot in American history. Yet rather than address this directly, his Truth Social account is running a coordinated multi-post campaign attacking Ron DeSantis over his early-pandemic deference to Anthony Fauci. This parallel-track operation reveals sophisticated message discipline — simultaneously processing a catastrophic legal development and executing an aggressive primary assault — suggesting significant staff orchestration.

## Authorship Attribution

**Assessment: Aide-produced (confidence: medium)**

The UTC timestamp of 00:17:58 on August 24 converts to approximately **8:17 PM EDT on August 23** — early evening, within standard aide-managed posting hours. This is the third post in approximately 22 minutes pushing the same CNN article with minor textual variation, a saturation pattern inconsistent with organic Trump posting. The mechanical repost structure (no personal interjection, no emotional punctuation, no typos) further confirms aide execution of a strategic directive rather than authentic Trump composition.

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits

- **Low Agreeableness**: The post is a cold competitive strike against a primary rival, devoid of any communal framing
- **High Extraversion (assertiveness)**: Dominance maintenance through repetitive public assertion
- **Low Conscientiousness (deliberation)**: The irony of using CNN as a source while routinely branding it "fake news" suggests expedient over principled information use
- **Moderate Neuroticism**: Underlying competitive anxiety about DeSantis's threat to primary dominance, managed here through controlled aggression rather than visible dysregulation

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

**Agency Motives (dominant):** Power and status preservation in the primary. The attack is not about COVID policy per se but about neutralizing a rival's credibility with the base.

**Schema — Self:** Implicitly cast as the authentic anti-Fauci, anti-establishment figure, contrasted with DeSantis's alleged compliance.

**Schema — Others:** DeSantis coded as a fraud, a pretender to the anti-establishment throne whose record betrays his positioning.

**Schema — World:** Zero-sum competition for GOP primary dominance; any evidence of a rival's impurity is a weapon to be exploited.

## Level 3: Narrative Identity

**Protagonist Role:** Absent from this post explicitly, which is itself informative — Trump does not need to appear; he lets the attack speak. The protagonist is implied: the one who *never* deferred to Fauci.

**Contrasting Other:** DeSantis as the contaminated pretender — someone who adopted the anti-Fauci persona after initially following Fauci's guidance.

**Narrative Sequence:** Contamination: DeSantis was compliant → betrayed his base → now falsely presents himself as the anti-establishment alternative.

**Identity Claims (implicit):** "I am the original. DeSantis is the copy who compromised."

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators

### Narcissistic Dynamics
This represents **supply protection through preemptive attack** rather than reactive narcissistic rage. The trigger is the ongoing primary threat DeSantis poses, specifically the unfavorable comparison in which DeSantis is positioned as the anti-Fauci governor. Trump's campaign systematically neutralizes this comparative advantage by surfacing DeSantis's actual 2020 record.

The narcissistic state is **grandiose-operational**: controlled, strategic, efficient. This stands in contrast to the hot, dysregulated grandiosity of the prior day's post ("I AM LEADING BIDEN IN ALMOST ALL POLLS! LEADING REPUBLICANS BY 50 POINTS. FOX NEWS REFUSES TO POST OR DISCUSS. BRIT HUME, WORKING WITH RINO BRET BAIER, IS DELUSIONAL!!!"). The oscillation between hot authentic expression and cold calculated attack is characteristic of managed malignant narcissism with capable staff management.

### Defense Mechanisms
- **Projection (immature):** Trump himself praised Fauci in early 2020 and imposed federal restrictions; weaponizing DeSantis's identical behavior requires eliding his own parallel record
- **Splitting (immature):** DeSantis cast as wholly compromised, erasing the policy complexity that characterized all governors' early-pandemic decision-making
- **Rationalization (neurotic):** Treating CNN as credible when convenient — the same outlet routinely labeled "fake news" — without acknowledgment of the contradiction

## Rhetorical Analysis

**Fauci as Condensed Symbol:** The name "Fauci" functions as a political symbol in the GOP base that requires no elaboration — it triggers a cascade of pandemic grievance (lockdowns, mandates, school closures, economic disruption) through simple associative proximity. Linking DeSantis to Fauci does not require argument; it requires only juxtaposition and repetition.

**Saturation Strategy:** Three posts with the same CNN article constitute a volume attack — creating the impression of accumulated evidence where there is a single data point. This is a micro-application of the Firehose of Falsehood model: saturation > persuasion.

**Expedient Source Credibility:** The campaign's use of CNN as the authority for this attack — without any of the "fake news" framing that normally accompanies CNN citations — reveals that "fake news" is a tactical designation applied when content is unfavorable, not a stable epistemic framework. This is an important longitudinal marker of instrumental rather than sincere epistemics.

## Gaslighting / Reality Distortion

Moderate gaslighting through selective omission: the posts do not note that Trump administration guidance in spring 2020 similarly involved Fauci's recommendations, and that following such guidance was near-universal at that point. The framing implies DeSantis had a meaningful choice to deviate, when federal guidance was strongly directive.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "DeSantis praised Anthony Fauci for Covid response in spring 2020" | **Mostly True** | Contemporaneous statements from spring 2020 document DeSantis publicly praising Fauci and citing federal guidance in Florida communications; CNN reported these documented statements in June 2023 |
| "DeSantis deferred to Fauci's guidance on COVID-19 restrictions and cited his guidance in state policy communications" | **Mostly True** | Florida's early pandemic policies followed federal guidance; DeSantis's later anti-mandate positioning creates the contradiction the attack exploits; the core factual claim about his 2020 statements is documented |

Overall Veracity: 80%

## Danger Assessment

**Level: None.** This is competitive political attack with no violence-adjacent content, eliminationist language, or dehumanization. It is aggressive and strategically manipulative, but within conventional primary competition parameters.

## Cognitive Status

No meaningful cognitive data available from this post — it is mechanically brief and aide-produced. The authentic adjacent post from August 23 ("I AM LEADING BIDEN IN ALMOST ALL POLLS...") shows continued high-arousal, all-caps expression with the typical hyperbolic superlative pattern consistent with established baseline.

## Strategic Context

The timing relative to the Fulton County booking is significant. Publishing an anti-DeSantis campaign on the day of his own arrest and mugshot serves multiple functions: (1) generates competing content that his communications team controls, (2) keeps his base focused on primary competition rather than his legal exposure, and (3) demonstrates that even under maximum legal pressure, the operation does not pause. This is message discipline operating under extraordinary stress — either a sign of organizational resilience or dissociation from the gravity of the legal situation, or both.

## Authorship Analysis

**Aide-Written** (score: 25%)

### Indicators

- Clean formatting with properly structured quote and URL — inconsistent with Trump's typical stream-of-consciousness style
- This is a retruth (repost) of his own prior post, a mechanical amplification function more consistent with aide operation
- UTC 00:17:58 = approximately 8:17 PM EDT on August 23 — early evening, squarely within aide-managed posting hours
- Third in a rapid series of nearly identical DeSantis-Fauci posts suggesting coordinated messaging campaign rather than organic outrage
- No typos, misspellings, ALL CAPS passages, or emotional punctuation characteristic of authentic Trump posts

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Preemptive Attack — Comparison (Ron DeSantis / primary competition)

Sentiment: -0.55

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 65%
- Antisocial: 35%
- Paranoid: 20%
- Sadism: 30%

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

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

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Repetitive amplification of single attack narrative to saturate audience perception
- Leveraging shared antipathy toward Fauci as tribal bonding mechanism

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Gaslighting

- Selective omission: Trump administration also followed Fauci guidance in spring 2020; framing implies DeSantis had a deviant choice when federal guidance was near-universally directive
- Expedient source credibility reversal: CNN cited as authoritative without 'fake news' framing that normally accompanies CNN references, revealing instrumental rather than principled epistemics

## Fact Checks (2)

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

> DeSantis praised Anthony Fauci for Covid response in spring 2020

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Contemporaneous statements from spring 2020 document DeSantis publicly praising Fauci and citing federal guidance in Florida communications; CNN reported these documented statements in June 2023

Sources: CNN, June 1 2023: 'Ron DeSantis praised Anthony Fauci for Covid response in spring 2020'

> DeSantis deferred to Fauci's guidance on COVID-19 restrictions and cited his guidance in state policy communications

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Florida's early pandemic policies followed federal guidance; DeSantis's later anti-mandate positioning creates the contradiction the attack exploits; the core factual claim about his 2020 statements is documented

Sources: CNN KFile reporting, June 2023

Overall Veracity: 80%

## Tags

- primary-attack (90%)
- DeSantis (90%)
- Fauci-weaponization (85%)
- aide-produced (80%)
- saturation-campaign (75%)
- expedient-source-use (70%)
- Fulton-County-booking-day (80%)
- zone-flooding (65%)
- projection (60%)

## That day

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

**Mugshot Day: 63 Posts, Zero Acknowledgment — Trump Converts Historic Humiliation Into Triumphalist Counter-Narrative**

On the day he became the first former president to have a mugshot taken at Fulton County Jail, Trump flooded social media with over 60 posts — none acknowledging the historic booking itself. The evening before, he live-commented the GOP debate he skipped while boasting about his counter-programming Tucker Carlson interview approaching 100 million views. By afternoon, as the surrender approached, the tone sharpened with direct attacks on prosecutor Fani Willis and Atlanta's crime rate. The entire day was structured as a triumph narrative: arrest reframed as persecution, mugshot converted into merchandise, and over seven million dollars raised from the spectacle.

Full digest for 2023-08-24: https://trump.fm/date/2023-08-24/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, August 24). RT: https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941718356227875
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "RT: https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1..." Truth Social, 24 Aug. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941718356227875. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "RT: https://truthsocial.com/users/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1...," Truth Social, August 24, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941718356227875.

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