# Post ts_110941726169878107

- Post ID: `ts_110941726169878107`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2023-08-24T00:19:57.854Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941726169878107
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941726169878107/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_110941726169878107.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> NO, I’M THE ONE THAT THE DEMOCRATS DON’T WANT TO RUN AGAINST. They said the same thing in 2016. How did that work out? We did MUCH better in the Rigged Election of 2020. The RINOS and DEMS are all about DISINFORMATION! @brithume @bretbaier

## Engagement

- Likes: 15,233
- Reposts: 3,861
- Replies: 633
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.401Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T07:57:55.673Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

Posted at 8:19 PM ET on August 23 — the evening of the first GOP debate Trump boycotted — this post exhibits classic reactive narcissistic injury dynamics. Brit Hume and Bret Baier apparently suggested Democrats prefer running against Trump (implying vulnerability), directly attacking his core grandiose self-representation as an unbeatable force. The response oscillates between grandiose and vulnerable poles within a single brief post: asserting dominance ("I'm the one Democrats fear") while deploying the perseverative "Rigged Election of 2020" victimhood frame. This oscillation is diagnostically consistent with Kernberg's description of the malignant narcissist under perceived threat — the grandiose facade fractures into paranoid-victim framing when the injury cannot be fully neutralized by dominance assertion alone. The 2016 rhetorical gambit ("How did that work out?") functions as rationalization, treating a prior outcome as permanent refutation of all future critics. Projection is salient: Trump accuses Hume and Baier of "DISINFORMATION" while simultaneously asserting the judicially and institutionally rejected "Rigged Election" claim. The logical contradiction embedded in "MUCH better in the Rigged Election" — simultaneously a success frame and an injustice frame — goes unexamined, reflecting epistemic closure rather than cognitive decline. Authorship confidence is high: ALL CAPS, journalist @-tagging as punitive mobilization, stream-of-consciousness structure, and real-time reactive posting to debate coverage are all authentic fingerprints. Danger level: none. Represents maintenance-plus-injury-response, not novel escalation.

# Psychological Analysis: Truth Social Post, August 24, 2023 (UTC) / August 23, 2023 ~8:19 PM ET

## Situational Context

This post was published at approximately **8:19 PM Eastern Time on August 23, 2023** — the precise window during which Fox News was broadcasting the first Republican primary debate, an event Trump conspicuously boycotted in favor of a pre-recorded Tucker Carlson interview posted to X. Brit Hume and Bret Baier, both Fox News personalities and likely visible in debate coverage Trump was monitoring, are directly @-tagged and attacked. The immediacy and emotional register strongly suggest reactive real-time television viewing. Trump was likely in transit to or staged near Atlanta ahead of his August 24 Fulton County surrender — the most legally dramatic moment of his post-presidential period thus far.

The prior post from minutes earlier ("BRIT HUME, WORKING WITH RINO BRET BAIER, IS DELUSIONAL!!!") and this post form a rapid-fire reactive pair, suggesting an emotional surge triggered by specific on-air commentary.

---

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

**Neuroticism (dominant):** Angry hostility facet is the primary driver. The ALL CAPS formatting, the dismissive rhetorical question, and the direct journalist-targeting reflect impulsive emotional discharge with minimal deliberation. The posting surge (multiple posts within a short window) mirrors elevated arousal states documented in his prior reactive posting patterns.

**Extraversion (high):** Assertiveness at ceiling — he positions himself as the center of political gravity around which all others orbit ("I'm the one…"). The combative self-promotion is consistent with high assertiveness-facet extraversion.

**Agreeableness (very low):** Zero modesty or trust. The post is structured as a counterattack, with opponents characterized as delusional and dishonest. No acknowledgment of legitimate alternative perspectives.

**Conscientiousness (low):** The post shows no evidence of deliberation, advance planning, or systematic argument construction. It is reactive rather than strategic — the hallmark of low deliberation facet.

**Openness (very low):** Rigid, formulaic thinking is evident. The "Rigged Election" claim and the 2016 analogy are pre-formed cognitive templates applied without modification or contextual nuance.

---

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations — Motives and Schemas

**Dominant motive: Power/Agency (0.90).** The post is fundamentally about asserting dominance — "I am the candidate who terrifies the opposition." Communion motives are absent; there is no prosocial or affiliative content.

**Self-schema:** Invincible, uniquely threatening political figure who has already refuted his doubters once (2016) and whose superior 2020 performance (by his framing) validates continued dominance. This schema requires the ongoing rejection of 2020's outcome.

**Other-schema:** A unified hostile apparatus: RINOS + DEMS + Fox News establishment are collapsed into a single disinformation coalition. This flattening of distinctions into a monolithic enemy is consistent with the paranoid object relations Kernberg describes in malignant narcissism.

**World-schema:** Zero-sum, persecutory. Everyone who casts doubt on Trump's electoral strength is simultaneously lying and afraid. There is no space for good-faith disagreement in this world-model.

---

## Level 3: Narrative Identity

**Protagonist role:** The Unbeatable Warrior-Champion who has already proven the doubters wrong once and will again. The post invokes a well-worn narrative arc: *experts predicted my defeat then I won therefore current experts are equally wrong*.

**Narrative sequence:** Contamination pattern — the 2016 victory (pure, validated) was followed by the "Rigged" 2020 outcome (corrupted by enemies), and now the same enemies are again attempting to undermine him. This contamination narrative (good then bad via betrayal/corruption) provides the emotional logic of the post.

**Identity claims:**
- "I am the candidate Democrats are most afraid of" (dominance claim)
- "I was right in 2016 when everyone doubted me" (prophetic/vindicated claim)
- "The 2020 result was illegitimate, not a genuine defeat" (victim/martyr claim)

**Contrasting other:** RINOS (represented by Bret Baier) and Democrats as a united disinformation apparatus — a coalition of internal traitors and external enemies that serves to consolidate Trump's identity as the singular target of establishment coordination.

---

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators

### Malignant Narcissism Assessment

**Narcissistic features (0.82/1.0):**
- Grandiosity: "I'm the one Democrats don't want to run against" — positions self as the uniquely threatening figure
- Entitlement: The assumption that Fox News commentators are obligated to frame his candidacy favorably
- Envy/belief others envy: Inverts the envy dynamic — Democrats don't want to face him (implying they envy or fear his power)

**Antisocial features (0.45/1.0):**
- Public @-tagging of journalists as a punitive mobilization strategy — directs audience hostility toward named individuals
- Persistent "Rigged Election" claim represents repeated public deceit about documented events

**Paranoid features (0.72/1.0):**
- RINOS and DEMS framed as a coordinated disinformation coalition
- Fox News commentators' opinion characterized as deliberate "DISINFORMATION" rather than legitimate commentary
- Preoccupation with being misrepresented/attacked by media

**Ego-syntonic sadism (0.25/1.0 — low in this post):**
- "How did that work out?" has a mild contemptuous edge but does not rise to overt sadistic display
- Primary affect is defensive anger rather than pleasure in others' suffering

### Defense Mechanisms

| Defense | Level | Evidence |
|---------|-------|----------|
| Denial | Pathological | "Rigged Election of 2020" — flat rejection of documented outcome across 60+ court rulings |
| Projection | Immature | Accusing Hume/Baier of "DISINFORMATION" while asserting the "Rigged Election" claim |
| Splitting | Immature | RINOS+DEMS as monolithic disinformation apparatus (all-bad object) vs. Trump as truth-teller (all-good) |
| Rationalization | Neurotic | 2016 outcome used as logical proof that all current critics are wrong |

### Cognitive Status

No significant deviation from established baseline detected. Complexity score (0.32) is consistent with Trump's documented reactive posting baseline. The logical contradiction within the post ("MUCH better in the Rigged Election of 2020" — success frame + injustice frame applied simultaneously to same event) is characteristic motivated reasoning rather than evidence of new cognitive dysfunction.

---

## Rhetorical Analysis

**Core rhetorical structure:** The "2016 gambit" — invoking prior critic failure as permanent disqualification of all future criticism.

**Persuasion techniques employed:**
- Rhetorical question ("How did that work out?") — forces the audience to mentally supply the 2016 victory
- ALL CAPS — typographic intensity as emotional amplification and dominance signal
- @-tagging as mobilization — naming targets publicly directs follower scrutiny
- RAND Firehose persistence — "Rigged Election" claim maintained across hundreds of posts
- False equivalence — RINOS and DEMS collapsed into a single disinformation entity

No dehumanizing language or violent imagery detected.

---

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Democrats said the same thing (they want to run against me) in 2016" | **Mostly True** | Multiple Democratic strategists and commentators in 2015-2016 did express preference for running against Trump, viewing him as more beatable than establishment Republicans. |
| "We did MUCH better in the Rigged Election of 2020" | **Half True** | Trump received ~74.2M votes in 2020 vs ~62.9M in 2016 — a genuine increase in raw vote totals. However, he lost the Electoral College 232-306 and the popular vote by ~7M. The 'Rigged' characterization has been rejected by courts, election officials, and his own DOJ. |
| "RINOS and DEMS are all about DISINFORMATION" | **Unverifiable** | Characterization of opponents' motives; not a falsifiable factual claim in context. |

Overall Veracity: 60%

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 87%)

### Indicators

- ALL CAPS throughout entire post
- Emotional reactivity directed at named journalists via @mentions
- Stream-of-consciousness defense structure with rhetorical question
- Posted at ~8:19 PM ET during GOP debate — consistent with TV-watching reactive posting
- Impulsive, unpolished quality with no aide-typical formatting

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Mixed State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Comparison (Brit Hume and Bret Baier (Fox News))

**Rage:** Intensity 65% targeting Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Fox News, RINOs, Democrats
- Proportionality: 30%

Sentiment: -0.55

**Mildly Hypomanic**
- Rapid sequential posting — multiple posts within short window attacking same targets
- ALL CAPS escalation across consecutive posts
- Grandiose certainty without evidential qualification
- Reactive engagement with TV news in real time suggesting reduced impulse filtering

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 82%
- Antisocial: 45%
- Paranoid: 72%
- Sadism: 25%

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

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 32%

Cognitive Markers:
- perseveration

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Direct @-mention of named journalists to mobilize followers against them
- Rhetorical question inviting audience to relive shared victory narrative
- In-group/out-group reinforcement through RINO and DEMS labels

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Gaslighting

- 'Rigged Election of 2020' — denial of documented electoral outcome, demanding followers accept contested framing as baseline reality
- Characterizing Fox News analysts' commentary as 'DISINFORMATION' — attacks on epistemically legitimate observations to discredit unfavorable framing
- Implicit claim that his 2020 performance ('MUCH better') validates candidacy despite losing — reality inversion

## Fact Checks (3)

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

> Democrats said the same thing (they want to run against me) in 2016

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Multiple Democratic strategists and commentators in 2015-2016 did express preference for running against Trump, viewing him as more beatable than establishment Republicans.

Sources: General political history, 2015-2016 primary commentary

> We did MUCH better in the Rigged Election of 2020

**HALF TRUE**

Trump received ~74.2M votes in 2020 vs ~62.9M in 2016 — a genuine increase in raw vote totals. However, he lost the Electoral College 232-306 and the popular vote by ~7M. The 'Rigged' characterization has been rejected by courts, election officials, and his own DOJ.

Sources: Federal Election Commission certified results, 2020 and 2016

> RINOS and DEMS are all about DISINFORMATION

**UNVERIFIABLE**

Characterization of opponents' motives; not a falsifiable factual claim in context.

Overall Veracity: 60%

## Tags

- narcissistic_injury_response (90%)
- election_denial (88%)
- authentic_trump (87%)
- media_attack (82%)
- projection (78%)
- gop_primary (75%)
- perseveration (65%)
- epistemic_closure (85%)
- reactive_posting (88%)

## 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). NO, I’M THE ONE THAT THE DEMOCRATS DON’T WANT TO... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941726169878107
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "NO, I’M THE ONE THAT THE DEMOCRATS DON’T WANT TO RUN..." Truth Social, 24 Aug. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941726169878107. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "NO, I’M THE ONE THAT THE DEMOCRATS DON’T WANT TO RUN...," Truth Social, August 24, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_110941726169878107.

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