# Post ts_111019664360364232 - Post ID: `ts_111019664360364232` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2023-09-06T18:40:40.313Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232/analysis ## Post text > https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawyers-shafer-broke-no-laws-as-alternate-trump-elector-in-2020/7IMON55FBJBYPEJB7XQ5WT4FBU/ ## Engagement - Likes: 6,550 - Reposts: 1,798 - Replies: 139 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.399Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T08:27:30.163Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ # Analysis: Truth Social Post — 2023-09-06T18:40:40Z ## Overview This post consists entirely of a bare URL to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article reporting that David Shafer's attorneys argue he broke no laws as a Trump alternate elector in 2020. There is no Trump-authored text. The post's psychological and strategic content must be inferred almost entirely from (a) the choice of article, (b) its timing, and (c) its format. --- ## Authorship Attribution — HIGH CONFIDENCE: AIDE **Timing:** 18:40 UTC converts to **14:40 ET (2:40 PM Eastern)**. Trump was almost certainly in the New York/Bedminster corridor on this date, having waived his Georgia arraignment rather than traveling south. Mid-afternoon in his local timezone falls squarely within the aide-authored window. Authentic Trump posts cluster between 10 PM and 6 AM local time. **Format:** The complete absence of Trump's verbal signature — no exclamation points, no ALL CAPS, no nicknames for adversaries, no first-person reaction — is decisive. Trump virtually never shares a bare URL without appending some reactive commentary. This is a press clip amplification by a communications staffer (most probably Scavino or legal PR staff). **Assessment:** ~90% probability aide-authored. --- ## Strategic Context and Psychological Significance The post lands on an exceptionally significant date: **September 6, 2023** is the day Trump formally waived his Georgia arraignment and entered a not-guilty plea through his lawyers. The selection of this particular article — emphasizing that a co-defendant's attorneys argue the alternate elector scheme was legal and historically precedented — is not coincidental. The psychological work being performed here is **narrative inoculation**: establishing in the public information environment, on the day of a major legal milestone, that the conduct underlying the indictment was routine, lawful, and precedented. By amplifying a third party's legal argument rather than making the claim directly, the account achieves: 1. **Deniability** — "I just shared a news article" 2. **Third-party credibility laundering** — the assertion comes from lawyers, not Trump 3. **Mainstream outlet association** — the AJC (not a partisan source) confers legitimacy 4. **Base reassurance** — followers receive the signal that legal defenses are viable This is a **vulnerable narcissistic posture managed through deflection** — the injury of the Georgia indictment is absorbed not through rage (as in many other posts) but through quiet legitimacy-seeking. The absence of Trump's voice suggests the legal team has significant editorial influence over this channel at this moment. --- ## Level 1 — Dispositional Traits No direct Trump-authored text; trait assessment from post content is not possible. The *choice* of content suggests agency motivation (power, control over legal narrative) rather than any communion motive. --- ## Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations **Dominant motive: Agency / Control** The selection of a legally favorable article about a co-defendant reflects an ongoing effort to manage the information environment surrounding the Georgia prosecution. This is consistent with the broader pattern of Trump's account functioning as a legal defense PR arm during this period of acute jeopardy. --- ## Level 3 — Narrative Identity No first-person narrative construction is present. Implicitly, the narrative being invoked is: - **Protagonist role:** Wrongly accused (via surrogate — Shafer's exoneration implies Trump's) - **Contamination sequence:** The 2020 election victory → betrayal/indictment narrative continues - **Contrasting other:** Fani Willis and the Fulton County prosecution (implied enemy) --- ## Defense Mechanisms **Rationalization (neurotic):** The historical 1960 Hawaii precedent argument, amplified here, provides logical scaffolding for conduct that eight co-defendants have already implicitly acknowledged as legally problematic by accepting immunity deals. **Displacement (neurotic):** Rather than confronting his own indictment, the post redirects attention to a co-defendant whose situation is framed more favorably — absorbing legal anxiety through a surrogate's more favorable legal posture. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "David Shafer 'broke no laws' as alternate Trump elector in 2020" | **Unverifiable** | This is a legal defense position asserted by Shafer's attorneys, not a judicial finding. At time of posting, the Fulton County case was active. Eight other alternate electors had already reached immunity agreements (suggesting prosecutors believed crimes were committed). Unverifiable as a factual claim until adjudicated. | | "Democrats used an identical approach in Hawaii in 1960" | **Half True** | It is factually accurate that Hawaii Democrats cast contingent electoral votes for Kennedy after Nixon was initially certified the winner, and that Kennedy ultimately prevailed after a recount — making those votes consequential. However, the analogy is materially misleading: the 1960 case arose from a genuine, court-supervised recount in which the outcome changed. The 2020 Georgia case involved states where courts had already dismissed legal challenges before the alternate electors convened. The factual predicate distinguishing 'contingent' from 'fraudulent' electors is substantially different. | Overall Veracity: 50% ## Rhetorical Analysis The post performs **credibility laundering through curation** — associating Trump's account with a favorable legal headline without making a falsifiable first-person claim. The implicit false equivalence embedded in the Hawaii precedent argument constitutes mild gaslighting: it asks readers to accept that the alternate elector scheme was as routine and clearly lawful as a contingent vote during an active recount, eliding critical factual differences. --- ## Danger Assessment **None.** No violent imagery, dehumanizing language, or stochastic terrorism indicators. --- ## Longitudinal Note This post, read alongside the same-day posts (Newsweek Russiagate opinion, indictments-as-rocket-fuel piece, DeSantis vaccine piece), reveals a consistent September 6 posting pattern: the account is functioning as a curated press aggregator amplifying narratives favorable to Trump across multiple fronts — legal legitimacy, anti-DeSantis oppo, victimhood reframing — all through aide-managed link shares rather than authentic Trump text. This is a communications-staff-dominated day, consistent with the legal significance of the arraignment waiver requiring careful message discipline. ## Authorship Analysis **Aide-Written** (score: 10%) ### Indicators - 2:40 PM ET — business hours, inconsistent with authentic Trump timing - Zero text, bare URL only — no characteristic verbal signature - Legally on-message and strategically timed to arraignment waiver day - No emotional content, exclamation points, ALL CAPS, or nicknames ## Psychological Profile ### State **Vulnerable State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Fulton County Georgia indictment and same-day arraignment waiver) Sentiment: +0.15 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 30% - Antisocial: 20% - Paranoid: 10% - Sadism: 0% **Defense Mechanisms:** - rationalization (neurotic) - displacement (neurotic) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 0% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Signal-boosting favorable legal narrative to base without requiring Trump to assert claims directly — insulation from accountability while still seeding the message ## Danger Assessment **NONE** ### Gaslighting - The 1960 Hawaii precedent is presented (via the amplified article) in a way that implies legal equivalence with the 2020 alternate elector scheme, eliding the critical factual differences between a legitimate ongoing recount and a post-court-rejection submission — a subtle reality distortion embedded in the historical framing ## Fact Checks (2) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-20._ > David Shafer 'broke no laws' as alternate Trump elector in 2020 **UNVERIFIABLE** This is a legal defense position asserted by Shafer's attorneys, not a judicial finding. At time of posting, the Fulton County case was active. Eight other alternate electors had already reached immunity agreements (suggesting prosecutors believed crimes were committed). Unverifiable as a factual claim until adjudicated. Sources: Fulton County indictment, August 2023; Georgia alternate elector immunity agreements, 2023 > Democrats used an identical approach in Hawaii in 1960 **HALF TRUE** It is factually accurate that Hawaii Democrats cast contingent electoral votes for Kennedy after Nixon was initially certified the winner, and that Kennedy ultimately prevailed after a recount — making those votes consequential. However, the analogy is materially misleading: the 1960 case arose from a genuine, court-supervised recount in which the outcome changed. The 2020 Georgia case involved states where courts had already dismissed legal challenges before the alternate electors convened. The factual predicate distinguishing 'contingent' from 'fraudulent' electors is substantially different. Sources: 1960 Hawaii electoral history; Georgia election litigation timeline 2020-2021 Overall Veracity: 50% ## Tags - Georgia indictment (90%) - alternate electors (90%) - aide-authored (85%) - legal narrative management (80%) - link-only post (70%) - historical precedent claim (60%) - defensive posture (60%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Arraignment Day Silence Breaks Into a Storm of Grievance and Retribution** Trump spent the day of his formal Georgia arraignment on 13 felony charges without once mentioning the proceedings directly, instead flooding his feed with dozens of supportive articles and attacks on rivals. The afternoon brought a massive staff-managed burst of link-sharing -- legal counter-narratives, debate-dominance stories, and Nixon comparison pieces -- building a wall of distraction around the legal threat. Things turned personal when Trump took over the keyboard, savaging Mike Pence for criticizing him on television, promising to jail his prosecutors if re-elected, and closing the day by publicly demolishing Ann Coulter. The mood was a volatile mix of defiance and grievance, with the legal pressure visible not in what he said about it, but in how aggressively he talked about everything else. Full digest for 2023-09-06: https://trump.fm/date/2023-09-06/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, September 6). https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawyers-shafer-broke-... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawyers-shafer-broke-no-laws-as..." Truth Social, 6 Sep. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "https://www.ajc.com/politics/lawyers-shafer-broke-no-laws-as...," Truth Social, September 6, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232. ## For agents - Site overview: https://trump.fm/llms.txt - API specification: https://trump.fm/openapi.json - MCP server: https://trump.fm/mcp (search and fetch tools, no auth) - This post as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/posts/ts_111019664360364232 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/ts_111019664360364232 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/ts_111019664360364232 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2023-09-06 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111019664360364232.md?analysis=false _Markdown view of a trump.fm page. Post, analysis, date, feed, contradictions, search and about pages answer in markdown at their URL with `.md` appended (`/index.md` for the home page), or when sent `Accept: text/markdown`._