# Post ts_111058467514009026 - Post ID: `ts_111058467514009026` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2023-09-13T15:08:49.401Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026/analysis ## Post text > https://www.rsbnetwork.com/news/yes-americans-were-way-better-off-under-trump-four-years-ago/ ## Engagement - Likes: 12,230 - Reposts: 3,058 - Replies: 272 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.398Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T08:33:47.300Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ # Post Analysis: RSBNetwork Article Share (2023-09-13) ## Overview This post consists solely of a URL to an RSB Network article titled "Yes, Americans Were Way Better Off Under Trump Four Years ago." There is no added commentary, caption, or original text. As a bare link share, it is among the lowest-information post types for psychological analysis. Its significance lies primarily in (a) authorship attribution, (b) its placement within the day's broader posting pattern, and (c) what the article selection reveals about motivational state. --- ## Authorship Attribution **Local time conversion:** September 13, 2023 is EDT (UTC-4). The post was published at 15:08 UTC = **11:08 AM EDT**. Trump was likely at either Trump Tower (New York) or Bedminster, NJ in mid-September; either way, this is solidly mid-morning business hours. This timing, combined with the clean URL-only format (no typos, no emotional punctuation, no ALL CAPS), is consistent with **aide curation** (Scavino-style), not authentic Trump posting. Authentic Trump posts in the same day's context include the emotionally charged "When will the Fascists apologize to me?" post, which demonstrates the characteristic stream-of-consciousness and direct grievance voicing that is absent here. Link shares of this type — formatted, solitary URLs pointing to favorable coverage — are a standard aide distribution pattern. **Confidence: medium-high for aide authorship.** --- ## Day-Level Pattern Context September 13, 2023 shows a high-volume posting day with a coherent defensive-supply cluster: 1. Archives article (narrative: Biden probe suppression) 2. "Fascists apologize" + EU memo (grievance, victimhood, vindication) 3. 14th Amendment disqualification rebuttal article (legal defense) 4. "Why Trump is Great for Democracy" article (supply-seeking) 5. Abraham Accords / Nobel Prize article (legacy glorification) 6. **This post:** "Americans Were Way Better Off Under Trump" (comparative retrospective glorification) The day's pattern is consistent with a **supply-maintenance + legal anxiety** cycle. The prior day (September 12), Speaker McCarthy launched the Biden impeachment inquiry — an event that simultaneously validates Trump's long-standing narrative of Biden corruption and operates as an ego-syntonic political victory. The 14th Amendment article reflects ongoing anxiety about electoral disqualification threats (the Georgia case was in active legal maneuvering, with Meadows' transfer bid just denied). The day's posts collectively serve as a coordinated psychological buffering operation: gather and broadcast favorable narratives on multiple fronts simultaneously. --- ## Level 1: Dispositional Traits The article selection (retrospective comparison favoring the Trump era) reflects: - **Low agreeableness / high antagonism**: the implicit contrast positions the current administration as inferior by definition - **Extraversion (status/dominance facet)**: broadcasting favorable comparative coverage - **Conscientiousness (achievement striving)**: framing the Trump years as a documented record of superior outcomes No neuroticism indicators are directly present in this bare-URL post. --- ## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations **Dominant motive:** Agency/status. The article title is an external validation claim: "Yes, Americans Were Way Better Off." The "Yes" framing presupposes a debate in which Trump is vindicated. This feeds the need to have one's greatness confirmed by external authority. **Schema revealed:** The world is divided into the Trump era (prosperity, competence, order) and the post-Trump era (decline, chaos, failure). This comparative schema is fundamental to his political identity and the 2024 campaign rationale. --- ## Level 3: Narrative Identity - **Protagonist role:** Absent ruler whose departure caused decline; implied savior by return - **Narrative sequence:** Contamination → implied Redemption. The "four years ago" framing positions departure from power as the contaminating event (good → bad), with the implied corrective being restoration - **Identity claim:** I delivered prosperity; without me, Americans suffer - **Contrasting other:** Biden administration (unnamed but structurally present as the inferior comparison) --- ## Level 4: Clinical Indicators No direct clinical indicators are assessable from a bare URL post. Within the day's cluster, the pattern reflects maintenance-level narcissistic supply-seeking, not an acute injury response. The absence of original text limits inference. --- ## Defense Mechanisms - **Rationalization** (neurotic level): selecting favorable comparative economic coverage justifies and normalizes the political campaign's central premise - **Idealization** (immature level): the Trump era is implicitly cast as objectively superior, flattening complexity --- ## Rhetorical Techniques The post itself is rhetorically inert as authored content. The article title performs the rhetorical work: - **False dichotomy**: "way better off under Trump" vs. now — a binary that ignores confounding variables (COVID recovery, global inflation, supply chain disruption) - **Nostalgic appeal**: "four years ago" frames the Trump era as a lost golden age - **Superlative framing**: "way better off" — characteristic Trumpian hyperbole embedded in the article title, suggesting either Trump selection of articles that mirror his own rhetorical register, or aide selection of articles that will appeal to his sensibility - **Appeal to authority (confirmatory)**: third-party outlet affirming what Trump believes, lending the claim external legitimacy --- ## Gaslighting & Reality Distortion Not present in this post's structure. The economic comparison claim is partially grounded (pre-COVID 2019 indicators were strong) but misleading as a causal attribution. This is closer to misleading framing than gaslighting. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Americans were way better off under Trump four years ago (September 2019 vs September 2023)" | **Half True** | September 2019 had 3.5% unemployment (50-year low) and sub-2% inflation, conditions favorable for the comparison. However: (1) 2019 was year 10-11 of an Obama-era expansion Trump inherited; (2) the post-2020 inflation and labor market disruption is primarily COVID-attributable; (3) by Sept 2023 inflation was declining (3.7% from 2022 peak of 9%+) and employment remained near historic lows. 'Way better off' as a blanket claim is misleading, though selective economic snapshots can support narrow versions of it. | Overall Veracity: 50% ## Danger Assessment None. No target identification, no grievance articulation, no implied action, no dehumanizing language. --- ## Summary **Null** — post is not clinically significant in isolation. It is a bare URL share to favorable coverage, likely aide-curated given its 11:08 AM EDT timing and clean format. Within the day's broader posting cluster, it occupies the retrospective glorification slot of a coordinated supply-maintenance operation, alongside legal defense content and grievance broadcasting. The selection of a comparative economic article ("four years ago") reflects the maintenance-phase narrative identity construction undergirding the 2024 campaign: the departed ruler whose absence caused decline. No acute psychological state is evidenced in this post alone. ## Authorship Analysis **Aide-Written** (score: 15%) ### Indicators - 11:08 AM EDT - mid-morning business hours, not late night/early morning - Clean URL-only format with no added commentary, typos, or emotional punctuation - Aide-style link curation consistent with Scavino distribution pattern - Contrast with same-day authentic post 'When will the Fascists apologize to me?' which shows characteristic emotional directness ## Psychological Profile ### State **Grandiose State** **Trigger:** Maintenance (ongoing 2024 campaign narrative maintenance and legal anxiety context) Sentiment: +0.35 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 20% - Antisocial: 0% - Paranoid: 0% - Sadism: 0% **Defense Mechanisms:** - rationalization (neurotic) - idealization (immature) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 0% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Retrospective glorification inviting audience to share nostalgic identification with the Trump era - Third-party validation model: external source confirms what followers already believe ## Fact Checks (1) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-20._ > Americans were way better off under Trump four years ago (September 2019 vs September 2023) **HALF TRUE** September 2019 had 3.5% unemployment (50-year low) and sub-2% inflation, conditions favorable for the comparison. However: (1) 2019 was year 10-11 of an Obama-era expansion Trump inherited; (2) the post-2020 inflation and labor market disruption is primarily COVID-attributable; (3) by Sept 2023 inflation was declining (3.7% from 2022 peak of 9%+) and employment remained near historic lows. 'Way better off' as a blanket claim is misleading, though selective economic snapshots can support narrow versions of it. Sources: BLS unemployment data; CPI historical records; GDP growth trajectory 2009-2023 Overall Veracity: 50% ## Tags - supply-seeking (60%) - retrospective-glorification (70%) - aide-authored (70%) - campaign-maintenance (80%) - contamination-narrative (60%) - economic-comparison (70%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Grandiose Baseline Day: Late-Night Putin Validation, Romney Victory Lap, and a 14-Post Link Dump** A moderately busy day of 27 posts was dominated by self-congratulation and rival-bashing, with Trump celebrating Romney's retirement, mocking DeSantis's declining polls, and attacking Biden over inflation numbers. The most notable moment came after midnight when he cited Putin's criticism of America as validation of his own persecution claims — a rare instance of openly leveraging hostile foreign propaganda. A massive midday burst of shared links, mostly posted by staff, padded the count, while a two-part morning response to a New York Times article revealed disproportionate sensitivity to any suggestion of cognitive error. Full digest for 2023-09-13: https://trump.fm/date/2023-09-13/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, September 13). https://www.rsbnetwork.com/news/yes-americans-were... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "https://www.rsbnetwork.com/news/yes-americans-were-way-bette..." Truth Social, 13 Sep. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "https://www.rsbnetwork.com/news/yes-americans-were-way-bette...," Truth Social, September 13, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026. ## 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_111058467514009026 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/ts_111058467514009026 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/ts_111058467514009026 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2023-09-13 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111058467514009026.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`._