# Post ts_111132285517101129 - Post ID: `ts_111132285517101129` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2023-09-26T16:01:42.742Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111132285517101129 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111132285517101129/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_111132285517101129.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > I watched Fox & Friends this morning, and it is totally unrecognizable. All they do is “gush” over job seeking candidates that are 50 Points, plus, down to your favorite President, or speak endlessly about people that will never run and, without cheating, could never win…And what ever happened to Steve? No wonder their ratings are way down. MAGA! ## Engagement - Likes: 14,147 - Reposts: 3,624 - Replies: 1,197 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.397Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-24T09:11:10.635Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ ## Summary A textbook narcissistic devaluation post, triggered by Fox & Friends shifting favorable coverage toward rival Republican primary candidates. Trump, watching his formerly loyal media outlet "gush" over challengers polling 40–47 points behind him, responds with the full splitting cycle: the network is "totally unrecognizable," competitors are reframed as "job seekers," and the ratings decline is offered as market-validated punishment for disloyalty. The grandiosity is explicit ("50 Points, plus, down to your favorite President") while the vulnerability is structural — the post exists because the supply withdrawal registers as genuinely injurious. Authenticity markers are strong despite midday posting time: first-person viewing claim, idiosyncratic orthography, cryptic in-group reference to "Steve," and the signature "your favorite President" construction. The most clinically salient element is the embedded "without cheating, could never win" — a passive election fraud schema activation that requires no elaboration because the audience is already primed. When read alongside the same-day Varney/poll-mixing post, a pattern emerges: Trump is systematically monitoring Fox properties for loyalty violations on this date and publicly flagging each infraction, consistent with an acute supply-withdrawal episode rather than isolated grievance. No danger indicators; no cognitive decline markers beyond low-complexity baseline. # Fox & Friends Devaluation Post — 2023-09-26 ## Overview This mid-campaign post targets Fox & Friends for its primary debate coverage, representing a textbook narcissistic devaluation of a previously idealized media ally. The post is brief but psychologically dense, combining grandiosity, grievance, splitting, and competitive contempt into a single loosely structured paragraph. --- ## Authorship Attribution **Verdict: Authentic Trump (high confidence)** UTC 16:01:42 converts to **12:01 PM EDT** (Trump likely in New York or traveling to/from Iowa; the Dubuque rally was in this period). Midday is nominally aide-hours, but several stylistic markers override that baseline: - First-person sensory anchor ("I watched Fox & Friends *this morning*") — aides do not typically claim Trump's morning viewing habits - Two-word split: "what *ever* happened" — idiosyncratic orthography consistent with authentic Trump typing - Random capitalization: "Points" mid-sentence - The rhetorical structure is fragmented and emotionally driven — multiple clause pivots without clean conclusion - "Your favorite President" — a signature self-referential construction, not an aide formulation - The adjacent posts that day (Varney/DeSanctimonious, Team Trump sign-up, EV mandate attack) suggest a high-volume, personally active day on the platform The post most likely originated as authentic Trump, possibly voiced aloud and typed or dictated directly. --- ## Situational Trigger **Primary trigger: Narcissistic injury via perceived media disloyalty** Fox & Friends was Trump's most important morning propaganda vehicle during his presidency and early 2024 campaign ramp. Perceiving it shifting coverage to rival Republican primary candidates — even giving them flattering "gushing" treatment — constitutes a significant supply withdrawal. The injury is compounded by the competitive context: Trump is leading by enormous margins, yet the channel he views as his native media environment is platforming challengers. The preceding post about Stuart Varney "mixing up" poll numbers to favor DeSantis establishes a pattern across this single day: Trump monitoring Fox properties for loyalty violations and publicly flagging each one. --- ## Personality Framework (McAdams & Pals) ### Level 1 — Dispositional Traits - **Extraversion** (high): dominant, assertive, self-promoting voice; centers himself as the only relevant actor in the field - **Agreeableness** (very low): contemptuous dismissal of competitors; no empathy or acknowledgment of their legitimacy - **Neuroticism** (elevated): reactive to a morning TV segment; grievance-tracking across media appearances; cannot let perceived slights pass - **Conscientiousness** (low): rambling structure; unresolved clause ("And what ever happened to Steve?"); impulsive publication - **Openness** (low): rigid framework — candidates are categorized only by their polling gap to him; no genuine engagement with their arguments or appeals ### Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations - **Dominant motive: power/status** — the post is not about policy, voters, or Fox's journalistic standards. It is entirely about whether the media is accurately representing his dominance over the field. - **Schema (self):** Supreme, inevitable winner whose natural media habitat has been betrayed - **Schema (competitors):** "Job seekers" — a deliberately demeaning frame that strips them of political legitimacy and reframes elections as job applications to *him* - **Schema (media):** Transactional — media's worth is measured solely by fidelity to his narrative; defection earns devaluation ### Level 3 — Narrative Identity - **Protagonist role:** Rightful champion, betrayed by formerly loyal ally - **Contamination sequence:** Fox & Friends *was* a reliable tribune of his dominance → has now become a vehicle for lesser figures - **Identity claims:** "Your favorite President" — the possessive "your" performs intimacy with the MAGA base while asserting superlative status; "50 Points, plus, down" — identity constructed through quantified dominance - **Contrasting other:** The unnamed "job seeking candidates" and "people that will never run" — competitors rendered not just inferior but categorically ineligible --- ## Clinical Indicators ### Narcissistic Dynamics **State: Grandiose with embedded vulnerability** The grandiosity is explicit and unguarded ("50 Points, plus, down to your favorite President"). The vulnerability is structural: the post would not exist if Trump were indifferent to Fox's coverage. The very act of publicly attacking a friendly media outlet for insufficient loyalty reveals the underlying need for constant supply. This pattern — idealization → perceived betrayal → public devaluation — has appeared repeatedly across Trump's media relationships (Fox primetime hosts, Murdoch, individual anchors). The Fox & Friends franchise had been specifically idealized; this post marks the formal devaluation phase. **Narcissistic rage: Mild-moderate** The rage here is controlled enough to be channeled into contemptuous dismissal rather than direct attack, but the affect is unmistakably hostile. "No wonder their ratings are way down" performs satisfaction at the network's decline — consistent with ego-syntonic pleasure in the diminishment of a defecting ally. ### Defense Mechanisms 1. **Splitting (immature):** Fox is no longer partly disappointing — it is "totally unrecognizable." Absolute devaluation following perceived disloyalty. 2. **Rationalization (neurotic):** The ratings decline is presented as a logical consequence of bad editorial choices, framing his grievance as objective market analysis rather than wounded narcissism. 3. **Devaluation (immature):** Competitors reduced to "job seekers"; the network reduced to a vessel for deception. 4. **Projection (immature):** Implicit accusation that Fox is cheating his competitors into relevance parallels his own long-standing pattern of inflating credentials and questioning others' legitimacy. --- ## Cognitive Status **Assessment: Within baseline range; no acute markers** The post is grammatically loose and tangential, but this is entirely consistent with Trump's well-documented baseline speech/writing pattern from the 2016–present period. Specific features: - "What ever" (two-word split): idiosyncratic but recurring in authentic posts; not a new error type - Trailing cryptic reference ("what ever happened to Steve?") without explanation: consistent with Trump's in-group signaling style, assuming shared context with the MAGA audience - Capitalization of "Points": stylistic eccentricity within normal range **Complexity score: Low**, consistent with baseline for reactive/grievance posts. No evidence of new-onset word-finding difficulty, semantic paraphasia, or confabulation. Longitudinal analysis should track the frequency of unexplained in-group references ("Steve?") as these can signal increased reliance on assumed shared knowledge. **Note on "Steve":** The reference is ambiguous. Most likely candidates: Steve Doocy (Fox & Friends co-host, still at Fox in this period but potentially less prominent in Trump's view), Steve Hilton (left Fox News in 2023), or Steve Bannon (former Fox-adjacent commentator). The ellipsis and lack of clarification is a deliberate rhetorical move — positioning the audience to fill the gap with their own interpretation, reinforcing parasocial intimacy. --- ## Rhetorical & Propaganda Techniques - **Superlative quantification:** "50 Points, plus" — the precision implies objectivity while the approximation inflates; creates a crushing impression of dominance - **Contemptuous relabeling:** "Job seeking candidates" — category substitution that redefines the election as a job interview process where Trump is both employer and incumbent - **In-group signaling:** "Your favorite President" — the possessive "your" performs intimacy; MAGA as the named, addressed community - **Embedded accusation:** "without cheating, could never win" — inserts election integrity subtext without fully elaborating; activates existing MAGA schemas - **Institutional devaluation:** The ratings claim frames Fox's decline as evidence-based consequence, lending pseudo-objectivity to personal grievance - **Parasocial technique:** Cryptic "what ever happened to Steve?" invites audience speculation and engagement, simulating a private conversation --- ## Gaslighting & Reality Distortion **Limited in this post.** The closest element is the framing of Fox's coverage as inherently deceptive ("without cheating, could never win") — a pre-emptive delegitimization of any coverage that does not mirror his polling dominance. This primes the MAGA audience to interpret any positive competitor coverage as coordination rather than journalism. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Candidates are '50 Points, plus' behind Trump in polls" | **Mostly True** | Trump was polling approximately 55–60% in Republican primary surveys in late September 2023, with DeSantis at 13–17%, yielding a gap of roughly 38–47 points. The '50 Points, plus' figure overstates the gap by 5–12 points but correctly represents an historically dominant polling position. | | "Fox & Friends ratings are 'way down'" | **Half True** | Fox News broadly experienced audience erosion in 2023 following the Dominion Voting Systems settlement and Tucker Carlson's departure in April 2023. Fox & Friends saw some decline. 'Way down' overstates a real but moderate trend. | | "Competitors 'without cheating, could never win'" | **Unverifiable** | This is an assertion, not a factual claim. The embedded election fraud implication reactivates prior claims without specifying a mechanism or event that could be evaluated. | Overall Veracity: 60% ## Danger Assessment **Level: None** No violent imagery, eliminationist language, dehumanizing characterizations of individuals, or stochastic terrorism indicators. This is a supply-withdrawal grievance directed at a media institution and unnamed political competitors. The "cheating" reference activates election integrity frameworks but does not constitute a mobilization signal in this context. --- ## Archetypal Analysis **Primary archetype: Wounded King** The King archetype claims legitimate authority over a domain (here: the conservative media ecosystem and the Republican primary). When that domain fails to properly reflect the King's legitimacy, the response is not rage but contemptuous withdrawal and public diminishment of the offending institution. The post performs regal displeasure — "no wonder their ratings are way down" — rather than warrior-mode combat. A secondary **Trickster** element appears in the cryptic "what ever happened to Steve?" — a disruptive non-sequitur that destabilizes normal discourse and rewards in-group audience members who decode the reference. **Shadow projection:** The "job seekers" framing projects onto competitors the very behavior Trump has always exhibited — relentless self-promotion and credential-seeking in media spaces. The projection allows him to maintain the self-schema of the incumbent while delegitimizing those doing what he himself does. --- ## Order/Chaos Positioning **Order defender with chaos-generating tactics** Trump positions himself as the natural order of the Republican primary (the 50-point incumbent) being disrupted by Fox's illegitimate coverage. He simultaneously introduces chaos into the Fox/conservative media relationship by publicly attacking a major friendly outlet, destabilizing the ecosystem he claims to represent. This asymmetry — defending his own status while attacking the institution — is characteristic of his media relationship management throughout the campaign period. ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 82%) ### Indicators - First-person morning viewing claim ('I watched Fox & Friends this morning') — aides do not embed sensory claims this way - Idiosyncratic two-word split: 'what ever' (vs. 'whatever') - Mid-sentence capitalization of 'Points' — signature Trump orthographic tic - Cryptic unexplained in-group reference ('what ever happened to Steve?') - Fragmented clause structure with emotional pivots — stream-of-consciousness quality ## Psychological Profile ### State **Mixed State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Comparison (Fox & Friends coverage of rival Republican primary candidates) **Rage:** Intensity 45% targeting Fox & Friends / rival candidates - Proportionality: 20% Sentiment: -0.45 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 78% - Antisocial: 30% - Paranoid: 50% - Sadism: 25% **Defense Mechanisms:** - splitting (immature) - devaluation (immature) - rationalization (neurotic) - projection (immature) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 28% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Possessive 'your favorite President' — performs intimacy with MAGA base - Cryptic 'what ever happened to Steve?' — invites in-group decoding, simulates private conversation - MAGA! closing — tribal affirmation and group boundary marker ## Fact Checks (3) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-24._ > Candidates are '50 Points, plus' behind Trump in polls **MOSTLY TRUE** Trump was polling approximately 55–60% in Republican primary surveys in late September 2023, with DeSantis at 13–17%, yielding a gap of roughly 38–47 points. The '50 Points, plus' figure overstates the gap by 5–12 points but correctly represents an historically dominant polling position. Sources: General knowledge of 2023 Republican primary polling landscape > Fox & Friends ratings are 'way down' **HALF TRUE** Fox News broadly experienced audience erosion in 2023 following the Dominion Voting Systems settlement and Tucker Carlson's departure in April 2023. Fox & Friends saw some decline. 'Way down' overstates a real but moderate trend. Sources: General knowledge of Fox News 2023 ratings history > Competitors 'without cheating, could never win' **UNVERIFIABLE** This is an assertion, not a factual claim. The embedded election fraud implication reactivates prior claims without specifying a mechanism or event that could be evaluated. Overall Veracity: 60% ## Tags - media-grievance (90%) - fox-news-devaluation (85%) - narcissistic-injury (80%) - splitting (80%) - primary-competition (75%) - supply-withdrawal (75%) - loyalty-testing (70%) - election-fraud-priming (60%) - authentic-trump (82%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **On the Day Courts Called It Fraud, Trump Attacked Everyone But the Ruling** Trump spent most of September 26 performing triumphant normalcy -- sharing rally highlights from South Carolina, blasting out fundraising links, and celebrating a 10-point polling lead over Biden -- while studiously ignoring the biggest legal blow of the day: a judge ruling he was liable for massive financial fraud. When he wasn't broadcasting strength, he was nursing a sustained grudge against Fox News, attacking the network across four posts for insufficient loyalty. A fiery response to Biden's historic UAW picket-line visit and a combative post about Jack Smith's prosecution team were the day's angriest moments. It wasn't until nearly 7 PM Eastern that he finally addressed the Engoron fraud ruling directly, dismissing it with a "done business perfectly" defense and pivoting to New York crime statistics. Full digest for 2023-09-26: https://trump.fm/date/2023-09-26/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, September 26). I watched Fox & Friends this morning, and it... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_111132285517101129 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "I watched Fox & Friends this morning, and it is totally..." Truth Social, 26 Sep. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111132285517101129. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. 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