# Post ts_111660550147085401 - Post ID: `ts_111660550147085401` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2023-12-28T23:06:21.336Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_111660550147085401.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > “Small business owners from battleground states SCORCH Crooked Joe Biden’s failed policies and share their reasons for supporting President Donald J. Trump.” ## What the media says **Video transcript** (5:11), transcribed automatically, so names and numbers may be wrong. Speakers aren't identified, so a voice in it may not be his: > We're less than three weeks away from the Iowa caucuses, so how are battleground state voters feeling ahead of the 2024 race? Joining us now are three business owners, Iowa voter Penny Carroll, Georgia voter John German and Arizona voter Jorge Rivas. Great to have you all with us. Thank you so much. Jorge, I'm going to start with you and the great state of Arizona. We take a look in 2020 and we can see Joe Biden won Arizona by a very small margin, 49.4% to Trump's 49.1%. He won Georgia by a small margin. Trump was able to pull it out in Iowa. As we go into 2024, we're thinking about the big issues. These are very, very close races and they probably will be very close again if we've got the same two candidates on the ticket. So what are the things that are driving you to the polls, the issues that you care about right now and how the candidates that are out there stack up on them? I say business owner, I really care what's happening because right after Joe Biden took office, everything doubled in price after he shut down the oil production, price of gasoline went up and we know that once that gasoline goes up, everything goes up and our prices have gone, have doubled, some items have tripled. So far for a small restaurant like ours, which is what they call a mom and pop restaurant, for us it's very difficult because our bar line is being pushed down, you know, and we cannot, we cannot afford to keep like this. And for people, for Americans that really care about this country, they need to realize that Joe Biden, not only in 2020, his mental decline was already bad. I mean, by now, three years later, four years later, the poor guy can barely walk. I mean, how dare you people out there who call themselves American are really, you know, trying to think or thinking of voting for someone who cannot even, you know, walk, let alone think, let alone lead the greatest country in the world. Some people, let's be real, you know, let's care for our kids, for our future. Yep. Good point. So I'm not very, I mean, I'm very looking forward to voting for someone who really loved and has the capacity to lead this nation and keep it as great as it has been for so many years. Yep. Great points, Jorge. And sorry to get in your way on that. Penny, I want to go to you. You're in Des Moines, Iowa. I was there just a couple of months ago talking to voters, and I was actually surprised to hear how much the border was on their minds. I know that's a big issue for you as well, Penny. Talk about why that's motivating you in this election cycle. It's huge. Why not let Donald Trump come back and finish the job that he was going to do and protect our borders? I would say that probably the majority of us lock our doors at night before we go to bed. But we're hearing reporters, we're hearing reports of all these busloads of people coming into Washington, D.C., into Chicago. And it is affecting our business. In some ways, it's affecting it in a good way because people from California, from Minnesota are coming to the Midwest to live because it's safe. But yeah, borders is number one for me. All right, Penny. Thank you so much. I want to bring it over to John, who's from Georgia. John, we have all three of you are business owners, we know, and you represent the majority of business, which is small business owners. The economy, border security, all important. When you look at the candidates for you, John, who is the pull away for you? And if it is Donald Trump, which I think it is, is there anyone else that's grabbing your attention at this point? You know, quite frankly, I'm a Trump supporter. I'm not afraid to admit it like a lot of other people are. I like what he has to offer. I really enjoy what he did in his last term in office as far as getting gas prices down. Everything was manageable and as soon as Biden and the Democrats came into power, they really kind of went out of their way just to really ruin a whole lot of good things for the American people. Not for the good enough for the benefit of anybody. Maybe for, you know, maybe their donors or people like that, you know, every normal, everyday work in Americans kind of like me, we're having to suffer through absurdly high gas prices, absurdly high inflation rates, constantly having to battle high prices for everything with no end in sight. There's no plan. Biden and his cohorts and the Democrat Party in general, if I can go ahead and say that, they don't really care about people like me and people like Jorge, who work hard for their families. We're a mom and pop shop as well. It's just my wife and I who own and operate this business. We built it from the ground up and, you know, it's just ridiculous how we're just looked over basically like, hey, they're having to pay, you know, $300 a week in gas just like and pull my food trailer here, there and everywhere. Well, that's not taking a consideration. You know, the price of my raw materials, the price of food has gone up. I don't have to tell anybody that once the last time Biden or any of his pals went out to the grocery store, bought food for themselves and their family and been like, man, this is really high. It's a good question because when meat prices were rising, he couldn't tell you what a pound of ground beef cost at the grocery store. And you make a great point. because he doesn't go to the grocery store and Hunter doesn't have to worry about the price of ground beef. ## Media - video: https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/111/660/549/878/898/936/original/32c0aa6da1a9fc70.mp4 ## Engagement - Likes: 10,246 - Reposts: 2,889 - Replies: 253 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.381Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-20T15:04:38.357Z (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: ts_111660550147085401 | 2023-12-28 | Truth Social ### Authorship Attribution **Location determination:** December 28, 2023 falls within Trump's typical Mar-a-Lago holiday residency period (Palm Beach, FL — Eastern Time, UTC-5). UTC 23:06:21 converts to **18:06 EST (6:06 PM local)**. This is early evening, within standard campaign staff working hours. **Verdict: Aide-written (high confidence)** The post exhibits a cluster of aide indicators: grammatically complete sentence, no typos, polished professional syntax, formal third-person honorific ("President Donald J. Trump"), strategic political framing ("battleground states"), and accompaniment of a produced video asset. The use of "Crooked Joe Biden" is the one Trumpian element — a nickname aides routinely reproduce faithfully. The post functions as a social media amplification of a produced video segment, a format entirely consistent with campaign digital team output. Contrast sharply with same-day authentic posts: all-caps border tirades, "BURNING DOWN," and the extended stream-of-consciousness Jack Smith attack — all bearing hallmarks of unfiltered Trump authorship. --- ### Psychological State and Context Assessed in isolation, this post is campaign maintenance — supply-provision rather than supply-seeking. It does not reflect Trump's psychological state so much as the operation of his campaign apparatus. The trigger is electoral: primary season positioning, surrogate validation, and small-business identity politics directed at battleground voters. The juxtaposition with same-day authentic posts is analytically informative: while the campaign machine was producing polished testimonial content, Trump himself was posting grandiose, rage-filled screeds about the border, Jack Smith, and a stolen election. The two registers — disciplined professional messaging and unfiltered narcissistic ventilation — operated simultaneously on the same platform the same day. --- ### Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Aide-Filtered) Given aide authorship, trait inferences should be modest. The post reflects: - **Low agreeableness** (maintained via the "Crooked Joe Biden" attack label) - **Moderate-high extraversion** (assertive framing, competitive language "SCORCH") - **Moderate conscientiousness** (structured, goal-directed campaign messaging) --- ### Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations **Agency motives** dominate: status positioning, achievement framing, electoral coalition-building. **Communion motives** appear instrumentally: "small business owners" invoked as a solidarity group, not out of genuine affiliation but as a validation proxy. The schema at work: *Trump is validated by the real economy (small business) against the corrupt political economy (Biden's policies)*. --- ### Level 3: Narrative Identity **Protagonist role:** Implied winner/restorer — not directly stated but constructed through contrast. Biden "failed"; Trump is supported by virtuous, productive Americans. **Narrative sequence:** Contamination (Biden's policies have damaged small business) → implicit redemption (Trump's return will restore). **Contrasting other:** "Crooked Joe Biden" — moral corruption vs. the implied integrity of Trump's base. **Identity claim:** Champion of working entrepreneurs; validated by ordinary Americans against elite policy failure. --- ### Level 4: Clinical Indicators Not applicable to aide-authored content. Clinical assessment requires authentic authorship. This post is instrumental campaign communication, not psychological expression. --- ### Defense Mechanisms Not meaningfully assessed in aide-authored posts. The attack label ("Crooked Joe Biden's failed policies") performs routine partisan **displacement** — redirecting audience hostility toward a named political target — but this is rhetorical technique, not personal defense. --- ### Rhetorical & Propaganda Techniques - **Ad hominem via nickname:** "Crooked Joe Biden" — pre-primed negative association - **Surrogate authority:** Small business owners deployed as moral validators; their grievance launders the attack through credible third-party testimony - **Hyperbole:** "SCORCH" — elevates testimonial critique to dramatic confrontation - **Strategic geography:** "battleground states" signals electoral relevance to followers, frames the stakes - **Formal honorific asymmetry:** "Crooked Joe Biden" vs. "President Donald J. Trump" — deliberate status manipulation through titling - **False framing as fact:** "failed policies" presented as established rather than contested --- ### Gaslighting Indicators None in this post. --- ### Reality Distortions None directly. "Failed policies" is evaluative framing, not factual distortion. The post is careful — aide-crafted caution. --- ### Danger Assessment **None.** Standard campaign testimonial content. No dehumanization, no eliminationist language, no mobilization signals. --- ### Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Biden has 'failed policies'" | **Unverifiable** | Evaluative framing presented as established fact. Small business sentiment through late 2023 was depressed (NFIB indices) but causal attribution to specific Biden policies vs. macro factors (inflation, Fed rate cycle, post-COVID normalization) is contested among economists. | | "Small business owners from battleground states support President Trump" | **Half True** | Testimonial format selects for pro-Trump voices; does not represent the distribution of small business political opinion. Polling through 2023 showed Trump with advantages among small business owners but not uniformity. The framing implies broader representative endorsement than a curated video supports. | Overall Veracity: 50% ## Authorship Analysis **Aide-Written** (score: 15%) ### Indicators - 18:06 EST — standard business hours for campaign staff - Formal third-person honorific: 'President Donald J. Trump' - Grammatically complete, polished sentence — no typos or stream-of-consciousness - Accompanies produced video asset — campaign digital team format - Strategic framing language: 'battleground states' ## Psychological Profile ### State **Grandiose State** **Trigger:** Maintenance (campaign apparatus) Sentiment: -0.25 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 10% - Antisocial: 5% - Paranoid: 0% - Sadism: 0% **Defense Mechanisms:** - displacement (neurotic) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 35% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Surrogate validation — small business owners as stand-ins for the audience's own grievances - Honorific asymmetry ('Crooked Joe' vs 'President Donald J. Trump') cues audience status hierarchy ## Fact Checks (2) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-20._ > Biden has 'failed policies' **UNVERIFIABLE** Evaluative framing presented as established fact. Small business sentiment through late 2023 was depressed (NFIB indices) but causal attribution to specific Biden policies vs. macro factors (inflation, Fed rate cycle, post-COVID normalization) is contested among economists. Sources: NFIB Small Business Optimism Index 2023; General macroeconomic context > Small business owners from battleground states support President Trump **HALF TRUE** Testimonial format selects for pro-Trump voices; does not represent the distribution of small business political opinion. Polling through 2023 showed Trump with advantages among small business owners but not uniformity. The framing implies broader representative endorsement than a curated video supports. Sources: General 2023 polling context Overall Veracity: 50% ## Tags - aide-authored (95%) - campaign-messaging (90%) - surrogate-validation (80%) - ad-hominem-nickname (85%) - battleground-strategy (70%) - small-business-identity (75%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Under Siege from Two States, Trump Oscillates Between Scoreboard and Martyrdom** Trump spent the day reacting to Maine's decision to remove him from the primary ballot — the second state to do so after Colorado. His mood swung between defiant victory laps (boasting a "35 and 1" legal record) and dark grievance (calling the country "invaded," accusing prosecutors of persecution, and posting cryptic destruction imagery). The morning brought the angriest posts, with a lengthy attack on Jack Smith and an all-caps border screed, while the evening shifted to a rapid-fire cluster of curated media clips reinforcing a martyrdom narrative. Despite the legal pressure, the posting pace stayed within normal range and there were no signs of sleep disruption. Full digest for 2023-12-28: https://trump.fm/date/2023-12-28/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2023, December 28). “Small business owners from battleground states... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "“Small business owners from battleground states SCORCH..." Truth Social, 28 Dec. 2023. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "“Small business owners from battleground states SCORCH...," Truth Social, December 28, 2023, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401. ## 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_111660550147085401 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/ts_111660550147085401 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/ts_111660550147085401 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2023-12-28 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/ts_111660550147085401.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`._