Analysis: Miranda Devine: “We have heard it all before…Dems already wh...

2y ago May 10, 2024 at 3:16 PM

Miranda Devine: “We have heard it all before…Dems already wheeled out the scandal in 2016 and it didn’t work then. Why would it work eight years later, and why now, six months before the election? Nobody in their right mind thinks that this is what New York’s scarce prosecutorial resources should be spent on when there are people languishing in jail for lack of court time. DA Alvin Bragg should be spending his time prosecuting cop-bashers and Jew-hating agitators…The message Democrats are inadvertently sending to the voting public is that this guy is so strong that we have to cheat to beat him and, oops, it’s not working.”

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-21. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

Elevated

Narcissistic State

Mixed

Authorship

Aide-Written

Intensity

52%

Aide-curated post (11:16 AM EDT; business hours; polished quote format) deployed as the Manhattan hush money trial enters its most damaging evidentiary phase via Stormy Daniels testimony. One of at least three coordinated same-day media amplifications, the Jarrett–Turley–Devine trifecta signals elevated strategic crisis management rather than authentic expression. The selected Devine quote executes layered defensive dynamics: rationalization (resource misallocation), projection (prosecution-as-cheating, mirroring the actual charge), displacement (pivot to campus protesters), and denial (collapsing a distinct 2024 criminal proceeding into a failed 2016 political maneuver). The closing reframe — persecution as proof of invincibility — is a signature narcissistic conversion of acute vulnerability into dominance signaling. Of elevated clinical note is the Jew-hating agitators characterization, dehumanizing language directed at pro-Palestinian campus protesters during an active, high-tension protest period (3,100+ arrests nationally), functioning as scapegoating displacement. The temporal distortion claim that the scandal was wheeled out in 2016 is historically inaccurate; the full scandal broke in 2018 and the current charges are legally distinct. Cognitive assessment is not possible from third-party quoted content. No cognitive deterioration markers assessable. Danger level elevated for dehumanizing protest rhetoric.

Authorship Analysis

Aide-Written

Indicators:

Posted 11:16 AM EDT — business hours for Manhattan (Trump's trial location)
Clean third-party quote format with no typos or capitalization emphasis
No first-person language; pure surrogate amplification
Part of coordinated same-day Jarrett-Turley-Devine trifecta
Polished, complete formatting inconsistent with authentic Trump posting style

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Mixed State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Manhattan DA / Stormy Daniels testimony)

Rage: Intensity 45% targeting Alvin Bragg / Democratic Party

Proportionality

20%

Sentiment

-0.62

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

72%

Antisocial

50%

Paranoid

68%

Sadism

18%

Defense Mechanisms:

rationalizationprojectiondisplacementdenial

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

48%

Parasocial Techniques:

surrogate voice to maintain emotional distance from direct self-defensestacking multiple same-day media endorsements to simulate consensusembedding grandiosity within apparent third-party observation to reduce egodystonic friction

Danger Assessment

Elevated

Indicators:

Jew-hating agitators — dehumanizing characterization of pro-Palestinian protesters during active high-arrest protest period
Whataboutism redirect implicitly frames campus protesters as more dangerous than criminal defendant
Prosecution-as-cheating framing could prime audience toward hostility against judicial actors

Gaslighting Detected:

Scandal wheeled out in 2016 — historically false; story broke publicly 2018, charges legally distinct
Calling grand jury-indicted criminal trial electoral cheating — political vocabulary used to delegitimize judicial process
It didnt work then — denies the distinction between 2016 political context and 2024 criminal proceedings
DARVO pattern: Trump as victim of prosecutorial abuse, Bragg as aggressor, trial as persecution

Reality Distortions:

Hush money story framed as 2016 scandal — actually became public scandal in 2018; current criminal charges date from separate 2019–2021 investigation
Criminal prosecution characterized as Democrats cheating — collapses judicial and electoral categories
Prosecution framed as political strategy rather than legal accountability

Rhetorical Analysis

Dehumanizing Language Present

Fact Checks (4)

"Dems already wheeled out the scandal in 2016 and it didnt work then"

Mostly False

Hush money payment occurred October 2016 but remained private; Wall Street Journal reported it January 2018; full public scandal through 2018. Current charges (falsification of business records) arose from separate DA investigation begun 2019. The 2016 framing is historically inaccurate.

"Six months before the election"

True

Post dated May 10, 2024; general election November 5, 2024 — approximately 6 months.

"People languishing in jail for lack of court time"

Mostly True

NYC courts have documented significant case backlogs; pretrial detention duration due to court delays is a documented civil liberties concern in New York.

"This guy is so strong that we have to cheat to beat him"

Unverifiable

This is attributed framing of Democratic motivation — not a factual claim subject to verification.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Authorship Attribution

Verdict: Aide-written (high confidence)

Posted at 15:16 UTC = 11:16 AM EDT. Trump was in Manhattan attending the ongoing hush money trial (Stormy Daniels testified across May 9–10); New York is UTC-4. Business-hours posting, clean third-party quote format, no typos, no capitalization for emphasis, no stream-of-consciousness structure — all characteristic of Scavino-curated media amplification. This post is part of a coordinated same-day suite alongside Gregg Jarrett and Jonathan Turley quotes, a trifecta deployment pattern typical of managed crisis communications during trial proceedings. The absence of any direct first-person Trump language is definitive.

Psychological Trigger & State

The trigger is acute: narcissistic injury from the ongoing criminal trial, compounded by Stormy Daniels's unusually explicit testimony (6+ hours over two days), which constitutes both a public humiliation and an exposure event. Notably, the post does not engage the testimony directly — avoidance of the specific injury is itself diagnostically informative.

The narcissistic state is mixed, oscillating within a single quoted passage: the victimhood frame ("scarce prosecutorial resources," unfair timing) pivots to triumphalist grandiosity ("so strong that we have to cheat to beat him"). This contamination-to-reframe structure — persecution → proof of superiority — is a signature dynamic, converting a moment of acute vulnerability into a dominance signal via surrogate voice.

Defense Mechanisms

Rationalization (neurotic): "Resources should be spent elsewhere" provides a procedural-fairness argument that displaces scrutiny from the merits of the charges to the decision to prosecute. Logical surface conceals deeper denial.

Projection (immature): Framing the prosecution as "cheating" attributes improper, manipulative conduct to the opposing party — while Trump stands accused of falsifying business records to conceal improper conduct. The projected charge (cheating the democratic process) mirrors the actual charge (falsifying documents to influence the 2016 election).

Displacement (neurotic): Redirecting toward "cop-bashers and Jew-hating agitators" moves the audience's attention to the concurrent campus protest crisis, positioning Trump as wrongly prosecuted while genuine threats go unaddressed. This exploits a real, emotionally charged news cycle.

Denial (pathological): "It didn't work then" forecloses the legitimacy of the current proceedings entirely, refusing the distinction between the 2016 political moment and a 2024 criminal trial arising from separate grand jury findings.

Rhetorical Analysis

Miranda Devine (NY Post) functions as a surrogate voice — a mechanism permitting the circulation of self-exculpating narratives while maintaining a layer of distance from direct self-defense. This is sophisticated media strategy rather than authentic emotional expression.

Key devices:

Appeal to authority: Third-party commentator lends apparent objectivity to what is effectively first-person argument
Whataboutism: "Cop-bashers and Jew-hating agitators" pivots to campus protesters as more deserving prosecution targets
False dichotomy: Prosecuting Trump vs. prosecuting criminals — as if these are mutually exclusive
Reframing as compliment (rhetorical judo): Persecution becomes proof of dominance; the prosecution itself signals opponents' weakness
Temporal distortion / confabulation: Characterizing current criminal charges as a recycled 2016 political attack collapses a distinct legal timeline

"Jew-hating agitators" is dehumanizing characterization applied to pro-Palestinian campus protesters, referencing the concurrent protest wave (3,100+ arrests at 60+ campuses). This language functions as scapegoating displacement and warrants an elevated danger flag given the protest environment and the volatility of the antisemitism frame during this period.

Narrative Identity

Protagonist is the wrongly-targeted champion — too powerful to defeat by legitimate means, therefore targeted by corrupted institutions. The contrasting other is a prosecutorial establishment instrumentalized for partisan ends. The narrative sequence is contamination interrupted by reframe: strength → persecution → but it won't work because strength persists. Identity claim embedded in the chosen quote: invincibility and persecution are not in tension but are causally linked.

Reality Distortions

"Scandal wheeled out in 2016": The hush money payment occurred in October 2016, but the story broke publicly in the Wall Street Journal in January 2018, becoming a full-blown national scandal through 2018. The current criminal charges (falsification of business records) represent a distinct legal proceeding arising from Manhattan DA investigation initiated 2019–2021. Characterizing this as a recycled 2016 political attack is historically inaccurate.
"Cheating": Framing a grand jury–indicted, judge-supervised criminal trial as electoral "cheating" constitutes deliberate reality distortion, deploying political vocabulary to delegitimize judicial process.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Dems already wheeled out the scandal in 2016 and it didnt work then"	Mostly False	Hush money payment occurred October 2016 but remained private; Wall Street Journal reported it January 2018; full public scandal through 2018. Current charges (falsification of business records) arose from separate DA investigation begun 2019. The 2016 framing is historically inaccurate.
"Six months before the election"	True	Post dated May 10, 2024; general election November 5, 2024 — approximately 6 months.
"People languishing in jail for lack of court time"	Mostly True	NYC courts have documented significant case backlogs; pretrial detention duration due to court delays is a documented civil liberties concern in New York.
"This guy is so strong that we have to cheat to beat him"	Unverifiable	This is attributed framing of Democratic motivation — not a factual claim subject to verification.

Overall Veracity: 63%

Longitudinal Context

The coordinated Jarrett–Turley–Devine triad (all same day, all trial-focused) indicates the Stormy Daniels testimony phase triggered elevated strategic communications management. The absence of direct Trump authorship across all three posts, combined with their sequential media-amplification structure, suggests acute trial anxiety being managed through curated surrogate voices rather than direct authentic expression — a pattern consistent with increasing communications discipline under legal constraint.