# Post ts_112435810850154643

- Post ID: `ts_112435810850154643`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2024-05-13T21:05:20.872Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_112435810850154643
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_112435810850154643/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_112435810850154643.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> Marc Thiessen: “I don't think things are going well for the prosecution in the Court of Law, but in the Court of Public Opinion, they're doing even worse...Trump is rising in the Polls!”

## Engagement

- Likes: 12,428
- Reposts: 2,934
- Replies: 211
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.357Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-21T08:24:53.508Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

On the day Michael Cohen delivers his most damaging testimony — directly implicating Trump in directing the hush money payment — this post deploys a characteristic narcissistic defense pattern: surrogate validation flooding. As the sixth in a same-day series of favorable legal commentary quotes, it reflects a saturation strategy designed to crowd out adverse coverage with friendly commentary. The selected Thiessen quote performs a two-step move: briefly conceding legal difficulty while immediately pivoting to public opinion and polling as the "real" arena — a frame substitution that allows the grandiose narrative (Trump as winner) to survive factual adversity. The 5:05 PM EDT timestamp and clean formatting suggest aide authorship (likely Scavino), though the thematic content reflects Trump-directed curation strategy. Most clinically notable is the implicit hierarchy revealed: legal jeopardy and poll numbers are treated as fungible, with favorable arenas substituted for unfavorable ones. The "rising in the Polls!" exclamation provides the narcissistic payoff — supply-seeking recast as political analysis. Fact-checking yields a mixed picture: the claim that the prosecution is performing poorly in court is mostly false on this specific day (Cohen's testimony was the prosecution's strongest evidence), while the public opinion and polling claims hold more water. No danger indicators present. Consistent with documented trial-period defensive patterns.

# Psychological Analysis: ts_112435810850154643
**Platform:** Truth Social | **Date:** 2024-05-13 | **Local Time:** ~5:05 PM EDT (Manhattan)

## Situational Context
This post lands on the most legally consequential day of the hush money trial to date: Michael Cohen is actively testifying as the prosecution's star witness, directly implicating Trump in directing the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and promising reimbursement. The post is the sixth in a same-day series of quote posts, all featuring commentators critical of the prosecution — a flood-the-zone saturation strategy deployed during adverse legal testimony.

## Authorship Attribution
**Confidence: High — Likely aide-written (Scavino).** The 5:05 PM EDT timestamp falls squarely in business hours. The format is clean, attribution-correct, and devoid of Trump's characteristic lowercase typos, mid-sentence capitalization, or appended emotional asides. The curation strategy (selecting Thiessen specifically for his two-step concede-and-pivot structure) suggests editorial sophistication beyond Trump's typical raw posting style. That said, the thematic content reflects Trump's known trial-period media management, suggesting aide execution of a Trump-directed brief.

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits
- **Low Agreeableness:** Adversarial legal framing, delegitimization of prosecution
- **High Extraversion:** Public validation-seeking, crowd (poll) approval as primary success metric
- **Low Neuroticism (expressed):** Controlled, no visible distress — consistent with aide management of a distressing news day
- **Low Openness:** Rigid single-frame interpretation (prosecution is failing) despite contrary evidence

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations
**Dominant motive: Power/status preservation under threat.** Cohen's testimony represents a direct attack on the grandiose self-narrative (Trump as a clean dealmaker falsely accused). The response is not engagement with the substance but frame substitution — the legal arena is unfavorable, so the public opinion arena is substituted. The poll reference provides narcissistic supply: whatever happens in court, Trump is winning the only contest he internalizes as real.

**Schema revealed:** Reality is segmented into arenas, and unfavorable arenas can be dismissed by appealing to favorable ones. Legal jeopardy and public approval are treated as fungible — a characteristic adaptation that allows grandiosity to survive factual adversity.

## Level 3: Narrative Identity
- **Protagonist role:** Vindicated winner despite persecution
- **Narrative sequence:** Contamination → Redemption arc in progress. The trial represents contamination (legitimate process corrupted by political enemies), while rising polls signal the beginning of the redemption arc (the people see through it)
- **Identity claim:** "I win in the only court that matters — the court of public opinion"
- **Contrasting other:** The unnamed prosecution / "Bragg" apparatus (explicitly named in adjacent posts)

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators
**Narcissistic injury → Supply-seeking response pattern.** Cohen's testimony is the clearest narcissistic injury of the trial to date — a former loyal subordinate publicly exposing Trump's direct involvement. The saturation posting pattern (six favorable quote posts in one day) is consistent with injury management through external validation flooding. The specific selection of the Thiessen quote, which acknowledges legal difficulty before pivoting to polls, reflects a partially conscious anxiety management: the grandiose self can tolerate minor legal concessions if immediately redeemed by affirmative public metrics.

**Defense hierarchy:** Denial → Displacement → Rationalization (ascending from immature to neurotic), suggesting a managed rather than raw defensive response — consistent with aide-assisted execution.

## Cognitive Assessment
Insufficient original language to assess cognitive complexity in this post. The content is entirely a third-party quote. The surrounding same-day posts show standard syntactic patterns with no notable paraphasia, perseveration, or temporal confusion. Baseline comparison: not applicable for this post.

## Rhetorical & Propaganda Analysis
**Surrogate credibility + saturation strategy.** The Thiessen quote performs reality laundering: Trump's preferred legal narrative is delivered through an apparently independent voice, gaining credibility Trump cannot claim for himself. The six-post saturation on the same day is a volume-based RAND Firehose technique — overwhelming the feed with favorable legal commentary to crowd out organic coverage of Cohen's damaging testimony. No violent imagery, dehumanizing language, or stochastic terrorism indicators.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Things are not going well for the prosecution in the Court of Law" | **Mostly False** | May 13, 2024 was Michael Cohen's testimony day — the prosecution's star witness directly implicating Trump in directing the $130,000 payment. While cross-examination about Cohen's credibility was vigorous, this was broadly considered the prosecution's strongest evidentiary presentation. |
| "In the Court of Public Opinion, they're doing even worse" | **Mostly True** | Spring 2024 polling consistently showed majority skepticism about the trial's political motivation, with Trump maintaining or improving numbers despite ongoing proceedings. |
| "Trump is rising in the Polls" | **Mostly True** | Trump led Biden in most major swing-state polls in May 2024. Whether the trial specifically drove this or was independent of broader trends is not clearly established. |

Overall Veracity: 60%

## Danger Assessment
**None.** No violent imagery, eliminationist language, dehumanization, or mobilization indicators. This is defensive supply-seeking, not threat generation.

## Longitudinal Note
The pattern of flooding Truth Social with favorable legal commentary during adverse trial testimony days is consistent with documented behavior from earlier trial phases (Stormy Daniels testimony period). The curation has become more sophisticated — Thiessen's two-step framing (concede legal difficulty, pivot to polls) is a more complex rhetorical structure than the simple denial quotes of earlier posts. Whether this reflects Trump's own evolving strategy or aide sophistication is unclear.

## Authorship Analysis

**Aide-Written** (score: 30%)

### Indicators

- Post timestamp converts to 5:05 PM EDT (business hours) — squarely in Scavino aide window
- Clean formatting with no typos, misspellings, or syntactic fragmentation
- Pure quote repost with no appended emotional commentary, capitals, or exclamation additions from Trump
- Polished attribution format consistent with aide curation
- However: content selection (external validators praising Trump during trial) is consistent with Trump-directed curation strategy

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Mixed State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Michael Cohen's direct testimony implicating Trump in directing the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels)

Sentiment: +0.45

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 50%
- Antisocial: 20%
- Paranoid: 30%
- Sadism: 0%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- denial (immature)
- displacement (neurotic)
- rationalization (neurotic)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 0%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Surrogate validation — using named media commentators as proxy voices for Trump's own self-assessment
- Authority laundering — framing self-interested claims through apparently independent third parties
- Poll-as-affirmation — translating legal defeat into crowd approval, the preferred narcissistic supply channel

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Gaslighting

- Framing Cohen's direct implication of Trump as evidence that the prosecution is failing — inverting the evidentiary weight of the day's key testimony
- Arena substitution used to dismiss legal reality: 'even if the court matters, the real court (public opinion) is what counts'

## Fact Checks (3)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-03-21._

> Things are not going well for the prosecution in the Court of Law

**MOSTLY FALSE**

May 13, 2024 was Michael Cohen's testimony day — the prosecution's star witness directly implicating Trump in directing the $130,000 payment. While cross-examination about Cohen's credibility was vigorous, this was broadly considered the prosecution's strongest evidentiary presentation.

Sources: Known events: Michael Cohen begins testimony in Trump trial

> In the Court of Public Opinion, they're doing even worse

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Spring 2024 polling consistently showed majority skepticism about the trial's political motivation, with Trump maintaining or improving numbers despite ongoing proceedings.

Sources: General polling knowledge, May 2024

> Trump is rising in the Polls

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Trump led Biden in most major swing-state polls in May 2024. Whether the trial specifically drove this or was independent of broader trends is not clearly established.

Sources: General polling knowledge, May 2024

Overall Veracity: 60%

## Tags

- hush_money_trial (90%)
- cohen_testimony_response (85%)
- supply_seeking (80%)
- surrogate_validation (75%)
- poll_reference (60%)
- arena_substitution (70%)
- aide_authored (65%)
- saturation_strategy (70%)

## That day

_From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._

**Cohen Testifies, Trump Goes Silent: Nine Surrogate Quotes in Three Minutes Replace the Defendant's Voice**

Trump spent the day in a Manhattan courtroom as Michael Cohen — his former fixer — testified under oath that Trump personally directed the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump's social media response was striking for what it lacked: his own voice. After a quiet late night with a Mother's Day message, a sneaker ad, and a jab at Whoopi Goldberg, his account went dark for nearly 16 hours during the trial. Then, at just after 5 PM, nine surrogate quotes from conservative commentators and politicians flooded his feed in under three minutes — all insisting the prosecution had no case, none engaging the actual testimony. The day closed with a lone "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" — a grandiose bookend to an otherwise defensive, proxy-mediated day.

Full digest for 2024-05-13: https://trump.fm/date/2024-05-13/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2024, May 13). Marc Thiessen: “I don't think things are going... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_112435810850154643
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "Marc Thiessen: “I don't think things are going well for the..." Truth Social, 13 May. 2024. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_112435810850154643. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "Marc Thiessen: “I don't think things are going well for the...," Truth Social, May 13, 2024, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_112435810850154643.

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