# Post ts_112452882577198230 - Post ID: `ts_112452882577198230` - Platform: Truth Social - Posted: 2024-05-16T21:26:54.814Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_112452882577198230.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > Biden’s price hikes are killing the American Dream…Crooked Joe and his cronies are getting rich while you’re struggling to get by… ## What the media says **Video transcript** (2:50), transcribed automatically, so names and numbers may be wrong. Speakers aren't identified, so a voice in it may not be his: > It was just announced last month, inflation surged once again and surged very badly. Joe Biden's inflation tax continues to take away 30 to 50 percent of every dollar you have. It's a 50 percent tax. That's what it is. Joe Biden, without any tax hikes, which he's going to give the biggest ever, has already tax-hyped you 50 percent. It's like a sales tax, but much bigger, more painful, and more destructive, because all of the money goes to pay for Joe Biden's wasteful inflation spending like the Green News scam. And that's what it is. It's a scam. Not one thing is cheaper under Crooked Joe's food, gasoline, cars, trucks, rent, and mortgages. They're all through the roof. The whole country's going to hell because of this guy. He's got a 50 percent tax, and nobody ever talks about it, and nobody wants to hear about it. But that's what it is. It's called an inflation tax. Biden's price hikes are killing the American dream. Perhaps most tragically of all, the 50 percent Biden inflation tax hits working Americans and young Americans are artists. It also hits African Americans and Hispanic Americans like as hard as they've ever been hit. It's a massive wealth confiscation from the people who need it most and from people also that produce our jobs. Crooked Joe and his cronies are getting rich while you're struggling to get by. If you're a young person, Joe Biden has completely pulled the rug out from under you. There is no longer an American dream. He's made it impossible for you to save to buy a house or to have a wedding while simultaneously driving up the price of everything for which you want to save. The month I left office, the 30 year mortgage rate was 2.65 percent. Now it's almost 8 percent. Joe Biden is the worst president for young people in American history. The Biden inflation tax is also crushing corner stores, restaurants and small businesses of all kinds, including those owned by millions and millions of African Americans and Hispanic Americans. They're the ones that are taking this the hardest. They're the ones that have just told Joe Biden we don't want you anymore. Look at the poll numbers. The Hispanic Americans, African Americans don't want Joe Biden anymore. He's destroying their dream. One thing is very clear. Whether you're young or old, black or white, you can't afford four more years of Crooked Joe Biden, the worst ever. I will end this nightmare and we will once again have the greatest economy in history, the history of the world. Thank you. ## Media - video: https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/112/452/882/456/301/109/original/31c6c586c459c821.mp4 ## Engagement - Likes: 14,963 - Reposts: 4,531 - Replies: 1,159 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:19:51.356Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-21T08:23:58.525Z (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 brief, aide-authored campaign post accompanying a video drop, timed to business hours (5:26 PM EDT) during one of the most consequential days of Trump's Manhattan criminal trial — when Michael Cohen was testifying that Trump personally directed hush-money payments. The psychological function is displacement: by redirecting audience attention to Biden's economic record, the campaign apparatus manages a damaging news cycle without Trump directly engaging his own legal jeopardy. The content itself is formulaic populist attack copy — 'Crooked Joe,' 'killing the American Dream,' cronies-vs.-the-people — consistent with campaign media strategy rather than authentic impulsive posting. Projection is present in the 'cronies getting rich' framing, which mirrors accusations made against Trump's own financial arrangements. Danger level is none; this post contains no eliminationist language, dehumanization, or stochastic terrorism indicators. Factually, the core claim — 'Biden's price hikes' — attributes a complex post-pandemic global inflationary event to a single actor's deliberate policy, which is mostly false as causal framing, though inflation did measurably rise during Biden's term. The post is clinically unremarkable in isolation; its significance lies entirely in the trial context it is designed to displace. # Analysis: ts_112452882577198230 | 2024-05-16 | Truth Social ## Authorship Attribution **Verdict: Aide-authored (high confidence)** UTC 21:26:54 converts to **5:26 PM EDT** — Trump was in New York for his criminal trial. This falls squarely within aide/Scavino business hours (9am–6pm). The attached MP4 video confirms this is a planned content drop, not an impulsive evening post. Stylistically, the text is typo-free, complete in syntax, and reads as professional campaign copy — a stark contrast to Trump's authentic same-day RFK Jr. post, which contains two distinct typos ('Junior'' with misplaced apostrophe; 'Junios'' for 'Junior's'), a run-on structure, and a mid-sentence trailing ellipsis suggesting character-limit truncation. --- ## Contextual Significance May 16, 2024 was a legally significant day: Michael Cohen was on the stand testifying that Trump personally directed the Stormy Daniels hush-money payment. The campaign's choice to push economic populism content at 5:26 PM — during or immediately after that testimony — is a classic **narrative displacement** maneuver. The audience is offered a more flattering frame: Trump as champion of struggling Americans vs. Biden as corrupt enricher of cronies. --- ## Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five) | Trait | Salience | Evidence | |-------|----------|----------| | Extraversion | High | Assertive, declamatory tone; direct address | | Agreeableness | Very Low | Contempt for Biden, zero conciliation | | Conscientiousness | Low | Causal oversimplification; no nuance | | Neuroticism | Moderate (suppressed) | Underlying legal anxiety displaced, not expressed | | Openness | Very Low | Rigid zero-sum framing | --- ## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations **Dominant motive: Agency/Power.** The post does not seek communion (connection, care) but rather positions the speaker as the naming authority — the one who identifies the villain and articulates the people's suffering. Power through narrative control. **Key schemas:** - *World is zero-sum*: Biden gets rich exactly as you get poor. No systemic complexity. - *Self as tribune*: Implicit — only the speaker names this truth. - *Others (Biden) as corrupt predators*: Standard devaluation schema. --- ## Level 3: Narrative Identity - **Protagonist role**: Populist champion / truth-teller - **Narrative sequence**: Contamination — a good thing (the American Dream) is being destroyed by a corrupt actor - **Contrasting other**: "Crooked Joe and his cronies" — collective villain - **Identity claims**: Implicit champion of the forgotten, voice for the struggling --- ## Level 4: Clinical Indicators ### Narcissistic Dynamics - **State**: Grandiose (implicit — no vulnerable/persecuted framing in this post) - **Trigger**: Supply-seeking/maintenance; campaign calendar-driven - **Rage**: Absent. Controlled, instrumental contempt rather than reactive rage. ### Defense Mechanisms 1. **Displacement** (neurotic): Legal peril redirected to economic attack. Cohen's testimony is the shadow over this posting day; the campaign pivots to safer terrain. 2. **Projection** (immature): "Cronies getting rich" — mirrors the self-enrichment narrative attached to Trump Organization dealings, Trump brand licensing during presidency, and Mar-a-Lago memberships. The accusation maps onto disowned self-aspects. 3. **Rationalization** (neurotic): Inflation reduced to "Biden's price hikes" — a logically tidy but empirically incomplete account that justifies the grievance frame. ### Malignant Narcissism Sub-scores (this post only) - Narcissistic features: 0.4/1.0 — grandiosity present but restrained - Antisocial features: 0.2/1.0 — contempt, mild deceitfulness in causal claim - Paranoid features: 0.1/1.0 — minimal in this post - Sadism: 0.0/1.0 — no cruelty or delight in suffering evident --- ## Rhetorical & Propaganda Analysis **Primary techniques:** - **False attribution of causation**: "Price hikes" implies deliberate executive pricing action; inflation was a multi-causal global phenomenon - **Populist bifurcation**: corrupt elites enriching themselves / virtuous people suffering - **Loaded labeling**: "Crooked Joe" — established cognitive priming nickname - **Direct address parasocial bond**: "you're struggling to get by" creates intimacy, positions speaker as ally - **Stakes inflation**: "killing the American Dream" elevates economic complaint to civilizational threat **Absent**: Dehumanizing language, violent imagery, eliminationist framing, stochastic terrorism indicators. This is campaign boilerplate. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Biden's price hikes are killing the American Dream" | **Mostly False** | U.S. CPI peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 — a real inflationary surge — but it was driven by global supply-chain disruptions, post-pandemic demand recovery, energy market shocks from Russia-Ukraine war, and prior-period monetary stimulus. 'Biden's price hikes' implies deliberate executive pricing action, which is not factually accurate. By May 2024 inflation had declined significantly to ~3.4%. | | "Crooked Joe and his cronies are getting rich" | **Unverifiable** | Vague assertion without specific claims. Biden's reported net worth is modest for a career politician (~$10M). The 'cronies getting rich' framing is a rhetorical device, not a specific verifiable claim. | Overall Veracity: 35% ## Danger Assessment **Level: None.** No eliminationist language, dehumanization, or target-plus-grievance stochastic terrorism structure. Standard economic attack advertising. --- ## Cognitive Status Post is too brief and aide-authored to yield meaningful cognitive baseline comparison. No paraphasia, perseveration, or temporal confusion markers. Clinically uninformative for longitudinal tracking. --- ## Order/Chaos Dynamics - **Position**: Order attacker (targeting Biden as corrupt incumbent) - **Implicit promise**: Order restorer (Trump's return will reverse the economic damage) - **Grievance**: Economic — inflation as existential threat to American identity - **Hierarchy**: Elevates "struggling" Americans; diminishes Biden and "cronies" --- ## Archetypal Analysis - **Primary**: Warrior/Champion — identifies enemy, names grievance, implies he alone sees the truth - **Shadow projection**: "Cronies getting rich" — the Trickster-who-enriches-himself projected onto Biden - **Mythological frame**: The American Dream as sacred covenant being violated by corrupt power; classic jeremiad structure ## Authorship Analysis **Aide-Written** (score: 20%) ### Indicators - 5:26 PM EDT local time — business hours, squarely in aide-window - No typos or misspellings - Attached video suggests planned content drop, not impulsive posting - Punchy campaign slogan cadence, polished and complete - No ALL CAPS, no stream-of-consciousness deviations ## Psychological Profile ### State **Grandiose State** **Trigger:** Maintenance (Campaign content calendar) Sentiment: -0.55 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 40% - Antisocial: 20% - Paranoid: 10% - Sadism: 0% **Defense Mechanisms:** - displacement (neurotic) - projection (immature) - rationalization (neurotic) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 20% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Direct address ('you're struggling to get by') creates intimate one-on-one bond with audience - Shared enemy construction positions sender and receiver as allies against common threat - Populist 'them vs. us' frame flatters audience as virtuous victims ## Fact Checks (2) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-21._ > Biden's price hikes are killing the American Dream **MOSTLY FALSE** U.S. CPI peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 — a real inflationary surge — but it was driven by global supply-chain disruptions, post-pandemic demand recovery, energy market shocks from Russia-Ukraine war, and prior-period monetary stimulus. 'Biden's price hikes' implies deliberate executive pricing action, which is not factually accurate. By May 2024 inflation had declined significantly to ~3.4%. Sources: BLS CPI data; Federal Reserve analysis of inflation drivers 2021-2023 > Crooked Joe and his cronies are getting rich **UNVERIFIABLE** Vague assertion without specific claims. Biden's reported net worth is modest for a career politician (~$10M). The 'cronies getting rich' framing is a rhetorical device, not a specific verifiable claim. Overall Veracity: 35% ## Tags - campaign-messaging (90%) - economic-populism (85%) - displacement (80%) - aide-authored (85%) - trial-narrative-management (75%) - attack-ad-copy (80%) - projection (55%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Performed Calm Masks Trial-Day Dysregulation as Cohen Testimony Forces Dual-Track Defense** Trump spent the day managing the psychological fallout from Michael Cohen's damaging testimony in the Manhattan hush money trial. The evening before brought a burst of campaign endorsements that escalated into an all-caps tirade calling Biden "the worst president" and "a threat to democracy." By morning, the tone shifted to composed political strategy around the debates, and the afternoon saw a carefully staged courthouse exit where Trump described the devastating testimony day as merely "interesting" and "fascinating." The gap between that performed calm and the previous night's rage was the day's most revealing feature -- a man visibly toggling between defensive registers as the legal threat intensified. Full digest for 2024-05-16: https://trump.fm/date/2024-05-16/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2024, May 16). Biden’s price hikes are killing the American... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "Biden’s price hikes are killing the American Dream…Crooked..." Truth Social, 16 May. 2024. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "Biden’s price hikes are killing the American Dream…Crooked...," Truth Social, May 16, 2024, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230. ## 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_112452882577198230 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/ts_112452882577198230 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/ts_112452882577198230 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2024-05-16 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/ts_112452882577198230.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`._