Analysis: Michigan Voter: "I'm going to vote for Donald Trump this yea...

1y ago Sep 19, 2024 at 7:45 PM

Michigan Voter: "I'm going to vote for Donald Trump this year. I am typically a Democrat...Three and a half years ago, I made more money, I paid less taxes, gas prices were cheaper. Now, everything has tripled, including grocery prices."

Video transcript 1:27

Tommy, how are you feeling about the election? Who are you going to vote for and why? - I'm going to vote for Donald Trump this year. I am typically Democrat. I'll vote in Democrat every year until Donald Trump's friend crosses. This year, in the past, I voted for Donald Trump. The reasons has been economical primarily. Three and a half years ago, I made more money. I paid less taxes. Gas prices were cheaper. Now, everything has tripled, including grocery prices. I can go to Subway to get a $7 sandwich for six inches now. They used to be half that price, $3. So everything is doubled. My grocery price is doubled. I'm concerned about the border. We've let millions of people in, a lot of criminals, et cetera. The border needs to be shut down before we only bring in those individuals that go through the legal process. I don't, and when Democrats are running for office like they're proposing now, they have this proposal of new homeowners getting a stipend of money to buy a house. Well, nothing is free. That means that if we give out more money, my taxes are going to go up to pay for those new owners. So I'm going to live with a lot of less money every year just because they're giving it away to other people. - Okay, so a lot of issues.

Transcribed automatically. Expect errors in names and numbers.

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-27. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Grandiose

Authorship

Aide-Written

Intensity

18%

Authorship Analysis

Aide-Written

Indicators:

Post timestamped 19:45 UTC = ~3:45 PM EDT — business hours
Quote-formatted testimonial with no typos or grammatical errors
No Trump voice at all — entirely third-party text
Content directly tied to same-day scheduled Michigan town hall event (Flint, Dort Financial Center)
Professional curation consistent with Scavino/comms staff workflow

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Grandiose State

Trigger: Supply Seeking (Michigan swing voter testimonial from Flint town hall)

Sentiment

-0.15

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

20%

Antisocial

Paranoid

Sadism

Defense Mechanisms:

displacementidealization

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

Parasocial Techniques:

Voter-as-mirror technique: ordinary citizen reflects Trump's own claims back to audience, creating identification and social proofCross-party conversion narrative triggers bandwagon cognition in persuadable voters

Fact Checks (3)

"Gas prices were cheaper three and a half years ago"

Mostly True

Average US gasoline price in early 2021 was approximately $2.60-2.80/gallon; by September 2024, approximately $3.20-3.40/gallon nationally. Prices were indeed lower, though the 2020 COVID demand collapse artificially depressed baseline prices.

"Everything has tripled, including grocery prices"

False

BLS CPI data shows cumulative food-at-home inflation from January 2021 to September 2024 was approximately 20-25%. 'Tripled' would imply +200% inflation. The actual figure is roughly 8-10x smaller than claimed.

"Three and a half years ago I made more money and paid less taxes"

Unverifiable

Individual earnings and tax burden are not verifiable for a specific unnamed voter. Broadly, TCJA (2017) provided net tax cuts for many middle-income earners that remained in effect through 2024, so the tax claim is plausible for some taxpayers. Real wages did decline during 2021-2022 inflation surge before recovering.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Analysis: Michigan Voter Testimonial (2024-09-19)

Overview

This post is a verbatim voter testimonial, almost certainly clipped from the same-day Flint, Michigan town hall (Dort Financial Center, moderated by Sarah Huckabee Sanders). It contains no Trump voice whatsoever — no commentary, superlatives, or first-person framing — and was posted at 3:45 PM EDT during aide working hours. Authorship attribution strongly favors comms staff (Scavino), not Trump personally.

Level 1: Dispositional Traits

With no Trump-authored text, direct trait inference is not possible. The selection of this content signals:

Low agreeableness (opponent framing): The implicit contrast target is the Biden-Harris administration
Achievement/status orientation: Economic record is the central value frame
No neuroticism indicators in the curation choice — calm, strategic

Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

Agency motives dominate: the post reinforces Trump's identity as economic steward. The "typically a Democrat" framing serves the motive of universal appeal — a characteristic Trump adaptation asserting special/unique status across tribal lines.

Schemas revealed: The world is split into pre-Trump prosperity and post-Trump decline. This binary schema recurs consistently across Trump's economic messaging.

Level 3: Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Absent from explicit text but implied as Restorer — the one whose return will reverse the contamination sequence the voter describes.

Contamination sequence: The voter's narrative arc is a classic contamination story — prosperity → betrayal by incumbents. Trump's campaign appropriates this arc, positioning himself as the redemption sequence that follows.

Identity claim (by proxy): Trump is the candidate even Democrats choose when economic reality intrudes on ideology.

Contrasting other: Biden/Harris administration (unnamed but temporally clear: "three and a half years ago").

Level 4: Clinical Indicators

No clinically significant indicators present. This is aide-curated campaign content. The psychological function is routine supply-seeking through external validation — a well-regulated, strategically competent behavior. No rage, no vulnerability oscillation, no cognitive markers (the text is not Trump's speech production), no paranoid features.

Authorship Attribution

Indicator	Assessment
Timestamp (local)	3:45 PM EDT — business hours
Voice	100% third-party quote, zero Trump interpolation
Quality	No errors, professional format
Event link	Direct tie to scheduled Flint town hall
Trump location	Traveling toward DC (per prior post)

Verdict: Aide-written/curated with high confidence. Score: 0.10 (strongly Scavino).

Rhetorical Analysis

The post deploys testimonial propaganda with a powerful ethos transfer mechanism. The "typically a Democrat" frame is the load-bearing element: it signals universality of appeal and implies that only economically irrational partisans remain opposed to Trump. The tricolon economic comparison builds rhythmic persuasive force toward the hyperbolic payoff ("everything has tripled"). The attached video — a real face delivering the testimony — maximizes authenticity effect and bypasses the cognitive resistance triggered by known political sources.

The claim "everything has tripled, including grocery prices" is factually inaccurate (see fact-checks below) but is embedded in the voter's voice rather than Trump's, providing rhetorical insulation.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Gas prices were cheaper three and a half years ago"	Mostly True	Average US gasoline price in early 2021 was approximately $2.60-2.80/gallon; by September 2024, approximately $3.20-3.40/gallon nationally. Prices were indeed lower, though the 2020 COVID demand collapse artificially depressed baseline prices.
"Everything has tripled, including grocery prices"	False	BLS CPI data shows cumulative food-at-home inflation from January 2021 to September 2024 was approximately 20-25%. 'Tripled' would imply +200% inflation. The actual figure is roughly 8-10x smaller than claimed.
"Three and a half years ago I made more money and paid less taxes"	Unverifiable	Individual earnings and tax burden are not verifiable for a specific unnamed voter. Broadly, TCJA (2017) provided net tax cuts for many middle-income earners that remained in effect through 2024, so the tax claim is plausible for some taxpayers. Real wages did decline during 2021-2022 inflation surge before recovering.

Overall Veracity: 43%

Danger Assessment

None. No eliminationist language, no dehumanization, no violent imagery, no mobilization cues. Standard campaign economic messaging.

Longitudinal Note

Viewed alongside the same-day posts (Rasmussen poll share, book promotion, DC travel announcement), this post is the economic-grievance pillar of a multi-post daily narrative: polls show we're winning → here's why voters are converting → buy the book → going to DC to govern. The sequencing is coherent and strategically competent — consistent with a well-functioning campaign comms operation rather than impulsive personal posting.