# Post ts_117374886219696225

- Post ID: `ts_117374886219696225`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2026-10-03T03:37:10.062Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117374886219696225
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117374886219696225/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_117374886219696225.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> The Fake News reports regarding the ongoing investigation into the disastrous renovation of the Federal Reserve Building are total lies. The newly confirmed Fed Chairman, Kevin Warsh, has announced an in depth, independent audit, and Attorney General Todd Blanche clearly stated that the Justice Department will investigate any and all evidence of wrongdoing. As this week’s Inspector General report detailed, this project is Hundreds of Millions of Dollars over budget, and way behind schedule, due to a total lack of leadership, oversight, and competence, of Jerome “Too Late” Powell. I look forward to learning the results of the professional audit and the DOJ investigation! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

## Engagement

- Likes: 13,743
- Reposts: 3,806
- Replies: 1,083
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-10-09T06:01:47.280Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-10-03T03:59:05.403Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

Trump calls "total lies" the news reports that his own Attorney General would not reopen the criminal probe into Jerome Powell. He then cites that same Attorney General as proof of an "ongoing investigation." Blanche's statement was conditional: no reopened probe, though a future audit could prompt one. The post turns that into a pending DOJ case and publicly announces it: "I look forward to learning the results of... the DOJ investigation!" That puts a subordinate on record against the President if no case opens. Trump draws on the Inspector General report for its cost findings and leaves out its central conclusion, that there was no crime and no misconduct. Powell has left the chairmanship, and the 2025 nickname "Too Late" now follows him into a building audit, a grudge that has outlived its original dispute. The same evening's post praising Trump's own White House ballroom, whose cost rose by half during 2025, puts construction overruns in a rival's project next to superlatives for his own. The prose is controlled and coherent. The significance lies in turning accurate reporting into "lies" and in the public pressure on the Justice Department, not in any change in emotional intensity.

## Calling his own Attorney General's statement a lie

The post went up at 11:37 p.m. Eastern on Friday, October 2. It came a day or so after the Federal Reserve's Office of Inspector General released its report on the Eccles Building renovation, and hours after CNBC and Axios reported that Attorney General Todd Blanche would not reopen the criminal probe into Jerome Powell. The OIG found no reasonable grounds to believe a federal crime occurred and no administrative misconduct. It did fault the Fed's use of the contract's cost-management provisions as the approved budget rose from $1.317 billion (2020) to $2.381 billion (2024). The "Fake News reports" the post calls "total lies" are almost certainly those stories, and the fact at their center came from Blanche himself.

The post then cites Blanche as support. He "clearly stated that the Justice Department will investigate any and all evidence of wrongdoing." What Blanche actually said was conditional: the DOJ is not reopening the probe, though the audit could lead to one if it turns up criminal evidence. By rewriting that conditional as "the ongoing investigation," Trump can deny the news while repeating its substance. Most of the post's specifics hold up: Warsh is chair, an independent audit was announced, and the IG did document cost growth. The distortion sits in the frame. The first sentence asserts an investigation that the Justice Department said that same day it was not conducting. The IG report gets the same treatment. "As this week's Inspector General report detailed" borrows the report's authority for the cost findings and leaves out its headline, which cleared Powell of misconduct. This is DARVO in compressed form. Accurate coverage becomes "lies," the cleared official is still on trial ("lack of leadership, oversight, and competence"), and the press takes the place of the offender.

## A grudge that outlived the office

Powell is no longer chair. Warsh holds the job, described here as "newly confirmed." The "Too Late" epithet comes from the 2025 interest-rate fight, and here it is attached to a construction project after Powell has left. This is the grudge-bearing feature of the paranoid cluster: the target keeps his old label after the original dispute has ended. The post splits the cast cleanly. The administration's people deliver a "professional audit" and an "in depth, independent" review. Powell supplies only "a total lack of leadership, oversight, and competence." No contribution from the board, contractors, inflation or materials costs appears, though the IG treated cost control as an institutional failure.

The closing line, the only one with an exclamation point, matters most institutionally: "I look forward to learning the results of the professional audit and the DOJ investigation!" The President is publicly announcing a DOJ investigation that his Attorney General has said does not exist. That puts Blanche on the record against the President if no probe opens, so in effect it is a loyalty test delivered through the timeline. The danger here concerns the use of prosecutorial power against a former official who criticized the administration. The post contains no violent language and no call to mobilize.

## The ballroom in the same feed

Earlier the same evening the feed carried "The Great Ballroom and Military Complex being built at the White House... it will be the finest of its kind, anywhere in the World!" That project's own price rose from $200 million to $300 million during 2025, by Trump's own account. In Powell's building, cost growth is evidence of incompetence. In Trump's, it is absent and replaced by superlatives. The two posts never reference each other, so reading this as projection of a disowned trait onto Powell is a medium-confidence inference. Still, the pairing fits the shadow pattern: a fault he cannot see in his own project shows up, magnified, in a rival's.

## Who wrote it, and in what state

Several things point to Trump: the late-night timing, the personal closer "Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT," the erratic comma in "competence, of Jerome," and the capitalization of "Hundreds of Millions of Dollars." Against that, the post is four well-ordered sentences with exact titles, and "in depth, independent audit" echoes Warsh's own announcement. The likeliest process is Trump dictating or editing from a staff briefing. The register is controlled. "Total lies" is the only heated phrase, and the post has no all-caps passage. Language is coherent: the IG report, the Warsh audit and the DOJ statement appear in the right order with the right names, and "this week's" dates the report correctly. The trigger reads as exposure and defeat, a watchdog clearing the man he spent two years attacking. The response is a narrative repair, not an outburst.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Reports about the investigation into the Fed renovation are 'total lies'" | **False** | On October 2, 2026, CNBC and Axios reported that Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ would not reopen its criminal probe into former Fed Chair Powell. Blanche himself was the source. |
| "There is an 'ongoing investigation' into the renovation" | **Mostly False** | The DOJ closed its Powell renovation probe in April 2026, clearing the way for Warsh's confirmation, and said on October 2 it would not reopen it. What is ongoing is a Fed-commissioned independent cost audit and a GSA takeover of project management. Neither is a criminal investigation. |
| "Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh announced an in-depth, independent audit" | **True** | Warsh said the Fed would implement the OIG recommendations, hand the project to the General Services Administration, and engage an independent auditor to scrutinize all awarded costs to date. |
| "AG Todd Blanche clearly stated the Justice Department will investigate any and all evidence of wrongdoing" | **Half True** | Blanche told Bloomberg he was not reopening the criminal investigation, adding that the independent audit could prompt one if it uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The post keeps the conditional and drops the refusal. |
| "The Inspector General report detailed that the project is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget" | **Mostly True** | The OIG found the Fed did not effectively use the contract's cost-management provisions as the approved budget rose from $1.317 billion in February 2020 to $2.381 billion in December 2024, an increase of over $1 billion. The same report found no reasonable grounds to believe a crime occurred and no administrative misconduct, which the post omits. |
| "The overruns are due to a total lack of leadership, oversight, and competence of Jerome Powell" | **Half True** | The OIG faulted the Fed's cost controls during Powell's tenure, which supports a management-failure finding. It found no misconduct, and it treated the failure as institutional rather than as one person's incompetence. 'Total lack' is hyperbole. |

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Authorship Analysis

**Uncertain** (score: 65%)

### Indicators

- Posted 11:37 p.m. Eastern, late-night window
- Personal closer 'Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT'
- Erratic comma: 'competence, of Jerome'
- Idiosyncratic capitalization 'Hundreds of Millions of Dollars'
- Signature nickname 'Too Late' Powell

## Psychological Profile

### Traits

**Big Five:**
- Extraversion: 60%
- Agreeableness: 15%
- Conscientiousness: 45%
- Neuroticism: 55%
- Openness: 20%

Strongest facet: Low agreeableness (low trust, antagonism toward a former rival)

**Motives:**
- Agency: 80%
- Communion: 10%

Primary drive: revenge

### Narrative

- **Role:** Vindicated reformer whose appointees are cleaning up a predecessor's mess
- **Arc:** redemption
- **Contrasting:** Jerome 'Too Late' Powell and the news media

**Identity Claims:**
- The one who tells the truth against 'Fake News'
- Installer of competent, professional leadership at the Fed and DOJ

### State

**Mixed State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Fed OIG report finding no crime or misconduct in the renovation and news reports that AG Blanche would not reopen the Powell probe)

**Rage:** Intensity 30% targeting News media and Jerome Powell
- Proportionality: 30%

Sentiment: -0.45

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 50%
- Antisocial: 35%
- Paranoid: 55%
- Sadism: 15%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- denial (pathological)
- distortion (pathological)
- splitting (immature)
- devaluation (immature)
- projection (immature)
- rationalization (neurotic)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 60%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Direct address sign-off 'Thank you for your attention to this matter'
- Positions followers as recipients of the true account against 'Fake News'

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Indicators

- Public presidential announcement of a DOJ investigation of a former official that the Attorney General has said is not open

### Gaslighting

- Accurate reports that the DOJ would not reopen the Powell probe labeled 'total lies'
- Asserts an 'ongoing investigation' the AG disclaimed the same day
- Cites the IG report while suppressing its finding of no crime or misconduct
- DARVO: cleared official recast as culpable, accurate press recast as liars

## Fact Checks (6)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-10-03._

> Reports about the investigation into the Fed renovation are 'total lies'

**FALSE**

On October 2, 2026, CNBC and Axios reported that Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ would not reopen its criminal probe into former Fed Chair Powell. Blanche himself was the source.

Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/02/doj-says-it-will-not-reopen-criminal-probe-into-former-fed-chair-powell.html; https://www.axios.com/2026/10/02/fed-powell-blanche-justice

> There is an 'ongoing investigation' into the renovation

**MOSTLY FALSE**

The DOJ closed its Powell renovation probe in April 2026, clearing the way for Warsh's confirmation, and said on October 2 it would not reopen it. What is ongoing is a Fed-commissioned independent cost audit and a GSA takeover of project management. Neither is a criminal investigation.

Sources: https://www.wypr.org/2026-04-24/justice-department-drops-inquiry-into-fed-chair-jerome-powell; https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/02/doj-says-it-will-not-reopen-criminal-probe-into-former-fed-chair-powell.html

> Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh announced an in-depth, independent audit

**TRUE**

Warsh said the Fed would implement the OIG recommendations, hand the project to the General Services Administration, and engage an independent auditor to scrutinize all awarded costs to date.

Sources: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/feds-warsh-cracks-down-renovation-taps-gsa-lead; https://www.vitallaw.com/news/oversight-and-investigation-fed-watchdog-finds-no-misconduct-in-headquarters-renovation-but-faults-cost-controls/blw01ec942dee5c5d4497bb9645ed129222fd

> AG Todd Blanche clearly stated the Justice Department will investigate any and all evidence of wrongdoing

**HALF TRUE**

Blanche told Bloomberg he was not reopening the criminal investigation, adding that the independent audit could prompt one if it uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The post keeps the conditional and drops the refusal.

Sources: https://www.axios.com/2026/10/02/fed-powell-blanche-justice; https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/02/doj-says-it-will-not-reopen-criminal-probe-into-former-fed-chair-powell.html

> The Inspector General report detailed that the project is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget

**MOSTLY TRUE**

The OIG found the Fed did not effectively use the contract's cost-management provisions as the approved budget rose from $1.317 billion in February 2020 to $2.381 billion in December 2024, an increase of over $1 billion. The same report found no reasonable grounds to believe a crime occurred and no administrative misconduct, which the post omits.

Sources: https://www.vitallaw.com/news/oversight-and-investigation-fed-watchdog-finds-no-misconduct-in-headquarters-renovation-but-faults-cost-controls/blw01ec942dee5c5d4497bb9645ed129222fd; https://www.newstribune.com/news/2026/oct/01/feds-watchdog-finds-no-evidence-of-criminality-in/

> The overruns are due to a total lack of leadership, oversight, and competence of Jerome Powell

**HALF TRUE**

The OIG faulted the Fed's cost controls during Powell's tenure, which supports a management-failure finding. It found no misconduct, and it treated the failure as institutional rather than as one person's incompetence. 'Total lack' is hyperbole.

Sources: https://www.vitallaw.com/news/oversight-and-investigation-fed-watchdog-finds-no-misconduct-in-headquarters-renovation-but-faults-cost-controls/blw01ec942dee5c5d4497bb9645ed129222fd; https://time.news/fed-watchdog-finds-management-failures-in-2-5-billion-headquarters-project/

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Tags

- Federal Reserve renovation (100%)
- Jerome Powell (90%)
- Fake News (70%)
- DOJ pressure (80%)
- gaslighting (70%)
- grudge (60%)
- Kevin Warsh (50%)
- Todd Blanche (50%)

## That day

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

**Trump promises every adult $5,000 if Republicans win the House and Senate**

He spent late Friday night and most of Saturday campaigning for the midterms, mostly through prepared endorsements, book plugs and video clips, several of them posted twice. The standout was a promise to give every adult $5,000 if Republicans win both the House and the Senate, alongside roughly $100 checks to seniors from a Medicare fund. In the afternoon he took up a fight with Senator Tom Cotton over ending clock changes, posting what he said was Cotton's cellphone number and urging Arkansas voters to call it. Friday night also brought a clip of what appears to be his defense secretary calling the press "anti-American losers," and an attack on news reports about a Federal Reserve investigation as "total lies." The mood stayed upbeat and promotional, with only brief flashes of irritation, and the day ended with him heading to Ohio.

Full digest for 2026-10-03: https://trump.fm/date/2026-10-03/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2026, October 3). The Fake News reports regarding the ongoing... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_117374886219696225
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "The Fake News reports regarding the ongoing investigation..." Truth Social, 3 Oct. 2026. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117374886219696225. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "The Fake News reports regarding the ongoing investigation...," Truth Social, October 3, 2026, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117374886219696225.

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