# Post ts_117406823254412991

- Post ID: `ts_117406823254412991`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2026-10-08T18:59:10.537Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117406823254412991
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117406823254412991/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_117406823254412991.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> The Fake and Artificial News is out there trying to say that I’m inviting the enemy to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles when, in actuality, what I was talking about was that a temporary increase in the price of Gasoline is a small price to pay for Iran not having a Nuclear Weapon and, if you want to see a big price, can you imagine what it would be like if they bombed San Diego and/or Los Angeles? All I was doing was making a comparison between paying a little more, for a short time, for Gasoline, versus the bombing of our Major Cities. Everybody knew that, the Fake News knew it as well, but they continue to go out and say that I am asking the enemy to bomb two Cities that I love. It’s totally clear what I say but, these people are Degenerates, and think they can continuously get away with Fake News! President DONALD J. TRUMP

## Engagement

- Likes: 13,553
- Reposts: 4,020
- Replies: 2,246
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-10-09T05:01:11.994Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-10-08T19:11:05.916Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

Three days after telling a Nebraska rally that Iran "can take out a city" and naming Los Angeles and San Diego, Trump answers the backlash with a classic DARVO sequence. His restatement is coherent and matches the rally line's structure: a "small price" at the pump against the "big price" of bombed cities. Then he rules out any ambiguity in his own words with "Everybody knew that" and "It's totally clear what I say." That turns the officials and reporters who read the line differently into knowing liars, and the post closes by calling them "Degenerates." The state is wounded and defensive rather than expansive. There is no self-praise, only image repair and punishment of critics. Saying "two Cities that I love" at the moment he is accused of treating them as expendable reads as reaction formation. "Fake and Artificial News" brings his same-day attack on the term "Artificial Intelligence" over to the press, which looks like deliberate branding rather than a slip. The run-on syntax, comma splices and the late insult point to his own authorship despite the mid-afternoon timestamp.

## Damage control three days after the Grand Island remark

This post walks back a line from the October 5 rally in Grand Island, Nebraska. Defending fuel prices there, Trump said Iran "can take out a city," named Los Angeles and San Diego, and called higher gas prices "a very small price to pay." Governor Newsom called the remark "deranged and dangerous." Mayors Bass and Gloria answered it publicly, Gloria saying San Diego is "not expendable." The post is his answer three days later, and it runs in a fixed order: name the accusation, restate what he meant, insist the meaning was obvious, and then insult the people who read it differently.

The clarification itself holds together. "A temporary increase in the price of Gasoline is a small price to pay for Iran not having a Nuclear Weapon" against "can you imagine what it would be like if they bombed San Diego and/or Los Angeles?" is a fair account of how the rally line was built, and the reading he rejects ("I'm inviting the enemy to bomb") is closer to Newsom's framing than to most headlines, which said he "suggested Iran could attack." Where the post moves from explaining to managing perception is in three phrases: "Everybody knew that," "the Fake News knew it as well," and "It's totally clear what I say." Each one cancels the possibility that the original wording was ambiguous. The fault moves entirely to the listeners, who are cast as knowing liars rather than people who misheard. That is the DARVO sequence in compact form. He denies the hostile reading, attacks with "these people are Degenerates," and reverses the injured party, so that the person who named two American cities as targets becomes the victim of reporters who "think they can continuously get away with Fake News!"

## What the injury was, and how it was handled

The trigger is criticism tied to exposure. Elected officials of both cities answered him by name, and the remark gave opponents a ready line weeks before the midterms, landing after a weak September jobs report and with gas at about $4.37. The state here is vulnerable more than grandiose. There is no boast or self-promotion anywhere in the text, and the energy goes into repairing an image and punishing the people who damaged it. Rage is present but bounded. "Degenerates" is the only escalation, and it comes at the end, after nine lines of comparatively orderly explanation. That makes it proportionate to his usual press grievances, though out of proportion to a fair news story about a line he admits he said.

Rationalization carries most of the post. "All I was doing was making a comparison" turns a rally improvisation into a deliberate analogy after the fact. The phrase "two Cities that I love" is worth flagging. Los Angeles and San Diego sit in a state he usually describes in hostile terms. Declaring affection at the moment he is accused of treating them as expendable reads as reaction formation, though one sentence is thin evidence for it. Projection appears in the last line, where the media is accused of thinking they "can continuously get away with" something. Splitting runs through the whole post: his meaning is "totally clear," and anyone who disputes it is a degenerate.

## Voice, timing and authorship

The timestamp works out to about 3:00 pm Eastern if he was in Washington, which is business hours. The text still reads as his own. The sentences run on and break in odd places ("It's totally clear what I say but, these people are Degenerates"). The middle of the post is one 70-word sentence that holds a nested conditional ("and, if you want to see a big price, can you imagine..."). Capitals land on nouns at random ("Gasoline," "Major Cities," "Cities"), and the insult comes after the argument, the way a speaker loses patience partway through. An aide drafting a clarification would usually leave out "Degenerates," and would likely have cited the rally or quoted the original line. The post is also reacting to coverage the way his posts usually do, with no specific outlet named.

"Fake and Artificial News" is a new coinage. Earlier the same day he posted that anyone using the term "Artificial Intelligence" rather than "Super Intelligence" is "THE ENEMY." The word moving from one post into the next in a new slot looks more like deliberate branding of "artificial" as a pejorative than a production error, and nothing else here suggests word-finding trouble. The long conditional sentence resolves correctly and the argument stays on its thread from start to finish.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "The media is saying Trump is inviting the enemy to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles" | **Half True** | Gov. Newsom said Trump was telling foreign enemies to take out the two cities, and the San Diego and Los Angeles mayors criticized the remark. Most news coverage framed it as Trump suggesting Iran could attack the cities, and some outlets called it a joke. The 'inviting' framing came mainly from political opponents, not from straight news reporting. |
| "What he said was a comparison between a temporary gas price increase and the bombing of major cities" | **Mostly True** | At the Oct 5 Grand Island, Nebraska rally he defended higher fuel prices as 'a very small price to pay' and said Iran 'can take out a city,' naming Los Angeles and San Diego. The comparative structure he describes was present, though his original wording named the cities as possible targets more directly than this restatement admits. |
| "Everybody knew that, the Fake News knew it as well" | **Mostly False** | The California governor and the mayors of both cities publicly read the remark as treating the cities as expendable, and coverage split on whether it was a joke or a serious suggestion. Widespread, contested readings contradict the claim that everybody understood it the same way. |
| "The increase in gasoline prices is temporary, for a short time" | **Half True** | Fuel prices have been elevated since the Iran conflict disrupted Hormuz flows earlier in 2026; the national average stood at about $4.37 per gallon around the rally. Trump has repeatedly pledged prices would fall once the war ends 'very soon' without that happening yet. The rise may still prove temporary, but 'a short time' understates how long it has already lasted. |

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 72%)

### Indicators

- Run-on 70-word sentence with nested conditional
- Erratic comma placement: 'It's totally clear what I say but, these people are Degenerates'
- Random capitalization of common nouns (Gasoline, Cities, Major Cities)
- Insult appended after explanation, showing emotional drift
- Novel coinage 'Fake and Artificial News' echoing his own same-day AI post

## Psychological Profile

### Traits

**Big Five:**
- Extraversion: 60%
- Agreeableness: 10%
- Conscientiousness: 35%
- Neuroticism: 75%
- Openness: 25%

Strongest facet: Angry hostility (neuroticism)

**Motives:**
- Agency: 80%
- Communion: 20%

Primary drive: validation

### Narrative

- **Role:** Misunderstood protector maligned by dishonest press
- **Arc:** contamination
- **Contrasting:** The 'Fake and Artificial News' / 'Degenerates'

**Identity Claims:**
- My meaning is always clear
- I love San Diego and Los Angeles
- I am protecting America from a nuclear Iran

### State

**Vulnerable State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Media and California officials' reaction to his Oct 5 Grand Island rally remark that Iran 'can take out' Los Angeles or San Diego)

**Rage:** Intensity 50% targeting News media ('Fake and Artificial News', 'Degenerates')
- Proportionality: 40%

Sentiment: -0.60

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 55%
- Antisocial: 25%
- Paranoid: 45%
- Sadism: 10%

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

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 55%

Cognitive Markers:
- perseveration

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Appeal to shared obviousness ('Everybody knew that')
- Positioning the audience as fellow witnesses to media bad faith

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Indicators

- Hypothetical bombing of named US cities restated, in a defensive rather than inviting frame
- 'Degenerates' directed at press as a class

### Gaslighting

- 'Everybody knew that, the Fake News knew it as well': asserts critics knowingly misrepresented him
- 'It's totally clear what I say': denies any ambiguity in a remark that drew bipartisan local rebuke
- DARVO: speaker of the remark recast as victim of reporters

**Violent Imagery Present**

## Fact Checks (4)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-10-08._

> The media is saying Trump is inviting the enemy to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles

**HALF TRUE**

Gov. Newsom said Trump was telling foreign enemies to take out the two cities, and the San Diego and Los Angeles mayors criticized the remark. Most news coverage framed it as Trump suggesting Iran could attack the cities, and some outlets called it a joke. The 'inviting' framing came mainly from political opponents, not from straight news reporting.

Sources: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/world/trump-suggests-iran-could-attack-los-angeles-or-san-diego/tldr; https://alternet.org/los-angeles-2678007649; https://www.turkiyetoday.com/world/trump-says-iran-can-take-out-los-angeles-san-diego-in-possible-attack-3229710

> What he said was a comparison between a temporary gas price increase and the bombing of major cities

**MOSTLY TRUE**

At the Oct 5 Grand Island, Nebraska rally he defended higher fuel prices as 'a very small price to pay' and said Iran 'can take out a city,' naming Los Angeles and San Diego. The comparative structure he describes was present, though his original wording named the cities as possible targets more directly than this restatement admits.

Sources: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/world/trump-suggests-iran-could-attack-los-angeles-or-san-diego/tldr

> Everybody knew that, the Fake News knew it as well

**MOSTLY FALSE**

The California governor and the mayors of both cities publicly read the remark as treating the cities as expendable, and coverage split on whether it was a joke or a serious suggestion. Widespread, contested readings contradict the claim that everybody understood it the same way.

Sources: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/world/trump-suggests-iran-could-attack-los-angeles-or-san-diego/tldr

> The increase in gasoline prices is temporary, for a short time

**HALF TRUE**

Fuel prices have been elevated since the Iran conflict disrupted Hormuz flows earlier in 2026; the national average stood at about $4.37 per gallon around the rally. Trump has repeatedly pledged prices would fall once the war ends 'very soon' without that happening yet. The rise may still prove temporary, but 'a short time' understates how long it has already lasted.

Sources: https://www.axios.com/2026/03/07/trump-iran-gas-fuel-strikes; https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/world/trump-suggests-iran-could-attack-los-angeles-or-san-diego/tldr

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Tags

- Iran (80%)
- gas prices (80%)
- fake news (90%)
- California (60%)
- DARVO (80%)
- midterms 2026 (50%)

## That day

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

**Trump tells Minnesotans to 'fight back' against Somali immigrants, promising federal backup**

Most of the day was midterm campaigning by insult. He tied Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed to "Jihad" and twice suggested that Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, who was out sick with the flu, was hiding something. Around midday he promised not to attack Iran before the November elections. He then turned on reporters over his earlier remark that Iran could hit Los Angeles and San Diego, calling them "Degenerates." The post that stood out came in mid-afternoon: he told Minnesotans their state was being "taken over by Somali Immigrants," that they "must fight back," and to "leave the rest to us." He kept normal hours and ended on a milder complaint about Alaska's ranked-choice voting.

Full digest for 2026-10-08: https://trump.fm/date/2026-10-08/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2026, October 8). The Fake and Artificial News is out there trying... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_117406823254412991
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "The Fake and Artificial News is out there trying to say..." Truth Social, 8 Oct. 2026. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117406823254412991. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "The Fake and Artificial News is out there trying to say...," Truth Social, October 8, 2026, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117406823254412991.

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