# Post ts_117485480701878421

- Post ID: `ts_117485480701878421`
- Platform: Truth Social
- Posted: 2026-10-22T16:22:47.937Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117485480701878421
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/ts_117485480701878421/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/ts_117485480701878421.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country! I said right from the beginning that he’s no good, a TOTAL DISGRACE. LeBron James should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag, and all that our Country stands for! President DONALD J. TRUMP

## What the media says

**Video transcript** (0:23), transcribed automatically, so names and numbers may be wrong. Speakers aren't identified, so a voice in it may not be his:

> ♪ One spirit ♪ ♪ Through the night ♪ ♪ That was children ♪ ♪ Say, just a star ♪

## Media

- video: https://static-assets-1.truthsocial.com/tmtg:prime-ts-assets/media_attachments/files/117/485/478/913/563/264/original/c04a8070354edb54.mp4

## Engagement

- Likes: 10,693
- Reposts: 3,749
- Replies: 2,795
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-10-23T00:01:15.187Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-10-22T16:35:14.691Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## An old feud revived with an anthem clip

The post went up at 12:22 p.m. Eastern. Trump was in Washington that morning, ahead of a scheduled Iowa trip for GOP candidates, and the post followed two morning posts about Iran and oil prices. It reacts to an attached video clip. A RedState piece published the same day describes LeBron James making a golf-swing motion during the national anthem at Madison Square Garden. I could not view the clip, and that partisan account is the only description of the gesture I found. Whatever the clip shows, the post adds no detail of its own. It gives only the verdict: "disrespects our Country."

## Dictated voice, staff hands

Several features match posts Trump dictates himself: the first-person "I said right from the beginning," the capitalized honorifics ("Great American Warriors and Heroes"), the all-caps "TOTAL DISGRACE," and the sign-off "President DONALD J. TRUMP." Midday posting and clean sentences point toward staff typing it, but the content is a personal told-you-so about a man he has feuded with since 2017, and aides rarely start that kind of post. The likeliest process is dictation with light cleanup. The three sentences stay on topic with no drift, so the text carries no organic error to settle the question.

## The gesture, the grudge, and borrowed dead

The post makes three moves. The first is the charge. "Disrespects our Country" turns a gesture during a song into an offense against the nation. The second move is the center of the post: "I said right from the beginning that he's no good." The anthem incident is used as proof of a judgment Trump made years ago. The feud's record goes back to James calling Trump "U bum" in 2017 and Trump's 2018 tweet that James "made Don Lemon look smart." Treating a new event as confirmation of an old verdict is the grudge-bearing pattern of the paranoid cluster. The injury here is a long-standing one: James endorsed Clinton in 2016 and Harris in 2024.

The third move is the demand: James "should apologize to all of those Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag." The injured party named is the war dead, not Trump. A personal feud is restated as a debt owed to people who cannot dispute the reading. That is displacement, and it also works as moral cover. The president is offended on behalf of the sacred, so the attack reads as patriotic, not personal. The split is total. On one side are "no good" and "TOTAL DISGRACE," with no qualifier. On the other are "Great American Warriors and Heroes," set beside the flag "and all that our Country stands for." Nothing sits between the two poles.

## Repeating a known template in a bad week

The structure repeats the 2017 NFL kneeling posts almost exactly: athlete, anthem, fallen soldiers, demanded remedy. The 2020 "disgraceful" remarks about NBA players kneeling follow the same pattern. Its return three weeks before the midterms comes in the same week as a Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll putting his approval at 33%, and the same morning as defensive posts about oil prices. That fits maintenance and supply-seeking: a cheap culture-war contrast in which his base already knows its side. Measured against 2017's "son of a bitch," the language is restrained. The disproportion is in who is speaking. A head of state is demanding a public apology from a private citizen over a gesture.

The shadow material fits the week. In the same seven days Trump said a DC golf course renovation would go ahead despite a judge's order, and waived Russia sanctions Congress had passed. Contempt for institutions is projected onto an athlete and condemned there. If RedState's description is accurate, the offending gesture was a golf swing, a mimicry of Trump's own signature pastime. If so, the clip probably read to him as mockery aimed at him, which would explain the personal "he's no good" line inside a post framed as patriotic.

## What the risk rests on

The post names one individual and charges him with betraying the nation's dead, in front of an audience of millions. James is a Black athlete whose Los Angeles home was vandalized with a racial slur in 2017. The language contains no dehumanizing terms and no call to action, and the remedy it names is an apology, which is speech. Those limits keep the risk low. The post adds one more instance of personal targeting of a famous critic. It does not escalate.

Language is coherent and syntax is simple but intact. "Died for the American Flag" is a stock phrase from his 2017-2018 anthem posts, so it reflects habit, not perseveration. No cognitive markers appear.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country" | **Half True** | A RedState piece published October 22, 2026 reports that James made a golf-swing motion during the anthem at Madison Square Garden, so some anthem-time gesture appears documented. That account is partisan, and no neutral report was found. Whether the gesture amounts to disrespect of the country is a judgment, and the post gives no description of the act. |
| "I said right from the beginning that he's no good" | **Mostly True** | Trump has attacked James consistently since their feud began. James called him 'U bum' in September 2017, Trump tweeted in August 2018 that James 'made Don Lemon look smart', and in 2020 Trump called kneeling NBA players 'disgraceful.' 'From the beginning' fits the feud. It overstates foresight, since the hostility began after James's own political opposition (Clinton endorsement 2016, 'U bum' 2017). |

Overall Veracity: 65%

## Authorship Analysis

**Uncertain** (score: 68%)

### Indicators

- First-person retrospective vindication: 'I said right from the beginning that he's no good'
- Idiosyncratic capitalization: 'Great American Warriors and Heroes', 'Country', 'American Flag'
- ALL CAPS emphasis: 'TOTAL DISGRACE'
- Signature sign-off 'President DONALD J. TRUMP', typical of his dictated posts
- Personal grudge content aides rarely originate

## Psychological Profile

### Traits

**Big Five:**
- Extraversion: 75%
- Agreeableness: 10%
- Conscientiousness: 40%
- Neuroticism: 60%
- Openness: 20%

Strongest facet: Low agreeableness (antagonism), with angry hostility

**Motives:**
- Agency: 80%
- Communion: 25%

Primary drive: validation

### Narrative

- **Role:** Vindicated prophet and defender of the flag
- **Arc:** neutral
- **Contrasting:** LeBron James

**Identity Claims:**
- One who saw through LeBron James from the start
- Guardian of the anthem, the flag and the fallen

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Supply Seeking — Criticism (Video of LeBron James's conduct during the anthem, reportedly a golf-swing motion at Madison Square Garden; long-standing feud; midterm culture-war positioning)

**Rage:** Intensity 45% targeting LeBron James
- Proportionality: 30%

Sentiment: -0.70

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 55%
- Antisocial: 15%
- Paranoid: 40%
- Sadism: 20%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- devaluation (immature)
- splitting (immature)
- displacement (neurotic)
- projection (immature)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 35%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Patriotic in-group address ('our National Anthem', 'our Country')
- Invites the audience to share his vindication ('I said right from the beginning')
- Enlists sacred figures (fallen soldiers) as a shared object of loyalty

## Danger Assessment

**ELEVATED**

### Indicators

- Named individual targeted by a head of state before a mass audience
- Target is a Black athlete with a history of racist harassment (2017 home vandalism with a slur)
- Moral charge of betraying the nation's war dead

## Fact Checks (2)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-10-22._

> While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country

**HALF TRUE**

A RedState piece published October 22, 2026 reports that James made a golf-swing motion during the anthem at Madison Square Garden, so some anthem-time gesture appears documented. That account is partisan, and no neutral report was found. Whether the gesture amounts to disrespect of the country is a judgment, and the post gives no description of the act.

Sources: https://redstate.com/kyle-becker/2026/10/22/lebron-stokes-outrage-with-disgraceful-action-he-takes-during-national-anthem-n2208470

> I said right from the beginning that he's no good

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Trump has attacked James consistently since their feud began. James called him 'U bum' in September 2017, Trump tweeted in August 2018 that James 'made Don Lemon look smart', and in 2020 Trump called kneeling NBA players 'disgraceful.' 'From the beginning' fits the feud. It overstates foresight, since the hostility began after James's own political opposition (Clinton endorsement 2016, 'U bum' 2017).

Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/trump-blasts-lebron-james-after-nba-star-says-hes-trying-n897621; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lebron-james-responds-president-trump-protest-criticism/; https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/sport%2Flos-angeles-lakers-lebron-james-laughs-off-trump-disgraceful-comments-1.73018432

Overall Veracity: 65%

## Tags

- LeBron James (100%)
- national anthem (90%)
- culture war (80%)
- grudge (70%)
- fallen soldiers (60%)
- midterms 2026 (50%)

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2026, October 22). While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron... [Social media post]. Truth Social. trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/ts_117485480701878421
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James..." Truth Social, 22 Oct. 2026. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117485480701878421. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James...," Truth Social, October 22, 2026, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/ts_117485480701878421.

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