# Post x_1030239036093411328

- Post ID: `x_1030239036093411328`
- Platform: X (Twitter)
- Posted: 2018-08-16T23:45:01.000Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1030239036093411328
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1030239036093411328/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1030239036093411328.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> “While Steele shopped the document to multiple media outlets, he also asked for help with a RUSSIAN Oligarch.”  Catherine Herridge of @FoxNews  @LouDobbs  In other words, they were colluding with Russia!

## Engagement

- Likes: 62,892
- Reposts: 17,833
- Replies: 0
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-01-31T23:43:13.398Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-15T19:55:00.595Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

This post exemplifies the mature, practiced deployment of DARVO as a political weapon. The narcissistic injury driving this same-day cluster — Omarosa book, tapes, Mueller investigation — finds partial relief in redirecting the 'collusion' accusation at Steele and investigators. Projection is the primary defense: the exact charge Trump cannot metabolize is externalized entirely onto the accusers. The rhetorical architecture is efficient: Fox News quote supplies surface credibility, ALL CAPS 'RUSSIAN' primes threat-salience, the triumphant personal gloss ('In other words, they were colluding with Russia!') performs the inversion. Authorship is highly likely authentic — evening local timing, Lou Dobbs tag, impulsive declarative conclusion. Factually, the Steele-journalist contact claim is mostly true; the oligarch characterization is misleadingly distorted; the collusion conclusion is false. No acute violence signaling, but this post extends a sustained pattern of naming specific individuals as criminal enemies — carrying cumulative stochastic risk. Cognitively unremarkable relative to period baseline.

## Psychological Analysis: August 16, 2018 — "Steele Colluding With Russia"

### Overview

This post is a textbook example of Trump deploying the **DARVO maneuver** (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) in response to the ongoing Mueller investigation — the single most persistent narcissistic injury of this period. By amplifying a Fox News segment that reframes Christopher Steele as the actual Russia colluder, Trump inverts the central accusation against his campaign. The rhetorical move is crisp and practiced: quote a friendly authority, italicize the damning detail with ALL CAPS, then deliver a triumphant summary in his own voice.

---

### Authorship Attribution

**Local time:** UTC 23:45 converts to **7:45 PM EDT** (Trump was in New York City on this date, having returned to Trump Tower for the first time since January 2018). This is an early-evening post — not classic late-night impulsivity but well within the window of personally composed material.

**Style indicators strongly favor authentic Trump:**
- Selectively quoted broadcast source (Catherine Herridge/Fox) followed by personal gloss — his signature format
- ALL CAPS on "RUSSIAN" for emphasis (characteristic punctuation-as-emphasis pattern)
- Named tweet-at of @LouDobbs alongside @FoxNews — Dobbs is a personal favorite he consistently tags
- The pivot sentence "In other words, they were colluding with Russia!" is too impulsive and declarative to be staff-crafted — no hedging, no sourcing, just assertion
- Consistent with the same-day tweet pattern: multiple posts across the day show an elevated, reactive state

**Confidence: High** that this is authentic Trump composition.

---

### Level 1 — Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

| Trait | Observed Level | Evidence |
|-------|---------------|----------|
| **Extraversion** | High | Public assertion, triumphant framing, audience address |
| **Agreeableness** | Very Low | Attack on Steele, adversarial framing, zero nuance |
| **Conscientiousness** | Low | Logical leap from brief → collusion without evidentiary chain |
| **Neuroticism** (Angry Hostility facet) | High | Underlying urgency, capitalization as rage proxy |
| **Openness** | Very Low | Rigid zero-sum framing; information processed only through existing schema |

Most salient facet: **Angry Hostility** (N) combined with **Assertiveness** (E) — the characteristic fusion that drives his most politically potent posts.

---

### Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations

**Dominant Agency Motive: Control/Power restoration.** The Mueller investigation represents ongoing loss of narrative control. This post is an attempt to seize the "collusion" frame and redirect it.

**Schema revealed:**
- *Self:* Persecuted innocent, vindicated by each new revelation
- *Opponents:* The real criminals, hiding in plain sight; hypocrites
- *World:* A zero-sum arena where investigation = guilt, and the goal is to redirect the spotlight

**Supply-seeking present but secondary:** The post tags Dobbs and Fox — both reliable validation sources — but the primary function is counter-narrative rather than pure admiration-seeking.

---

### Level 3 — Narrative Identity

**Protagonist role:** *Wrongly accused martyr vindicated by enemy's own exposure.* The classic contamination-then-reversal structure: "They accused me of collusion → it turns out THEY were colluding."

**Redemption sequence:** Embedded. The narrative arc implicit in this post is: investigation (contamination event) → revelation (Steele-Russia link) → vindication (the accusers are guilty).

**Identity claim:** "I am the one who was right all along." The "In other words" construction is not analysis — it is declaration of authority to interpret events.

**Contrasting other:** Christopher Steele (directly), and by extension the entire intelligence/media nexus he characterizes as "Deep State."

---

### Level 4 — Clinical Indicators

#### Malignant Narcissism Assessment

**A. Narcissistic Features:**
- Grandiosity: Moderate (implicit — his vindication is inevitable)
- Entitlement: High (the investigation is inherently illegitimate)
- Lack of empathy: Present (zero acknowledgment of legitimate investigative concerns)
- Envy/projection of envy: Moderate

**B. Antisocial Features:**
- Deceitfulness: Present — the logical leap from Steele briefing journalists to "colluding with Russia" is a deliberate distortion of the evidentiary record
- Disregard for rule of law: Moderate — framing legitimate counterintelligence work as criminal

**C. Paranoid Features:**
- High — the entire post is organized around the schema that he is the target of coordinated bad-faith actors
- Preoccupation with perceived attacks: High (same-day posts about Omarosa, FBI, witch hunt)
- Counterattack reflex: Clearly present

**D. Ego-Syntonic Sadism:**
- Mild-moderate — there is pleasure in the "gotcha" frame; delight in turning the accusation back on opponents

**Narcissistic State: Vulnerable → Grandiose oscillation.** The multiple same-day posts about Omarosa, Strzok, and the witch hunt reveal underlying vulnerability (persecution schema), while this post momentarily shifts to grandiose triumphalism ("they were colluding!"). This oscillation within a single day's posting is consistent with the reactive emotional regulation patterns observed in narcissistic personality organization.

**Trigger type:** Narcissistic injury (ongoing Mueller investigation, compounded by Omarosa tapes and book dominating the news cycle this same week).

---

### Defense Mechanisms

| Mechanism | Level | Evidence |
|-----------|-------|----------|
| **Projection** | Immature | Attributing "collusion with Russia" to those investigating his campaign's Russia contacts |
| **Splitting** | Immature | Steele = pure bad actor; Fox News sources = unimpeachable truth |
| **Denial** | Pathological | Implicitly denies any legitimate basis for the investigation |
| **Rationalization** | Neurotic | The Fox News quote provides a veneer of cited evidence for a pre-formed conclusion |

**Primary defense: Projection** — the clinical centerpiece of this post. The exact charge (Russia collusion) is rotated 180° and fired back at the accusers. This is not merely rhetorical; it reflects a genuine cognitive organization in which the self cannot hold the accusation and so must externalize it completely.

---

### Rhetorical & Propaganda Techniques

1. **Appeal to authority (selective):** Fox News/Catherine Herridge framing provides the appearance of sourced reporting while cherry-picking a narrative-confirming interpretation
2. **Whataboutism:** Classic deflection — "what about what THEY did?"
3. **DARVO:** The complete sequence is present: Deny (implicit), Attack (Steele as criminal), Reverse Victim-Offender ("they were colluding")
4. **False equivalence:** Steele's contact with journalists and alleged oligarch contact is framed as equivalent to the Trump campaign's documented contacts — a profound logical distortion
5. **Loaded language:** "RUSSIAN Oligarch" (capitalized for maximum menace); "colluding" (appropriating the exact Mueller-investigation vocabulary)
6. **In-group signaling:** Tagging Lou Dobbs (a top Trump loyalist media figure) signals to the base: this is confirmed by our people

**Dehumanizing language:** Absent in this post.  
**Violent imagery:** Absent.  
**Stochastic terrorism indicators:** Not present.

---

### Gaslighting & Reality Distortion

**DARVO pattern: Fully present.** This is one of the cleaner DARVO examples in the corpus: the investigators (Steele, FBI, intelligence community) are recast as the real criminals, and Trump (the subject of investigation) is recast as the real victim of the real wrongdoing.

**Reality distortions:**
- Briefing journalists about an intelligence report ≠ "colluding with Russia"
- Steele's separate professional contacts with oligarch-linked matters ≠ seeking Russia's help for the dossier
- The logical inference "In other words, they were colluding" does not follow from the stated premises

**Epistemic closure signaling:** Strong. The post is structured as revelation and conclusion, not inquiry. Followers are invited to arrive at the same conclusion and treat it as settled.

---

### Cognitive Status Assessment

**Baseline comparison note:** Relative to Trump's 2018 posting baseline, this post shows:
- Normal vocabulary for the period
- Coherent (if logically distorted) argument structure
- Characteristic sentence fragments used for effect ("In other words, they were colluding with Russia!")
- No word-finding difficulty, paraphasia, or temporal confusion observed

**Complexity score:** Moderate — comparable to period baseline. No deviation noted.

---

### Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Steele shopped the document to multiple media outlets" | **Mostly True** | Christopher Steele did proactively brief journalists from Mother Jones, Yahoo News, and others in fall 2016, sharing information from the dossier. This is well-documented. 'Shopped' implies commercial motivation that mischaracterizes the nature of the briefings, but the core fact of journalist outreach is accurate. |
| "he also asked for help with a RUSSIAN Oligarch" | **Half True** | Reports from 2018 referenced Steele's contacts relating to Oleg Deripaska through intermediaries, but these concerned a separate legal/business matter unrelated to the Trump dossier. Framing this as 'asking for help' with the dossier misrepresents both the nature and relevance of the contact. The claim has a factual kernel but is significantly distorted in implication. |
| "In other words, they were colluding with Russia" | **False** | No logical or legal basis exists for the inference. Investigative journalism involving Russian sources, or professional contact with oligarch-linked intermediaries in unrelated matters, does not constitute 'collusion' under any standard definition. The claim inverts the investigative framework it borrows from. |

Overall Veracity: 43%

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 85%)

### Indicators

- 7:45 PM EDT timing consistent with authentic personal posting
- ALL CAPS on 'RUSSIAN' matches characteristic emphasis pattern
- Personal tagging of Lou Dobbs, a known Trump favorite
- Triumphant declarative conclusion 'In other words, they were colluding with Russia!' lacks aide polish
- Quote-then-personal-gloss format is Trump's signature structure

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Mixed State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Criticism (Mueller investigation, compounded by Omarosa book/tapes dominating same-day news cycle)

**Rage:** Intensity 60% targeting Christopher Steele, FBI/intelligence community, Russia investigation apparatus
- Proportionality: 20%

Sentiment: -0.35

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 72%
- Antisocial: 55%
- Paranoid: 75%
- Sadism: 35%

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

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 48%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Authority citation from in-group media (Fox News)
- Named tag of loyalist amplifier Lou Dobbs
- Shared triumphalism ('In other words') that invites followers into the revelation experience
- Epistemic closure — framed as settled conclusion requiring follower acceptance

## Danger Assessment

**ELEVATED**

### Indicators

- Continued pattern of naming specific individuals (Steele) as criminal enemies of the state without evidentiary basis
- Sustained delegitimization of the investigative/intelligence apparatus — cumulative erosion of institutional trust
- Part of a same-day cluster identifying multiple named individuals as bad actors (Strzok, Ohr, Brennan revocation context) — cumulative stochastic targeting risk
- No acute violence signaling in this post, but ongoing contribution to an environment where named individuals face harassment and threats

### Gaslighting

- DARVO: investigators recast as actual criminals, Trump recast as actual victim
- Appropriation of Mueller investigation's core vocabulary ('colluding') and redirecting it at investigators
- Epistemic closure framing — 'In other words' performs certainty to demand follower acceptance of distorted reality
- Implicit denial of any legitimate basis for counterintelligence investigation

## Fact Checks (3)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-03-15._

> Steele shopped the document to multiple media outlets

**MOSTLY TRUE**

Christopher Steele did proactively brief journalists from Mother Jones, Yahoo News, and others in fall 2016, sharing information from the dossier. This is well-documented. 'Shopped' implies commercial motivation that mischaracterizes the nature of the briefings, but the core fact of journalist outreach is accurate.

Sources: Senate Judiciary Committee reports; Published reporting on Steele's journalist contacts 2016-2018

> he also asked for help with a RUSSIAN Oligarch

**HALF TRUE**

Reports from 2018 referenced Steele's contacts relating to Oleg Deripaska through intermediaries, but these concerned a separate legal/business matter unrelated to the Trump dossier. Framing this as 'asking for help' with the dossier misrepresents both the nature and relevance of the contact. The claim has a factual kernel but is significantly distorted in implication.

Sources: Bruce Ohr congressional testimony; DOJ Inspector General report

> In other words, they were colluding with Russia

**FALSE**

No logical or legal basis exists for the inference. Investigative journalism involving Russian sources, or professional contact with oligarch-linked intermediaries in unrelated matters, does not constitute 'collusion' under any standard definition. The claim inverts the investigative framework it borrows from.

Overall Veracity: 43%

## Tags

- DARVO (95%)
- projection (92%)
- whataboutism (90%)
- Russia_investigation (95%)
- Steele_dossier (90%)
- narcissistic_injury_response (85%)
- epistemic_closure (85%)
- Fox_News_amplification (75%)
- accusation_inversion (88%)
- splitting (72%)

## That day

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

**Under Fire from All Sides, Trump Launches 19-Post Counter-Offensive from New York**

Trump spent the day in New York besieged on multiple fronts — Omarosa's secret tapes, backlash from stripping John Brennan's security clearance, and a coordinated pushback by 350 newspapers defending press freedom. The mood was overwhelmingly combative, with most posts deploying conservative media allies as shields to attack the FBI, investigators, and the press. A post after 2 AM suggests disrupted sleep amid the pressure. The day's brief pauses — an economic boast, a sarcastic jab at Omarosa, and a short tribute to Aretha Franklin — only highlighted how relentlessly the rest orbited the Mueller investigation and media warfare.

Full digest for 2018-08-16: https://trump.fm/date/2018-08-16/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2018, August 16). “While Steele shopped the document to multiple... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1030239036093411328
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "“While Steele shopped the document to multiple media..." X (Twitter), 16 Aug. 2018. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1030239036093411328. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "“While Steele shopped the document to multiple media...," X (Twitter), August 16, 2018, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1030239036093411328.

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