Analysis: “While Steele shopped the document to multiple media outlets...

8y ago Aug 16, 2018 at 11:45 PM

“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!

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-15. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

Elevated

Narcissistic State

Mixed

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

62%

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.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

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:

projectionsplittingdenialrationalization

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

48%

Parasocial Techniques:

Authority citation from in-group media (Fox News)Named tag of loyalist amplifier Lou DobbsShared triumphalism ('In other words') that invites followers into the revelation experienceEpistemic 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 Detected:

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

Reality Distortions:

Briefing journalists about intelligence findings characterized as equivalent to campaign Russia contacts
Steele's separate professional contacts with oligarch-linked matters reframed as 'asking for help' with the dossier
Logical leap: investigative contact with Russian-linked sources = 'collusion with Russia'
The investigation's legitimacy is inverted — its practitioners become the criminals

Fact Checks (3)

"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.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

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

Appeal to authority (selective): Fox News/Catherine Herridge framing provides the appearance of sourced reporting while cherry-picking a narrative-confirming interpretation
Whataboutism: Classic deflection — "what about what THEY did?"
DARVO: The complete sequence is present: Deny (implicit), Attack (Steele as criminal), Reverse Victim-Offender ("they were colluding")
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
Loaded language: "RUSSIAN Oligarch" (capitalized for maximum menace); "colluding" (appropriating the exact Mueller-investigation vocabulary)
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%