# Post x_1030781399920455700

- Post ID: `x_1030781399920455700`
- Platform: X (Twitter)
- Posted: 2018-08-18T15:40:11.000Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1030781399920455700
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1030781399920455700/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1030781399920455700.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> ....Too many voices are being destroyed, some good &amp, some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good &amp, bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!

## Engagement

- Likes: 0
- Reposts: 21,665
- Replies: 0
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:33:25.038Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-15T20:31:20.643Z (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 concludes a three-tweet thread on social media censorship, composed at 11:40 AM EDT as Trump visited New York City. Authentic authorship is near-certain: HTML encoding artifacts ("&amp,"), leading ellipses indicating thread continuation, and characteristic stream-of-consciousness construction collectively identify unfiltered Trump prose. The psychological state is grandiose — Trump positions himself as superior arbiter of content moderation decisions made by private companies ("I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made") despite holding no operational role. The central clinical finding is structural projection: Trump accuses unnamed actors of making censorship "choices" on the same day he revoked Brennan's security clearance as punitive silencing, and in an adjacent tweet attacked CNN/MSNBC as "sick." The universalist "let everybody participate, good and bad" frame deploys liberal free-speech norms as rationalization for a partisan protective function — shielding far-right voices following the InfoWars deplatforming. Rhetorically, the vague accusation ("who is making the choices") functions as grievance seeding, allowing audiences to attach blame to any preferred adversary. The timing with Unite the Right 2 amplifies the signal to extremist communities whose rally had just been humiliated by low turnout. Danger is rated elevated due to normalization function and political signaling to platforms, not direct incitement. Cognitive markers are consistent with baseline; no deterioration detected.

## Authorship Attribution

**Verdict: High confidence authentic Trump**

- **Timing**: UTC 15:40 = 11:40 AM EDT (Trump was in New York City on this date, having just returned to Trump Tower). Mid-morning falls within his characteristic spontaneous-tweeting window.
- **Leading ellipses**: The "....." prefix is Trump's standard multi-tweet thread notation, indicating direct continuation from the prior censorship post.
- **HTML encoding artifacts**: "&amp," appears twice — a raw HTML entity that Trump's device or posting interface failed to decode. This technical fingerprint recurs in authentic Trump posts and is absent from aide-drafted communications.
- **Style markers**: Stream-of-consciousness construction, wandering syntax, non-prescriptive conclusion ("we will all just have to figure it out") — hallmarks of unfiltered Trump prose. A Scavino-drafted post would have a cleaner call-to-action.
- **Emotional register**: Alarmist but diffuse, lacking the structured message discipline of professionally drafted communications.

---

## Psychological State and Triggers

**Context**: This post concludes a three-tweet thread responding to the wave of deplatforming of far-right figures (InfoWars/Alex Jones was removed from multiple platforms on August 6, 2018). The Unite the Right 2 rally was occurring in Washington, D.C. on this same day — a Charlottesville anniversary event attended by only 20–30 white supremacists who were vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters. The thread serves to validate the political grievances of precisely this audience.

**Trigger Type**: Preemptive maintenance — constructing a principled free-speech frame that protects political allies facing deplatforming while positioning Trump as the morally superior arbiter of fairness.

**Narcissistic State: Grandiose**

The declaration "I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made" is a self-positioning maneuver of considerable clinical interest. Trump asserts omniscient judgment over content moderation decisions made by private technology companies in which he holds no operational role. This confident epistemic claim — untethered from any stated evidence base — exemplifies the grandiose schema: the self as naturally superior evaluator whose conclusions precede the evidence. The phrase "I can already tell you" is the tell; it signals intuitive authority rather than deliberative analysis.

---

## Defense Mechanisms

**1. Projection (immature — high confidence)**
The structural irony of this post is striking. Trump accuses unnamed "choice-makers" of making too many mistakes in silencing voices — on the same day he revoked John Brennan's security clearance as a punitive silencing measure, and in an immediately preceding tweet attacked CNN and MSNBC as exhibiting "sick behavior." The behavior he attributes to others (making bad choices about whose voice survives) he enacts continuously and with presidential power. The projection is textbook: disowned censorious impulses attributed wholesale to adversaries.

**2. Rationalization (neurotic — high confidence)**
"Let everybody participate, good and bad" provides elegant post-hoc logical cover for an outcome that serves partisan interests (protecting far-right accounts from platform removal). By borrowing the vocabulary of classical liberalism — free speech, open participation, procedural fairness — Trump launders a politically motivated intervention through universalist moral language. The rationalization is sophisticated enough to be persuasive to audiences who share the underlying value; the incoherence only becomes visible when examined against his actual behavior.

**3. Splitting (immature — moderate confidence)**
Despite the ostensibly inclusive "good and bad" framing, the underlying cognitive structure remains binary and morally sorted. Even the defense of "bad voices" is filtered through Trump's moral authority to categorize. The dichotomy is not dissolved but maintained under a new rubric: Trump as the tolerant sovereign who graciously permits bad actors to speak.

---

## Rhetorical Analysis

**False universalism**: The "let everybody participate, good and bad" construction performs fair-mindedness while functioning to normalize and protect specific categories of speech (far-right extremist content) facing legitimate platform enforcement. Liberal free-speech norms are appropriated and redeployed for partisan content protection — a rhetorical judo move.

**Vague accusation / grievance seeding**: "Who is making the choices" names no entity. This deliberate vagueness allows the implied accusation to attach to whatever adversary the reader prefers (tech oligarchs, Democrats, "globalists," the deep state). The question mark is absent — this is not genuine inquiry but implied indictment. Classic RAND Firehose principle: volume plus ambiguity maximizes paranoid receptor engagement.

**Hyperbole / eliminationist metaphor**: "Voices are being destroyed" — deplatforming is not destruction of personhood or even of speech capacity (banned users routinely migrate to alternative platforms). The choice of "destroyed" imports existential stakes into a content moderation dispute, elevating routine enforcement action to persecution.

**Feigned helplessness**: "We will all just have to figure it out" performs presidential passivity — abdicating prescriptive responsibility while having already delivered the preferred verdict ("too many mistakes"). This rhetorical disavowal of power is issued by the person holding maximal platform and regulatory leverage over the companies in question.

---

## Clinical Observations

The grandiose self-positioning in this post and the contemptuous devaluation in the same-day Brennan post represent the two faces of the narcissistic cycle — benevolent arbiter and punitive judge — operating within a single day's output. Both are expressions of the same underlying self-schema: Trump as the natural center of evaluative authority in all domains.

The projection dynamic warrants specific documentation for longitudinal purposes: the accusation of censorship intensifies proportionally with Trump's own censorious actions. This is not coincidental but structurally characteristic — the louder the projection, the more clearly it maps the disowned impulse.

---

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "Too many voices are being destroyed" | **Half True** | Deplatforming of far-right figures was genuinely occurring: InfoWars and Alex Jones were removed from Apple Podcasts, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify on August 6, 2018, twelve days before this post. The directional claim has factual basis. However, 'destroyed' significantly overstates the effect — deplatformed accounts typically migrated to Gab, Parler, and other alternative platforms and continued broadcasting. No voices were permanently silenced. |
| "Too many mistakes are being made [in content moderation]" | **Unverifiable** | This is a value judgment about the propriety of platform enforcement decisions, presented with the rhetorical weight of a factual assessment. Whether deplatforming InfoWars constituted a 'mistake' is a normative question on which reasonable people disagree; it is not a falsifiable factual claim. |
| "Who is making the choices [about deplatforming]" | **Unverifiable** | This is presented as a rhetorical question implying hidden or unaccountable decision-making. Platform content moderation decisions in 2018 were made by internal trust-and-safety teams at each company per their terms of service. The framing implies conspiratorial coordination that was not established by evidence at the time. |

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Danger Assessment

**Elevated** — not for direct incitement, but for normalization function and structural political signaling. By framing far-right deplatforming as a matter of presidential concern on the same day as Unite the Right 2, Trump validates the extremist community's victimhood narrative at a moment of heightened vulnerability (the rally had been humiliated by its own turnout failure). The message to platforms is implicit: enforcement creates political cost. The message to far-right audiences is explicit: the president recognizes your grievance. The danger is atmospheric and cumulative rather than immediate.

---

## Cognitive Status

Vocabulary is simple, syntactic structures short, logical conclusion ("figure it out") is non-prescriptive to the point of semantic emptiness. No word-finding difficulties, paraphasia, or neologisms detected. Consistent with established baseline. No deviation warranting concern.

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 88%)

### Indicators

- HTML entity encoding failure ('&amp,') appearing twice — technical artifact of authentic device posting
- Leading '.....' ellipses indicating multi-tweet thread continuation — standard Trump thread notation
- Stream-of-consciousness syntax with non-prescriptive conclusion ('figure it out')
- Daytime post (11:40 AM EDT) but stylistically indistinguishable from late-night authentic posts
- Absence of structured message discipline or clean call-to-action expected in aide-drafted content

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Preemptive Attack (Social media platform deplatforming of far-right figures (InfoWars ban, August 6, 2018); Unite the Right 2 rally providing political moment)

Sentiment: -0.30

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 58%
- Antisocial: 18%
- Paranoid: 42%
- Sadism: 5%

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

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 100%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Grievance validation ('too many voices being destroyed' — audience sees their own situation reflected)
- Shared persecution framing ('we will all just have to figure it out' — inclusive 'we' merges Trump with audience)
- Conspiratorial invitation ('Who is making the choices' — invites audience to fill in the blank with preferred enemy)

## Danger Assessment

**ELEVATED**

### Indicators

- Presidential validation of far-right deplatforming grievances on same day as Unite the Right 2 rally
- Implicit political signaling to tech platforms that enforcement creates regulatory/political cost
- Normalization of 'voices being destroyed' victimhood framing for extremist audiences
- Structural amplification of conspiratorial 'who is making the choices' paranoia without evidence

### Gaslighting

- Claims concern for all suppressed voices on same day he revoked Brennan's security clearance as punitive silencing
- Positions himself as free speech defender while adjacent tweets attack CNN/MSNBC as 'sick' and call for their discrediting
- DARVO structure: frames Trump-allied content enforcement as attacks requiring presidential defense while conducting simultaneous censorious acts

## Fact Checks (3)

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

> Too many voices are being destroyed

**HALF TRUE**

Deplatforming of far-right figures was genuinely occurring: InfoWars and Alex Jones were removed from Apple Podcasts, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify on August 6, 2018, twelve days before this post. The directional claim has factual basis. However, 'destroyed' significantly overstates the effect — deplatformed accounts typically migrated to Gab, Parler, and other alternative platforms and continued broadcasting. No voices were permanently silenced.

Sources: InfoWars/Alex Jones multi-platform removal, August 6, 2018

> Too many mistakes are being made [in content moderation]

**UNVERIFIABLE**

This is a value judgment about the propriety of platform enforcement decisions, presented with the rhetorical weight of a factual assessment. Whether deplatforming InfoWars constituted a 'mistake' is a normative question on which reasonable people disagree; it is not a falsifiable factual claim.

> Who is making the choices [about deplatforming]

**UNVERIFIABLE**

This is presented as a rhetorical question implying hidden or unaccountable decision-making. Platform content moderation decisions in 2018 were made by internal trust-and-safety teams at each company per their terms of service. The framing implies conspiratorial coordination that was not established by evidence at the time.

Overall Veracity: 50%

## Tags

- censorship (90%)
- free-speech-absolutism (85%)
- projection (90%)
- rationalization (80%)
- grandiosity (70%)
- authentic-authorship (90%)
- social-media-deplatforming (85%)
- false-universalism (80%)
- normalization (65%)
- thread-continuation (70%)

## That day

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

**Under Siege From All Sides, Trump Lashes Out at DOJ, Brennan, and Social Media While Rewriting McGahn Narrative**

Trump spent the day under pressure from multiple fronts — the revelation that his own White House counsel spoke to Mueller for 30 hours, Omarosa's bestselling tell-all, and blowback from revoking John Brennan's security clearance. He began with a late-night attack thread accusing a DOJ official of financial corruption, shifted to a morning crusade against social media censorship on the same day as the Unite the Right 2 rally, and repeatedly tried to reframe the McGahn bombshell as proof of his own transparency. The mood swung between aggressive offense and defensive spin, with no sustained calm period across a long and scattered posting day.

Full digest for 2018-08-18: https://trump.fm/date/2018-08-18/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2018, August 18). ....Too many voices are being destroyed, some... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1030781399920455700
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "....Too many voices are being destroyed, some good &amp,..." X (Twitter), 18 Aug. 2018. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1030781399920455700. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "....Too many voices are being destroyed, some good &amp,...," X (Twitter), August 18, 2018, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1030781399920455700.

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