# Post x_1073269882911903746 - Post ID: `x_1073269882911903746` - Platform: X (Twitter) - Posted: 2018-12-13T17:34:15.000Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1073269882911903746.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > ....She will probably be given a pass, despite their terrible ratings. Congratulations to @RichardGrenell, our great Ambassador to Germany, for having the courage to take this horrible issue on! ## Engagement - Likes: 56,021 - Reposts: 12,691 - Replies: 0 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-01-31T23:43:13.393Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-16T16:46:47.297Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ ## Summary On December 13, 2018 — the day Michael Cohen received a 3-year prison sentence — Trump posted at least five tweets in a multi-target burst spanning Cohen, Flynn, "WITCH HUNT!", and Mika Brzezinski. This post, praising Ambassador Grenell for confronting Mika's on-air remarks, is best understood as **displacement**: accumulated legal and existential anxiety redirected toward a controllable narrative arena where Trump can exercise dominance through the alliance-praise format. The post enacts two agency moves simultaneously — publicly rewarding Grenell's loyalty behavior through performative praise, and inserting a media credibility attack ("terrible ratings") that is logically disconnected but emotionally gratifying as a reflexive devaluation. The mixed grandiose/vulnerable narcissistic state is characteristic of days under acute legal pressure: simultaneously the wronged conservative (vulnerable) and powerful patron of the courageous (grandiose). **Defense mechanisms**: displacement from legal threat to media target; splitting (Grenell = courageous hero / MSNBC = corrupt enabler); rationalization (double-standard argument frames attack as principled media-fairness correction). The "terrible ratings" claim constitutes mild gaslighting — presenting a demonstrably false characterization as self-evident casual fact. Cognitively consistent with established baseline. No deterioration indicators. Danger level: none for this post specifically. Authorship: medium-confidence authentic Trump despite business-hours timing — stream-of-consciousness tangent and "......" thread format are strong stylometric markers outweighing the timing signal. ## Psychological Analysis: Trump Twitter Post — 2018-12-13T17:34:15Z --- ### Authorship Attribution **Local time:** UTC 17:34 converts to **12:34 PM EST** (Washington, D.C., where Trump was almost certainly located on a midweek December day). This falls squarely in business hours — a timing signature more consistent with aide composition. However, stylometric markers significantly complicate that reading: - The `"......"` thread-continuation format is a highly distinctive Trump signature rarely replicated by aides - The non-sequitur credibility attack ("despite their terrible ratings") is disconnected from the substantive claim — a reflexive devaluation inserted mid-sentence, characteristic of authentic Trump's associative stream-of-consciousness - "Congratulations to @RichardGrenell, our great Ambassador to Germany" follows the informal, superlative-laden praise pattern Trump uses for allies in authentic posts - The emotional reactivity is consistent with the day's posting burst **Assessment:** Medium confidence authentic Trump. Style overwhelms the timing signal. Aides rarely generate the impulsive tangent construction present here. --- ### Day-Level Psychological Context December 13, 2018 was a day of acute legal and existential pressure. Michael Cohen received a 3-year prison sentence, explicitly blaming Trump for directing him into "darkness." The Flynn case was active. The Mueller investigation was closing in. Trump posted at minimum five tweets this day spanning: Cohen, Flynn, "WITCH HUNT!", and now Mika Brzezinski. This is a **multi-target displacement burst** — redirecting accumulated legal anxiety across a variety of safer, more controllable narrative arenas. The Mika Brzezinski thread is the most removed from the legal threat; she represents the most accessible target (adversarial media figure) where Trump can exercise narrative control. --- ### Level 1 — Dispositional Traits (Big Five) **Dominant facets:** - **Very low agreeableness**: Contemptuous dismissal of MSNBC, zero charitable framing of Mika - **High assertiveness** (extraversion facet): Confident, declarative pronouncements; no hedging - **Low deliberation** (conscientiousness facet): The ratings tangent demonstrates impulsive digression — irrelevant but emotionally gratifying - **Angry hostility** (neuroticism facet): Present but modulated through a congratulatory frame The "despite their terrible ratings" insertion is a pure dominance reflex — logically disconnected from the central argument but serving as a credibility pre-emption of the source. This pattern (attack the messenger's reach/ratings as a devaluation move) is a recurring structural feature of Trump's authentic posts about media. --- ### Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations **Agency motives** dominate overwhelmingly over communion. The post enacts two agency moves simultaneously: 1. **Status maintenance**: Publicly praising Grenell rewards alliance behavior, functioning as transactional loyalty reinforcement. The praise is not private — it is performative, signaling to both Grenell and the broader audience what behaviors earn access to the Trump approval economy. 2. **Narrative control**: On a day when Trump's own legal apparatus was collapsing in public, this tweet shifts the story to media hypocrisy — a frame where Trump can position as an injured party rather than an accused party. **Schema (view of world):** Media is corrupt, biased, and powerful enough to grant or withhold accountability based on political affiliation. The "pass" metaphor implies an illegitimate authority structure that Trump is both subject to and fighting against. --- ### Level 3 — Narrative Identity **Protagonist role:** Warrior-Victim hybrid — simultaneously persecuted by double standards AND heroically aligned with "courageous" truth-tellers who fight the corrupt media establishment. **Narrative sequence:** Contamination — a good state (presumed fairness) has been corrupted by liberal media bias. Grenell's action offers a small redemptive counter-beat within an overall contamination narrative. **Identity claims:** - Champion of conservative fairness and equal media accountability - Recognizer and rewarder of courage (moral arbiter) - Embedded in a broader "they" system of liberal protection networks **Contrasting other:** Mika Brzezinski as avatar of the protected liberal media class. MSNBC as corrupt institutional enabler. --- ### Level 4 — Clinical Indicators #### Narcissistic Dynamics **Trigger:** Narcissistic injury — Mika Brzezinski used a reportedly offensive term on-air (from the preceding tweet context). The injury is mediated through the double-standard schema: the offense is less about the specific words and more about the perceived impunity with which they were delivered. **State:** Mixed grandiose/vulnerable oscillation — simultaneously the wronged party (vulnerable: "she will probably be given a pass") and the powerful patron praising courageous allies (grandiose: "our great Ambassador... for having the courage"). **Rage:** Present but modulated. Rather than direct expression, rage is sublimated into the alliance-praise format. The "horrible issue" label carries the emotional charge without explicit venting. Intensity moderate (~0.4); proportionality low (0.25) relative to trigger. #### Defense Mechanisms | Mechanism | Level | Evidence | |---|---|---| | **Displacement** | Immature | On Cohen sentencing day, anger redirected from existential legal threat to controllable media target | | **Splitting** | Immature | Grenell = courageous hero; Mika/MSNBC = corrupt villains requiring bravery to confront | | **Rationalization** | Neurotic | Double-standard argument transforms attack into principled media-fairness stance | #### Malignant Narcissism Component Assessment - **Narcissistic features**: High (0.65) — entitlement to media fairness, grandiosity in Grenell praise, punitive framing of Mika - **Antisocial features**: Low-moderate (0.25) — contempt for media norms but no explicit rule-breaking in this post - **Paranoid features**: Moderate (0.40) — "will probably be given a pass" reflects pervasive institutional conspiracy expectation - **Sadism**: Low (0.25) — present only implicitly in the delight at framing the double standard --- ### Rhetorical Analysis **Devices employed:** - **Non-sequitur credibility attack**: "despite their terrible ratings" — logically disconnected, functions as reflexive source devaluation before the audience can weigh Mika's credibility on its own terms - **Hyperbole**: "horrible issue," "great Ambassador," "courage" — all elevate stakes and flatten nuance - **Implied whataboutism**: The thread establishes a conservative-would-be-banned counterfactual as its argumentative foundation; this post completes the thought without restating it - **Public praise as transactional reward**: Naming Grenell with the @mention transforms a bilateral relationship into a public loyalty ritual **Propaganda techniques:** - **Media delegitimization** (ratings attack): Standard RAND Firehose adjacent — attacks source rather than content - **Double-standard narrative**: Frames asymmetric accountability as systemic, not incidental - **Alliance reinforcement**: Demonstrates that defending Trump's worldview earns visible public rewards **Dehumanizing language:** Absent in this specific post. **Violent imagery:** Absent. **Stochastic terrorism:** No indicators. --- ### Gaslighting & Reality Distortion **Gaslighting present.** The "terrible ratings" claim reverses documented reality — MSNBC experienced strong viewership growth throughout 2018, capitalizing on peak political news interest. Presenting this false claim as casual, self-evident fact is a characteristic Trumpian reality distortion: stated with such confidence that contradiction requires active fact-checking effort from the audience. The "given a pass" framing presents partisan media protection as obvious, pre-determined fact — foreclosing rather than inviting analysis. --- ### Cognitive Status **Complexity score:** 0.28 (low; consistent with established baseline for Twitter posts) **Baseline deviation:** None The only cognitive marker of note is the **mild tangentiality** in "despite their terrible ratings" — a parenthetical intrusion unconnected to the logical flow of the sentence. This is not a deviation from baseline; it is a recurrent structural feature of Trump's authentic posting style. **No deterioration indicators present.** --- ### Danger Assessment **Level: None** for this specific post. No dehumanizing language, no eliminationist rhetoric, no target-plus-grievance-plus-implied-action structure. The post's aggression is expressed through the alliance-praise format and media-criticism frame. **Context note:** The day-level multi-target posting burst indicates elevated psychological arousal consistent with acute stress, but not escalation toward dangerous rhetoric. --- ### Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "MSNBC has 'terrible ratings'" | **Mostly False** | MSNBC experienced consistent ratings growth throughout 2018, benefiting from peak political news demand. The characterization inverts the network's actual performance trajectory during this period. | | "Richard Grenell is U.S. Ambassador to Germany" | **True** | Grenell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to Germany in April 2018 and was serving in that role at time of posting. | | "A conservative using a similar term would be banned permanently from television (implied from thread)" | **Unverifiable** | Media consequences depend on network affiliation, context, advertiser pressure, and specific content. The counterfactual double-standard claim is not empirically testable from available evidence. | Overall Veracity: 57% ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 75%) ### Indicators - '......' thread-continuation format is a high-frequency authentic Trump signature - Non-sequitur 'terrible ratings' insertion mid-sentence — impulsive tangent inconsistent with aide composition style - Informal superlative praise of ally ('our great Ambassador') matches authentic Trump register - Emotional reactivity consistent with day's broader multi-tweet burst under legal stress - Business-hours timestamp (12:34 PM EST) is the primary aide-consistent indicator, but style overwhelms it ## Psychological Profile ### State **Mixed State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Criticism (Mika Brzezinski / MSNBC) **Rage:** Intensity 40% targeting Mika Brzezinski / MSNBC - Proportionality: 25% Sentiment: -0.30 **Mildly Hypomanic** - Multi-tweet burst across at least five posts on a single day spanning unrelated targets (Cohen, Flynn, Mika, Grenell) - Rapid emotional escalation from legal grievance to media attack within same session - Pressure-of-speech quality across day's posting sequence ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 65% - Antisocial: 25% - Paranoid: 40% - Sadism: 25% **Defense Mechanisms:** - displacement (immature) - splitting (immature) - rationalization (neurotic) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 28% Cognitive Markers: - tangentiality **Parasocial Techniques:** - Public performative ally-praise as transactional loyalty ritual - Shared grievance (conservative victimhood) as ingroup bonding mechanism - Outgroup vilification (MSNBC) as epistemic anchor for followers ## Danger Assessment **NONE** ### Gaslighting - 'Terrible ratings' presents a demonstrably false characterization as casual, self-evident fact - 'Will probably be given a pass' frames partisan media protection as pre-determined obvious reality, foreclosing rather than inviting analysis - The double-standard narrative asserts systemic media bias as established truth requiring no evidence ## Fact Checks (3) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-16._ > MSNBC has 'terrible ratings' **MOSTLY FALSE** MSNBC experienced consistent ratings growth throughout 2018, benefiting from peak political news demand. The characterization inverts the network's actual performance trajectory during this period. Sources: Nielsen Media Research 2018 cable news ratings > Richard Grenell is U.S. Ambassador to Germany **TRUE** Grenell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to Germany in April 2018 and was serving in that role at time of posting. Sources: U.S. Senate confirmation record, April 2018 > A conservative using a similar term would be banned permanently from television (implied from thread) **UNVERIFIABLE** Media consequences depend on network affiliation, context, advertiser pressure, and specific content. The counterfactual double-standard claim is not empirically testable from available evidence. Overall Veracity: 57% ## Tags - media-criticism (85%) - displacement (80%) - ally-praise-as-loyalty-ritual (70%) - whataboutism (65%) - ratings-attack (60%) - narcissistic-injury-response (60%) - media-delegitimization (75%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Cohen Sentencing Triggers Pre-Dawn Defensive Cascade, Escalating to Peak Rage Before Managed Afternoon Retreat** The day was dominated by Michael Cohen's sentencing to three years in prison, which clearly rattled Trump enough to post a defensive thread starting at 1:34 in the morning. The early hours featured rapid-fire attacks on Cohen's credibility, legally dubious "advice of counsel" arguments, and thinly veiled threats about Cohen's "great liability." Rage built through the morning, peaking with a two-word "WITCH HUNT!" eruption before being displaced onto Mika Brzezinski and the Flynn case. The afternoon shifted noticeably to polished, aide-written ceremonial posts — a governors' welcome, a National Guard birthday, a Fox interview plug — as though a communications team stepped in to normalize the feed after a volatile morning. Full digest for 2018-12-13: https://trump.fm/date/2018-12-13/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2018, December 13). ....She will probably be given a pass, despite... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "....She will probably be given a pass, despite their..." X (Twitter), 13 Dec. 2018. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "....She will probably be given a pass, despite their...," X (Twitter), December 13, 2018, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746. ## For agents - Site overview: https://trump.fm/llms.txt - API specification: https://trump.fm/openapi.json - MCP server: https://trump.fm/mcp (search and fetch tools, no auth) - This post as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/posts/x_1073269882911903746 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/x_1073269882911903746 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/x_1073269882911903746 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2018-12-13 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/x_1073269882911903746.md?analysis=false _Markdown view of a trump.fm page. Post, analysis, date, feed, contradictions, search and about pages answer in markdown at their URL with `.md` appended (`/index.md` for the home page), or when sent `Accept: text/markdown`._