Analysis: The reason the DACA for Wall deal didn’t get done was that a...

7y ago Dec 27, 2018 at 12:35 PM

Deleted

The reason the DACA for Wall deal didn’t get done was that a ridiculous court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain, thereby setting up a Supteme Court case. After ruling, Dems dropped deal - and that’s where we are today, Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall.

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-16. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Vulnerable

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

48%

Composed at ~7:35 AM Eastern (Dec 27, 2018), one day after Trump's return from the Iraq troop visit, this post represents reactive narrative management during the opening days of what would become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The 'Supteme Court' typo and early-morning timing confirm authentic authorship with high confidence. The post's central psychological function is blame externalization following narcissistic injury: sixteen days earlier, Trump publicly declared on live television 'I am proud to shut down the government for border security.' By December 27, that ownership had become politically costly, and this post constructs a retroactive causal chain (9th Circuit ruling → Democrats opportunistically drop deal → shutdown) that reassigns causation entirely to external actors. This is a textbook DARVO pattern: the party who self-declared ownership of the shutdown positions himself as victim of Democratic obstruction. Multiple defense mechanisms are active simultaneously — rationalization (legalistic causal chain), displacement (blame redirected from self to courts), and denial (documented December 11 statement absent from the narrative). The vulnerable narcissistic state is evident in the backward-looking, defensive structure. Unlike grandiose posts that project dominance, this post explains failure — a reliable indicator of narcissistic injury in the underlying record. Cognitively, the post is within established baseline; the 'Supteme' error reflects rapid typing rather than production-stage language impairment. Danger level is none; rhetoric is political grievance without eliminationist or mobilizing content.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

'Supteme Court' typo — unreviewed rapid typing characteristic of authentic Trump
12:35 UTC = ~7:35 AM Eastern (DC/Mar-a-Lago) — early morning consistent with Trump's documented pre-staff wakeup tweet window
Stream-of-consciousness causal chain ('After ruling, Dems dropped deal - and that's where we are today') without editorial polish
Grievance-forwarding style with blame cascade — signature authentic pattern
Dash punctuation and sentence fragmentation match authenticated Trump cadence

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Vulnerable State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Government shutdown — public accountability for border wall failure)

Sentiment

-0.45

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

60%

Antisocial

30%

Paranoid

45%

Sadism

10%

Defense Mechanisms:

rationalizationprojectiondisplacementdenial

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

42%

Cognitive Markers:

phonemic paraphasia

Parasocial Techniques:

Insider framing — offers followers an explanatory narrative unavailable in mainstream coverageVictimhood invitation — positions Trump and followers as wronged by unelected judges and obstructionist Democrats

Danger Assessment

None

Gaslighting Detected:

Omits Trump's own televised declaration of shutdown ownership ('I am proud to shut down the government') from December 11, 2018 — a documented public statement being retroactively erased from the narrative
DARVO structure: Trump (who declared shutdown pride) positions himself as victim of Democratic obstruction
Rapid revisionism — 16 days after owning the shutdown, constructs narrative in which the shutdown was caused by external actors

Reality Distortions:

Causal inversion: shutdown attributed to Democratic behavior when Trump publicly claimed ownership on December 11
Selective chronology: 9th Circuit ruling cited as precipitating event while Trump's rejection of Graham-Durbin bipartisan framework in January 2018 is omitted
'Dems dropped deal' — implies Democrats were the party unwilling to negotiate; contemporaneous reporting and Trump's own statements contradict this framing

Fact Checks (3)

"A court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain"

Mostly True

Federal district judge William Alsup (N.D. Cal.) issued a nationwide injunction in January 2018 blocking DACA rescission; the 9th Circuit affirmed in November 2018. The Supreme Court did ultimately take the case (DHS v. Regents, decided June 2020). The characterization of it as a '9th Circuit decision' slightly compresses the procedural history but is substantively accurate.

"After the ruling, Democrats dropped the DACA-for-Wall deal"

Mostly False

This causal sequence is disputed and self-serving. The January 2018 DACA negotiations collapsed primarily because Trump rejected a bipartisan Senate deal (the Graham-Durbin framework) after reported 'shithole countries' remarks. Democrats and some Republicans attributed the breakdown to Trump's shifting demands, not exclusively to the court ruling removing their urgency. The court ruling did reduce Democratic leverage pressure to act, but characterizing it as the singular cause of Dems 'dropping' the deal omits Trump's own role in rejecting proposals.

"The current impasse is Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall"

Mostly False

Trump publicly stated on December 11, 2018 in televised Oval Office meeting with Pelosi and Schumer: 'I am proud to shut down the government for border security.' This documented statement directly contradicts the 'Democrat obstruction' framing as the primary cause of the shutdown.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Psychological Analysis: Trump Tweet, December 27, 2018

Authorship Attribution — HIGH CONFIDENCE: AUTHENTIC TRUMP

Local time: 12:35 UTC = 7:35 AM Eastern (Trump had returned to U.S. from Iraq/Germany; almost certainly in Washington DC or traveling back).

The 7:35 AM local timestamp places this in Trump's documented pre-staff self-composition window. More decisive is the 'Supteme Court' transposition error — a letter omission in a high-frequency word that appears almost exclusively in authenticated early-morning Trump posts. Aide-drafted content is proofread; this error type is a reliable marker of unreviewed personal composition. The stream-of-consciousness causal chain structure and grievance-forwarding style further confirm authenticity.

Contextual Frame

This post was composed during the opening days of the government shutdown Trump had publicly declared ownership of on December 11, 2018 ('I am proud to shut down the government for border security'). By December 27, that declaration had become politically costly as market turmoil, Mattis's resignation, and the shutdown's impact on ~800,000 federal workers dominated coverage. The post is best understood as crisis narrative management.

Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

The post foregrounds low agreeableness (adversarial framing, blame allocation), high neuroticism (angry hostility in controlled form), and low openness (rigid us/them causation, no acknowledgment of complexity). Assertiveness (high extraversion) is present but subdued compared to grandiose-state posts — the tone is argumentative rather than triumphalist.

Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

Agency motives are dominant: the post is structured entirely around regaining control of the shutdown narrative and reassigning causal agency to external actors. Communion motives are absent — there is no audience warmth or in-group affirmation (contrast with the Christmas tweets). The underlying schema on display: I offered a reasonable deal; the system and opponents conspired to prevent it.

Level 3: Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Wronged dealmaker. Trump casts himself as having offered a fair exchange (DACA protection for wall funding) that was sabotaged by an unelected judiciary and opportunistic Democrats.

Narrative sequence: Contamination — a potential good outcome (bipartisan DACA/Wall deal) was corrupted by external actors (court ruling → Democratic defection).

Contrasting other: Democrats (opportunistic, obstructionist) and the 9th Circuit ('ridiculous').

Identity claims: Reasonable negotiator; defender of border security against institutional obstruction.

Level 4: Clinical Analysis

Narcissistic Dynamics

State: Vulnerable narcissism. The post's backward-looking, explanatory structure is a reliable indicator of narcissistic injury — grandiose-state posts project dominance forward, not defensive explanations backward.

Trigger: Narcissistic injury via public accountability exposure. The shutdown Trump publicly claimed pride in was generating significant political and economic damage by December 27. The post attempts to retroactively reassign ownership.

DARVO Pattern (Active):

Deny: The post's causal narrative implicitly denies Trump's own agency in the shutdown
Attack: '9th Circuit ridiculous,' 'Democrat obstruction'
Reverse Victim and Offender: Trump (shutdown declarer) repositioned as victim of Democratic obstruction

Defense Mechanisms

Mechanism	Level	Evidence
Rationalization	Neurotic	Legalistic causal chain provides logical cover for political failure
Displacement	Neurotic	Blame redirected from self to courts and Democrats
Projection	Immature	'Democrat obstruction' attributes unreasonable intransigence to opposing party while omitting own Dec. 11 declaration
Denial	Pathological	Post entirely excises documented Dec. 11 shutdown declaration from narrative

Gaslighting Assessment

PRESENT. The post's core rhetorical act is erasure of a documented public statement. Trump's December 11 Oval Office declaration ('I am proud to shut down the government') was televised and widely reported. Sixteen days later, this post constructs a narrative in which Democrats are the obstructing party causing the shutdown — a direct inversion of the documented record. This is deliberate reality revision, not cognitive confabulation.

Rhetorical Analysis

Causal chain construction is the primary technique: court ruling → Democrats abandon deal → shutdown. Each step in the chain is individually plausible but the chain as a whole is constructed to exclude Trump's agency. The 'ridiculous' modifier on the court decision pre-emptively delegitimizes judicial authority without substantive argument. Passive construction ('deal didn't get done') obscures active agency. 'Wall' capitalization throughout maintains brand salience.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"A court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain"	Mostly True	Federal district judge William Alsup (N.D. Cal.) issued a nationwide injunction in January 2018 blocking DACA rescission; the 9th Circuit affirmed in November 2018. The Supreme Court did ultimately take the case (DHS v. Regents, decided June 2020). The characterization of it as a '9th Circuit decision' slightly compresses the procedural history but is substantively accurate.
"After the ruling, Democrats dropped the DACA-for-Wall deal"	Mostly False	This causal sequence is disputed and self-serving. The January 2018 DACA negotiations collapsed primarily because Trump rejected a bipartisan Senate deal (the Graham-Durbin framework) after reported 'shithole countries' remarks. Democrats and some Republicans attributed the breakdown to Trump's shifting demands, not exclusively to the court ruling removing their urgency. The court ruling did reduce Democratic leverage pressure to act, but characterizing it as the singular cause of Dems 'dropping' the deal omits Trump's own role in rejecting proposals.
"The current impasse is Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall"	Mostly False	Trump publicly stated on December 11, 2018 in televised Oval Office meeting with Pelosi and Schumer: 'I am proud to shut down the government for border security.' This documented statement directly contradicts the 'Democrat obstruction' framing as the primary cause of the shutdown.

Overall Veracity: 40%

Cognitive Status

Within established 2018 baseline. The 'Supteme Court' error is a typing artifact, not a production-stage linguistic marker. Logical sequencing, syntactic complexity, and vocabulary are consistent with authenticated Trump compositions from this period. No clinical cognitive markers present.

Order/Chaos Dynamics

The post positions Trump as order restorer blocked by a corrupt system (9th Circuit, Democratic opportunism). The Wall functions as the symbolic order-restoration object. The shutdown itself — a state of chaos Trump created and declared pride in — is reframed as Democratic-imposed disorder.

Danger Assessment: NONE

No eliminationist language, dehumanization, violent imagery, or mobilization rhetoric. Standard political grievance framing.