# Post x_1297344504111018000

- Post ID: `x_1297344504111018000`
- Platform: X (Twitter)
- Posted: 2020-08-23T05:26:47.000Z (UTC)
- Deleted: no
- Repost: no
- Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000
- Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000/analysis
- Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1297344504111018000.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording)

## Post text

> Now they’re trying to deny this, but they can’t! https://t.co/vNW3I3pPNK

## Engagement

- Likes: 0
- Reposts: 47,022
- Replies: 0
- Views: unknown
- Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:33:24.837Z (UTC)

# Analysis

_Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-19T10:13:24.253Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._

## Summary

Posted at 1:26 AM local time (Bedminster, NJ), this is authentic Trump responding to scientific criticism of the FDA's emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma — announced hours earlier and immediately contested by prominent researchers. The post's nine operative words compress his standard defensive apparatus: undefined antagonists ("they"), bad-faith framing of legitimate criticism ("trying to deny"), and preemptive triumph assertion ("but they can't"). The URL, which failed to resolve, almost certainly linked to the plasma announcement or related coverage. Psychologically, the post reflects a grandiose narcissistic state responding to a narcissistic injury: Trump had publicly declared a "historic breakthrough" at a White House briefing, and scientists immediately undermined the claim. Rather than engaging the science, he deploys splitting (authorization=all-good; critics=deniers), distortion (skepticism=bad faith), and denial (authorization document=proof of efficacy). The late-night timing, reactive monitoring of criticism, and emphatic close reveal a threat-response dynamic beneath the triumphalist surface. No deterioration markers are present; this post is entirely consistent with documented 2020 baseline patterns. Danger level is none. The primary clinical note is the precision of the epistemic closure: by framing all scientific disagreement as "denial," the post immunizes followers against countervailing expert evidence before it reaches them.

# Analysis: "Now they're trying to deny this, but they can't!" — August 23, 2020

## Authorship Attribution

**Verdict: High confidence authentic Trump.** The post was published at 05:26 UTC, which is **1:26 AM EDT** — Trump was almost certainly at Bedminster, NJ (his customary August residence, same timezone). This falls squarely within the late-night/early-morning window associated with his unmediated personal posting behavior. The stylistic profile is textbook authentic: a combative sentence fragment reliant on an undefined pronoun antecedent ("they," "this"), a triumphalist exclamation point close, and complete dependence on an external URL for semantic grounding — a hallmark of his impulsive stream-of-consciousness mode. No aide-drafted post would be so contextually opaque without the link.

## Contextual Reconstruction

The linked URL (t.co/vNW3I3pPNK) failed to resolve, but contextual triangulation is high-confidence. The sole significant event on August 23, 2020 directly connected to the "deny this, but they can't" framing is the **FDA Emergency Use Authorization for convalescent plasma**, which Trump announced at a White House briefing earlier that day on the eve of the Republican National Convention. He described it as a "historic breakthrough." Within hours, prominent scientists — including former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch — publicly stated that the data did not clearly meet authorization thresholds, and reports emerged that career FDA scientists had expressed concern that the authorization was politically pressured. "They" = the scientific/media critics. "This" = the plasma authorization announcement. "Can't deny" = the claim that it represents a genuine medical breakthrough.

## Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

**Dominant facets in this post:**

- **Low Agreeableness / High Antagonism**: The adversarial framing is pure combative Trump. There is no acknowledgment of legitimate scientific uncertainty; criticism is reframed as motivated denial.
- **Low Conscientiousness (deliberation)**: The post is impulsive and context-stripping — it only makes sense if you already know the referent. There is no explanatory scaffolding.
- **High Extraversion (assertiveness)**: The emphatic "but they can't!" is a dominance display, not a measured response.
- **Neuroticism (angry hostility)**: The temporal urgency ("Now they're trying...") suggests a reactive monitoring of media/critics in real time, at 1 AM.

## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations — Motives and Schemas

**Dominant motive: Agency / Power / Status.** The post is a claim of victory over unnamed opposition. It does not seek communion or common ground.

**Schema revealed:** The world is divided into actors who validate (supporters, FDA officials who complied) and actors who "deny" (scientists, media critics). Denial is framed not as legitimate scientific disagreement but as a deliberate, motivated attempt to undermine — and Trump's victory is that this attempt is futile ("can't"). This schema — that all opposition is bad-faith denial that reality will inevitably refute — is consistent with a paranoid world-view combined with grandiose certainty.

**Trigger type:** Mixed — primarily **supply-seeking** (craving validation of the plasma announcement as a triumph) with a **narcissistic-injury-response** component (the injury being scientists publicly undermining what he had just declared a "historic breakthrough" in front of cameras).

## Level 3: Narrative Identity

**Protagonist role:** The Vindicated Fighter. Trump casts himself implicitly as the agent whose breakthrough "they" cannot suppress, though the post is formally about the FDA authorization rather than himself. The passive-aggressive structure ("they can't") keeps him nominally in the background while asserting dominance.

**Narrative sequence:** This is a **redemption micro-arc** compressed into a single sentence: *They tried to deny it (contamination threat) → but they can't (redemption/victory).* The arc is foreclosed before the challenge fully materializes — preemptive triumph.

**Identity claim:** "I deliver results that the establishment cannot suppress, even when they try." This is consistent with his core identity narrative throughout 2020 (dealmaker/fighter against corrupt institutions).

**Contrasting other:** "They" — unnamed scientific/media establishment figures who are motivated deniers, not honest skeptics.

## Level 4: Clinical Indicators

### Narcissistic Dynamics

**State: Grandiose**, with mild underlying vulnerability. The post asserts dominance but the urgency of "Now they're trying" reveals he is actively monitoring criticism and experiencing it as a threat requiring immediate rebuttal — even at 1 AM.

**Narcissistic rage:** Absent in explicit form, but the "can't!" carries a suppressed intensity. This is not calm confidence; it is defensive triumphalism.

**Proportionality:** The response is disproportionate in timing (1 AM) and absolutism ("can't") relative to what was a legitimate scientific debate about evidentiary thresholds for emergency authorization.

### Defense Mechanisms

**Splitting (immature):** The plasma authorization is all-good (historic breakthrough); those questioning it are all-bad (deniers). There is no acknowledgment of scientific nuance — partial efficacy data, the threshold question, the career FDA scientists' concerns. Everything is binary.

**Distortion (pathological):** Scientific skepticism — a normative epistemic stance — is recast as deliberate denial with political motivation. This distorts external reality to fit the inner need for validation.

**Denial (pathological):** The "can't deny" assertion refuses to engage with the substance of criticism. The existence of a signed authorization document is treated as proof of medical efficacy — a category error that functions defensively.

### Malignant Narcissism Assessment

| Component | Evidence | Score |
|-----------|----------|-------|
| Narcissistic features | Grandiosity ("historic breakthrough"), entitlement to triumph | 0.75 |
| Antisocial features | Framing critics as motivated bad actors; potential politicization of FDA | 0.45 |
| Paranoid features | "They're trying to deny" — persecution schema active at 1 AM | 0.65 |
| Ego-syntonic sadism | Minimal in this post | 0.15 |

### Cognitive Status

**Within normal range for this subject's established baseline.** The post is brief and context-dependent, but coherent and goal-directed. The pronoun-antecedent gap ("this," "they") is a habitual stylistic pattern, not a new cognitive failure. No phonemic or semantic paraphasia. No temporal confusion. Vocabulary is simple but contextually appropriate. **No deterioration signal in this post.**

## Rhetorical Analysis

**Devices employed:**
- **Adversarial framing with undefined antagonist ("they")**: Creates a vast, shapeless enemy without requiring specification. Any listener can project their own feared "they" onto the post.
- **Triumphalist pre-emption**: "Can't" forecloses debate before it occurs, asserting victory over an ongoing process.
- **Temporal urgency ("Now")**: Implies real-time threat monitoring and rapid response — projects vigilance and dominance.
- **Cliffhanger structure**: The post only makes sense with the URL, pulling followers to click — engagement optimization, whether intentional or instinctive.

**Propaganda techniques:** Minimal in this micro-post, but the "deny/can't deny" binary is a weak-form **false dichotomy** — framing the situation as either accepting Trump's claim entirely or being a bad-faith denier.

**Dehumanizing language:** Absent.  
**Violent imagery:** Absent.  
**Stochastic terrorism indicators:** Absent.

## Gaslighting Assessment

**Mild gaslighting present.** The "they're trying to deny this" construction attacks the credibility of those raising scientific concerns. By framing skepticism as "denial," Trump preemptively delegitimizes any contrary evidence or expert opinion — a reality-distortion technique that asks followers to accept that official authorization *is* proof of efficacy, and that scientists who disagree are deniers rather than experts.

## Fact Verification

| Claim | Verdict | Evidence |
|-------|---------|----------|
| "The convalescent plasma authorization represents an undeniable medical breakthrough that critics cannot legitimately contest" | **Mostly False** | The FDA EUA issued August 23, 2020 was based on observational data showing modest benefit in specific subgroups. Career FDA scientists, NIH Director Francis Collins, and NIAID Director Anthony Fauci all expressed reservations about the evidence base. A larger randomized trial had not yet completed. Critics raising concerns were doing so on legitimate evidentiary grounds, not bad-faith denial. |

Overall Veracity: 20%

## Hypomanic Indicators

**Mild.** The post is one of several in rapid succession on the same day — a Lou Dobbs book promotion, drug pricing announcement, Fox News appearance plug, Biden attack, and this plasma post. Posting across multiple subjects at 1 AM is consistent with the low-sleep, high-output pattern documented in Trump's presidency. Not sufficient for "moderate" rating in isolation, but contextually consistent with the hypomanic baseline observed throughout 2020.

## Summary

This post is almost certainly authentic Trump, posted at 1:26 AM local time during his customary late-night Twitter session. Contextual reconstruction places it as a triumphalist response to scientific criticism of the FDA's emergency authorization for convalescent plasma — announced that day and immediately challenged by prominent researchers questioning whether the data met authorization thresholds.

The psychological structure is compact but characteristic: an undefined antagonist ("they") engaged in bad-faith denial of an undeniable victory ("can't"). This pattern — splitting critics into deniers, distorting legitimate scientific skepticism as motivated opposition, and asserting preemptive triumph at 1 AM — reflects the core malignant narcissistic configuration: grandiosity, paranoid schema, and pathological reality distortion deployed in the service of managing a perceived narcissistic injury (scientists publicly undermining his "historic breakthrough" announcement).

The post is not clinically significant by deviation from baseline — it is entirely consistent with documented Trump patterns throughout 2020. What is notable is the precision with which it compresses his standard defensive apparatus into nine words plus a URL: adversarial framing, victory assertion, reality distortion, and engagement hook, deployed in a single impulsive sentence at 1 AM.

## Authorship Analysis

**Self-Written** (score: 90%)

### Indicators

- Posted at 1:26 AM EDT local time (Bedminster NJ, UTC-4), deep in authentic late-night window
- Pronoun without antecedent ('they', 'this') — contextually opaque without URL, classic authentic impulsive style
- Combative, triumphalist, exclamatory — emotional reactivity inconsistent with aide drafting
- No polished grammar scaffolding or explanatory context; no event announcement structure
- Stream-of-consciousness brevity; fully URL-dependent for meaning

## Psychological Profile

### State

**Grandiose State**

**Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Criticism (Scientists and media critics publicly questioning FDA convalescent plasma authorization as politically motivated and insufficiently evidenced)

Sentiment: +0.45

**Mildly Hypomanic**
- One of multiple posts across diverse topics at 1:26 AM local time
- Rapid-fire posting pattern across day (Fox News plug, drug pricing, Biden attack, Dobbs book, this post)
- Exclamatory, emphatic close ('can't!') — elevated affective tone
- Consistent with documented low-sleep high-output pattern throughout 2020 presidency

### Clinical

**Malignant Narcissism:**
- Narcissistic: 75%
- Antisocial: 45%
- Paranoid: 65%
- Sadism: 15%

**Defense Mechanisms:**
- splitting (immature)
- distortion (pathological)
- denial (pathological)

**Cognitive Complexity:**
- Complexity: 22%

**Parasocial Techniques:**
- Cliffhanger URL structure requiring click engagement
- Undefined 'they' allows each follower to project their own feared establishment figure
- Triumphalist 'can't' invites followers to share in the victory

## Danger Assessment

**NONE**

### Gaslighting

- Frames scientific skepticism as 'denial' — attacks credibility of legitimate expert concern
- Preemptive delegitimization: 'trying to deny' positions any counter-evidence as bad-faith before it is even articulated
- Implies that a signed authorization document is self-evidently proof of efficacy, collapsing the regulatory/scientific distinction

## Fact Checks (1)

_The model's verdicts from 2026-03-19._

> The convalescent plasma authorization represents an undeniable medical breakthrough that critics cannot legitimately contest

**MOSTLY FALSE**

The FDA EUA issued August 23, 2020 was based on observational data showing modest benefit in specific subgroups. Career FDA scientists, NIH Director Francis Collins, and NIAID Director Anthony Fauci all expressed reservations about the evidence base. A larger randomized trial had not yet completed. Critics raising concerns were doing so on legitimate evidentiary grounds, not bad-faith denial.

Sources: FDA Emergency Use Authorization for Convalescent Plasma, August 23 2020; Public statements by Collins and Fauci post-authorization; Later NIH evidence review acknowledging data limitations

Overall Veracity: 20%

## Tags

- convalescent_plasma (85%)
- FDA_EUA (80%)
- scientific_skepticism_delegitimized (75%)
- late_night_authentic (90%)
- undefined_antagonist (80%)
- grandiose_state (70%)
- epistemic_closure (75%)
- narcissistic_injury_response (65%)
- splitting (70%)
- RNC_eve (60%)

## That day

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

**RNC Eve: Achievement Staging Undercut by Election Fraud Groundwork and a Closing Flash of Polling Anxiety**

The day before the Republican National Convention was a staging exercise mixing self-congratulation with grievance. Trump spent the late evening attacking mail-in voting as fraudulent and promoting policy achievements, then pivoted to law-and-order rhetoric about urban protests and culture-war appeals about religion through the afternoon. The most revealing moment came at day's end, when a rare hedge -- "I think I'm leading in the Polls!" -- briefly exposed genuine uncertainty beneath hours of confident bluster. Notably absent from the entire day: any mention of Jacob Blake, shot by police in Kenosha that same afternoon.

Full digest for 2020-08-23: https://trump.fm/date/2020-08-23/analysis

## Citation

- APA: Trump, D. J. (2020, August 23). Now they’re trying to deny this, but they can’t!... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000
- MLA: Trump, Donald J. "Now they’re trying to deny this, but they can’t!..." X (Twitter), 23 Aug. 2020. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
- Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "Now they’re trying to deny this, but they can’t!...," X (Twitter), August 23, 2020, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000.

## 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_1297344504111018000
- Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/x_1297344504111018000
- All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/x_1297344504111018000
- Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2020-08-23
- The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/x_1297344504111018000.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`._