# Post x_1305144292109774800 - Post ID: `x_1305144292109774800` - Platform: X (Twitter) - Posted: 2020-09-13T18:00:22.000Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1305144292109774800 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1305144292109774800/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1305144292109774800.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > In the highly competitive world of high tech, how come nobody has ever challenged Mini Mike Bloomberg and his very average, & supposedly outdated, “stuff” that he sells to so many? Did he use his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly? Just askin’? ## Engagement - Likes: 0 - Reposts: 21,663 - Replies: 0 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:33:24.803Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-19T14:42:19.967Z (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 deploys Trump's signature 'just asking questions' (JAQ) technique against Bloomberg — a series of rhetorical questions insinuating antitrust corruption while maintaining plausible deniability via the closing 'Just askin'?' The most clinically notable feature is projection: the accusation that Bloomberg weaponized his mayoral office to entrench a private monopoly mirrors precisely the allegations leveled at Trump throughout his presidency regarding presidential power and Trump Organization benefit. The chronological impossibility (Bloomberg LP was founded 21 years before Bloomberg's mayoralty) is ignored to construct the corruption narrative. Contextually, this post appears on the same day as the Woodward 'Rage' revelations — Trump's admission of deliberately downplaying COVID's lethality — representing a severe narcissistic injury (exposure, loss of control over self-narrative). Multiple Bloomberg attacks in a single day suggest displacement: aggression redirected from an inescapable threat to a manageable, mockable former rival. The post is authentic Trump by every stylometric measure: 'Mini Mike,' 'Just askin'?', and the scare-quoted 'stuff' are personal lexical signatures. Psychological state is grandiose rather than vulnerable — Trump performs as knowing populist questioner rather than wounded victim. Danger level for this specific post is none, though same-day companion posts warrant separate assessment. ## Analysis: Trump Tweet on Bloomberg, 2020-09-13T18:00:22Z ### Overview This post exemplifies Trump's "just asking questions" (JAQ) rhetorical maneuver — a technique for transmitting conspiratorial innuendo through rhetorical questions while maintaining plausible deniability via the closing "Just askin'?" The target is Mike Bloomberg, a defeated rival who nevertheless continues to generate strong emotional responses across multiple same-day tweets. Composed as layered insinuations rather than direct assertion, the post reveals a characteristic blend of grandiosity, devaluation, and projection. --- ### Authorship Attribution **Local time:** UTC 18:00 = ~2:00 PM EDT (Trump most plausibly in Eastern time zone on September 13, 2020, as the Freeland, Michigan rally was during this period, with the Henderson Nevada rally occurring September 13–14). Even if en route to Nevada, 18:00 UTC represents mid-afternoon — business hours by any measure. Despite the timing signature of aide-written content, stylometric analysis strongly favors authentic Trump: - Established, personally-maintained nickname "Mini Mike" (used consistently across Trump's own posts) - "Just askin'?" — a signature Trump closing construction, appearing in dozens of authenticated personal tweets - Scare quotes around "stuff" — colloquial dismissiveness inconsistent with aide communication style - Hedging qualifier "supposedly" alongside mockery — characteristic Trump ambiguity-with-contempt - Syntactically fragmented rhetorical questions with connective tissue ("how come," "Did he") matching authentic stream-of-consciousness pattern - Companion Bloomberg post the same day with similar stylometry reinforces a personal Bloomberg fixation episode **Authorship verdict:** Authentic Trump, high confidence. The mid-afternoon timing is overridden by strong stylometric markers. Aides do not write "Just askin'?" or deploy "Mini Mike" with this ironic inflection. --- ### Psychological State and Triggers **Trigger:** Multi-layered. Primary trigger appears to be Bloomberg's continued financial presence in Democratic politics — the Biden outspending Trump 5-to-1 story (reporting a Biden campaign that spent $120M vs. Trump's $28M, with Bloomberg money flowing into Democratic infrastructure) would register as both a threat and a narcissistic injury. Secondary trigger: Bloomberg as a persistent representational foil — a billionaire who attempted to buy the presidency, publicly humiliated himself at the debates, and represents the New York elite world that Trump emerged from and alternately courts and attacks. **Deeper context — displacement:** The Woodward "Rage" revelations dropped in this exact window, with explosive reporting that Trump had privately admitted COVID was "deadly stuff" and chose to downplay it. These revelations represent a severe narcissistic injury: exposure, truth-telling by a credible journalist using Trump's own words, proof of dishonesty. The Bloomberg attacks across the same day function psychologically as displacement — turning the subject's aggressive energies toward a manageable, mockable target (a defeated rival) rather than engaging the genuinely threatening Woodward material. **Narcissistic state:** Primarily grandiose. Trump positions himself as a knowing interrogator, the man who sees what others won't say. The "Just askin'?" frames him as a populist truth-teller asking the questions the corrupt media won't. This is expansive rather than wounded — though the multiplicity of Bloomberg posts in a single day suggests obsessive return, which is more consistent with underlying narcissistic injury than pure grandiosity. --- ### Personality Framework (McAdams & Pals) **Level 1 — Dispositional Traits:** - *Low agreeableness*: The "Mini Mike" nickname (referencing Bloomberg's height) is a persistent devaluation, disrespectful and contemptuous. "Very average" and "supposedly outdated" dismiss Bloomberg's substantial business achievement with casual cruelty. - *Low conscientiousness*: The rhetorical question structure allows the post to be legally non-assertive — a deliberate avoidance of accountability. - *High extraversion/assertiveness*: The confident public targeting of a billionaire is characteristically uninhibited. - *Elevated neuroticism*: The multiple Bloomberg posts in one day suggests hostile rumination. **Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations:** - *Agency motives dominate*: The post is about power — who used power to create monopoly, who can challenge whom, who is dominant in "highly competitive" tech. Bloomberg is being accused of Trump's own characteristic move: leveraging official position for business advantage. - *Status schema*: Bloomberg represents threatening parity — another billionaire, another New Yorker, another media figure. The "Mini Mike" framing restores vertical distance. **Level 3 — Narrative Identity:** - *Protagonist role*: The knowing questioner, the anti-corruption exposer, the man who asks what others are afraid to ask. - *Contrasting other*: Bloomberg as corrupt establishment figure who used political power for personal enrichment — a shadow projection. - *Contamination sequence implied*: Bloomberg "spent almost 2 Billion Dollars" (companion post) and despite resources and power, fell because of corruption and mediocrity. The "save NYC instead" line repositions Bloomberg as civic failure. - *Identity claim*: Trump presents himself as champion of competitive markets against monopolistic corruption — a claim deeply incongruous with his history of regulatory capture allegations. --- ### Defense Mechanisms **Projection (immature, Level 2) — primary defense:** The accusation that Bloomberg weaponized his mayoral office to build a monopoly is a textbook projection. Trump himself faces sustained, documented allegations of using the presidency to benefit Trump Organization properties (Mar-a-Lago hosting, hotel promotions, foreign government patronage). The specific form of the accusation — did you use your *public office* to entrench your *private business*? — mirrors exactly what Trump is simultaneously accused of. High confidence. **Rationalization (neurotic, Level 3):** The "Just askin'?" framing retroactively justifies the defamatory insinuation as innocent inquiry. This is a post-hoc protection mechanism — the accusation has been made; the closing question mark signals "but I didn't say it." **Displacement (neurotic, Level 3):** As noted, attacking Bloomberg while the Woodward revelations are the dominant environmental stressor. **Devaluation (immature, Level 2):** "Mini Mike," "very average," "supposedly outdated" — these are swift, contemptuous dismissals of a formidable business achievement (Bloomberg LP/Bloomberg Terminal is widely regarded as the dominant professional financial data platform globally). --- ### Rhetorical Techniques **"Just asking questions" (JAQ):** The post's central mechanism. Rhetorical questions allow accusation without assertion — legally, reputationally, and epistemically deniable. "Did he use his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly?" is not a neutral inquiry; it assumes the possibility of monopoly and public corruption while sheltering under the grammar of questioning. **Nickname diminution:** "Mini Mike" invokes body-based mockery with a long history in Trump's lexicon. The nickname serves multiple functions: dehumanization, status reduction, and audience signaling (a cue that Bloomberg can be laughed at, not feared). **Scare quotes on "stuff":** The word "stuff" — dismissive, vague, deliberately unprestigious — denies Bloomberg's products their proper names (Bloomberg Terminal, Bloomberg data, Bloomberg News), stripping them of specificity and value. **Faux populism:** Framing a billionaire-vs-billionaire attack as concern about monopoly in "the highly competitive world of high tech" invokes consumer protection language while the actual motivation is personal rivalry. **Epistemic hedging as insinuation:** "Supposedly outdated" simultaneously makes the claim (the technology is outdated) and disclaims it (someone else said so). The hedge makes the attack more insidious, not less. **Whataboutism (structural):** In the context of the Woodward revelations, the Bloomberg attack functions as a structural redirect — "don't look at me, look at him." --- ### Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Nobody has ever challenged Bloomberg's financial data business" | **False** | Bloomberg LP faces meaningful competition from Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk), FactSet, S&P Capital IQ, and others. The professional financial data market has multiple significant players. | | "Bloomberg's technology is 'very average' and 'supposedly outdated'" | **Mostly False** | Bloomberg Terminal is widely regarded as the dominant and premium professional financial data platform. While the UI/UX is frequently criticized as dated, the underlying data product is industry-leading. 'Very average' is contradicted by its persistent market-leading position. | | "Bloomberg used his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly" | **Mostly False** | Bloomberg LP was founded in 1981. Bloomberg became Mayor of New York in January 2002 — 21 years after the company's founding. The company achieved dominant market position well before any mayoral tenure. The causal claim is historically inverted. | | "Bloomberg's mayoral position gave him ability to create a monopoly in 'high tech'" | **False** | Bloomberg LP is a financial data and media company, not conventionally classified as a 'high tech' company in the sense of Silicon Valley technology firms. The framing misrepresents the industry segment. | Overall Veracity: 10% ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 88%) ### Indicators - 'Mini Mike' is a personally-maintained nickname used consistently in authenticated Trump posts - 'Just askin'?' is a signature closing construction with documented high frequency in authentic Trump tweets - Scare quotes around 'stuff' — colloquial dismissiveness inconsistent with aide voice - 'Supposedly' as hedging qualifier while mocking — characteristic Trump ambiguity-with-contempt pattern - Syntactically fragmented rhetorical questions matching Trump's stream-of-consciousness baseline ## Psychological Profile ### State **Grandiose State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Woodward 'Rage' revelations (displacement onto Bloomberg); Biden outspending Trump 5-to-1 with Bloomberg money flowing into Democratic infrastructure) Sentiment: -0.45 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 82% - Antisocial: 55% - Paranoid: 38% - Sadism: 35% **Defense Mechanisms:** - projection (immature) - rationalization (neurotic) - displacement (neurotic) - devaluation (immature) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 38% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Faux populist consumer protection framing ('highly competitive world of high tech') - Complicity construction — audience invited to share the 'just asking' conspiracy - Nickname as audience in-group signal: if you use 'Mini Mike' you are with Trump ## Danger Assessment **NONE** ### Gaslighting - 'Just askin'?' frames defamatory accusations as neutral inquiry — audience manipulation of epistemic status - 'Supposedly' outsources the accusation to unnamed others while Trump transmits it fully — epistemic shell game - Framing Bloomberg's actual market-leading products as 'very average' and 'outdated' inverts documented reality **Dehumanizing Language Present** ## Fact Checks (4) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-19._ > Nobody has ever challenged Bloomberg's financial data business **FALSE** Bloomberg LP faces meaningful competition from Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk), FactSet, S&P Capital IQ, and others. The professional financial data market has multiple significant players. Sources: General market knowledge — financial data industry > Bloomberg's technology is 'very average' and 'supposedly outdated' **MOSTLY FALSE** Bloomberg Terminal is widely regarded as the dominant and premium professional financial data platform. While the UI/UX is frequently criticized as dated, the underlying data product is industry-leading. 'Very average' is contradicted by its persistent market-leading position. Sources: General industry knowledge > Bloomberg used his position as Mayor of New York to create what is now a monopoly **MOSTLY FALSE** Bloomberg LP was founded in 1981. Bloomberg became Mayor of New York in January 2002 — 21 years after the company's founding. The company achieved dominant market position well before any mayoral tenure. The causal claim is historically inverted. Sources: General knowledge — Bloomberg LP founding history > Bloomberg's mayoral position gave him ability to create a monopoly in 'high tech' **FALSE** Bloomberg LP is a financial data and media company, not conventionally classified as a 'high tech' company in the sense of Silicon Valley technology firms. The framing misrepresents the industry segment. Sources: General knowledge Overall Veracity: 10% ## Tags - JAQ rhetorical technique (92%) - projection defense (88%) - Bloomberg rivalry (85%) - displacement from Woodward injury (78%) - nickname dehumanization (75%) - faux populism (65%) - antitrust insinuation (62%) - authentic authorship (88%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **Post-Rally Grandiosity Masks Woodward Crisis as Late-Night Dehumanization Escalates to "Animals That Must Be Hit Hard"** Trump spent the day barnstorming Nevada with indoor rallies that violated the state's pandemic gathering limits, posting dozens of times between campaign stops. The mood was overwhelmingly boastful and combative, fueled by crowd energy, but punctuated by flashes of real anger -- particularly at a Biden campaign ad using the "losers and suckers" story and at the ambush shooting of two LA deputies. The most alarming moment came well after 2 AM local time, when a burst of posts escalated from religious nationalism to outright dehumanization, calling unnamed people "animals that must be hit hard." Notably absent all day: any direct engagement with the Woodward recordings showing he knowingly downplayed COVID, the single most damaging story of the week. Full digest for 2020-09-13: https://trump.fm/date/2020-09-13/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2020, September 13). In the highly competitive world of high tech, how... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1305144292109774800 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "In the highly competitive world of high tech, how come..." X (Twitter), 13 Sep. 2020. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1305144292109774800. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. 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