# Post x_1306557587375128600 - Post ID: `x_1306557587375128600` - Platform: X (Twitter) - Posted: 2020-09-17T15:36:18.000Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1306557587375128600 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1306557587375128600/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1306557587375128600.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness! https://t.co/3SMAk9TC1a ## Engagement - Likes: 0 - Reposts: 17,761 - Replies: 0 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:33:24.790Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-19T14:51:34.633Z (UTC): a model's reading of this post, not his words. Its psychological terms describe the language, not a clinical assessment of him._ ## Summary Published 47 days before the 2020 presidential election, this post represents a clinically significant instance of prospective narcissistic defense: Trump constructs a narrative framework in which any unfavorable electoral outcome is pre-certified as fraudulent, protecting against anticipated narcissistic injury (defeat) by delegitimizing the result mechanism in advance. The central rhetorical structure — "may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want" — combines distortion (pathological defense), projection (immature), and splitting to produce an unfalsifiable epistemic trap. Followers who accept the premise cannot update on subsequent evidence of electoral integrity. Key markers include scare quotes on "voters" (delegitimizing real citizens through punctuation rather than argument), the contemptuous aside "or wherever" (performing dismissal of legitimate mail infrastructure), and the unnamed conspiratorial "some" who engineer chaos — a projection of Trump's own delegitimizing activity onto invisible enemies. The post is assessed as likely authentic Trump rather than aide-written, despite business-hours posting, based on characteristic impulsive style. Danger level is elevated: while the post contains no violent content, it is a documented building block in the systematic pre-electoral delegitimization campaign that culminated in January 6, 2021. The pattern is consistent with established baseline; no cognitive deterioration markers present. The post's historical significance lies not in deviance from Trump's personal norm but in the outsized institutional consequences of that norm operating at presidential scale. # Analysis: September 17, 2020 — Pre-emptive Electoral Delegitimization ## Overview This post, published 47 days before the 2020 presidential election, represents a pivotal early instance of what would become the "Big Lie" narrative. Rather than responding to a past grievance, Trump is here engaged in *prospective* delegitimization — pre-emptively seeding the conclusion that any unfavorable election outcome is, by definition, the product of fraud. The post merits clinical-level attention not for deviance from Trump's personal baseline, but for the outsized downstream harm of the rhetorical pattern it encodes. --- ## Authorship Attribution **Timestamp conversion:** UTC 15:36 = approximately 11:36 AM EDT. On September 17, 2020, Trump was most likely in Washington, D.C. or returning from a southwestern campaign swing (Henderson, NV rally and Phoenix Latinos for Trump roundtable occurred roughly Sept 13–14). By the 17th, White House location is the most probable. **Assessment: Likely authentic Trump with possible light aide structuring.** Business-hours timing weakly implicates aide involvement. However, the stylistic fingerprints are overwhelmingly consistent with authentic Trump: scare quotes on "voters" (a contemptuous gesture, not a copyeditor's move), the impulsive mid-sentence aside "or wherever," ALL CAPS on the central threat claim, the slogan-burst "Stop Ballot Madness!" at the end, and stream-of-consciousness flow that buries the main rhetorical payload inside a dependent clause. These features are difficult to forge because they require embracing grammatical disorder. The aide hypothesis does not adequately account for the impulsive contempt encoded in the phrasing. Confidence: **medium-high for authentic.** --- ## Psychological Analysis ### Trigger The proximate trigger appears to be a combination of (1) the approaching election with its attendant anxiety about outcome, and (2) a specific reported "election disaster" the previous day (the linked URL likely references a primary or local election incident). The deeper driver, however, is **preemptive attack**: Trump is not reacting to a loss but constructing a conceptual framework in which a loss cannot be legitimate. This is a sophisticated defensive maneuver — building the narrative infrastructure for narcissistic protection before it is needed. ### Narcissistic State: Mixed Grandiose/Paranoid The post oscillates. The grandiose strand: *I alone see the conspiracy unfolding*. The paranoid strand: unnamed powerful forces ("which is what some want") are engineering Trump's defeat. This is classic malignant narcissism — grandiosity and persecution are not in tension but reinforcing: the conspirators act against *him specifically* because of his singular importance. ### Narcissistic Rage Rage is present at moderate intensity. The ALL CAPS construction and exclamatory slogan indicate emotional arousal, though the post maintains more rhetorical control than acute rage posts. The rage appears displaced from the election anxiety onto the mail-voting mechanism, a safer and more diffuse target. --- ## Defense Mechanisms **Projection (immature):** "which is what some want" is a clean projection: Trump attributes to unnamed others the goal of making the election unresolvable — the very outcome his own rhetoric is working to produce. He is manufacturing the uncertainty he claims to oppose. **Distortion (pathological):** Mail-in voting has a decades-long track record. Its pandemic-era expansion was a bipartisan response to a public health emergency. Framing this as a mechanism that will make election results "NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED" grossly reshapes documented electoral reality to serve an inner defensive need. **Splitting:** Real voters vs. "voters" (scare quotes). Legitimate elections vs. "ballot madness." There is no middle ground, no acknowledgment that most mail-in voters are real registered citizens. **Rationalization (neurotic):** "the Nov 3rd Election result *may* NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED" — the hedged qualifier ("may") provides deniability while the ALL CAPS ensures the alarming conclusion lands with full force. This is rationalization clothing emotional manipulation in the grammar of measured concern. --- ## Rhetorical Techniques **Pre-emptive delegitimization:** The most analytically significant technique. By declaring before a vote is cast that results may never be accurate, Trump immunizes himself against any unfavorable outcome. The framework cannot be falsified by subsequent events because the claim is prospective and vague. **Scare quotes on "voters":** Performative skepticism that delegitimizes actual registered citizens without making an explicit accusation. The rhetorical work is done by punctuation, not argument — providing plausible deniability against fact-checkers while reliably signaling to the base that the "voters" are fraudulent. **Conspiratorial vagueness ("which is what some want"):** Unnamed, unspecified villains are a standard feature of authoritarian rhetoric. The vagueness serves several functions: it prevents falsification, it allows each audience member to project their preferred enemy onto the blank, and it creates a sense of privileged insider knowledge — *Trump knows who "they" are, even if he's not naming them yet.* **Hyperbolic intensifiers:** "new and unprecedented massive amount" — three stacked amplifiers on a development (expanded mail voting) that was, in fact, a measured policy response to an emergency. **Contemptuous aside ("or wherever"):** This phrase deserves particular attention. "Ballots which will be sent to 'voters', or wherever" — the "or wherever" performs contempt for the entire premise of legitimate mail delivery to registered voters. It is both rhetorical (dismissive) and psychologically revealing (the underlying anxiety that *the ballots will actually be counted* breaks through the controlled rhetoric). **Slogan termination ("Stop Ballot Madness!"):** Classic Trump post architecture — emotional escalation → conspiratorial framing → rallying slogan at close. --- ## Gaslighting and Reality Distortion Mail-in voting fraud is documented to be extremely rare across decades of American elections. The 2020 expansion was driven by legitimate public health concerns, legally authorized by state legislatures, and used by millions of military and overseas voters routinely. The framing of this process as "madness" that precludes accurate results is a significant distortion of documented electoral reality. The scare quotes on "voters" implicitly questions the personhood and legitimacy of real registered citizens. This post advances epistemic closure — followers who accept the frame that mail ballots are inherently suspicious have limited capacity to update on post-election evidence of integrity. --- ## Cognitive Status No significant markers of cognitive deterioration. The "or wherever" has a slightly tangential quality, but is better understood as contemptuous dismissal than word-finding difficulty. Sentence complexity and vocabulary are consistent with established Trump baseline. The post is emotionally elevated but cognitively coherent by his standards. No deviation warranting clinical concern. --- ## Danger Assessment: Elevated This post, while not violent in content, belongs to a documented pattern of pre-electoral delegitimization that culminated in January 6, 2021. The specific mechanism — telling supporters that election results may "NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED" and that this is the work of named-but-unnamed enemies — functions as psychological preparation: it conditions a population to reject any democratic outcome inconsistent with their preferred result. In retrospect, this post is evidence of systematic construction of a framework in which only one electoral outcome was legitimate *a priori*. That framework, built tweet by tweet across 2020, had material consequences for democratic institutions. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Massive amount of unsolicited ballots will be sent to voters" | **Mostly False** | Most 2020 mail-voting expansions allowed voters to request absentee ballots due to pandemic; some states mailed applications. The characterization as 'unsolicited' misrepresents authorized, legislatively sanctioned processes. Expansion was large relative to prior cycles but not to random addresses. | | "The November 3rd election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED" | **False** | The 2020 election was certified by all 50 states and D.C., reviewed by 60+ courts finding no evidence of outcome-altering fraud, audited in multiple contested states (including hand recounts), and assessed by DHS CISA as 'the most secure in American history.' | | "There was 'another election disaster yesterday' (September 16, 2020)" | **Unverifiable** | The linked URL (t.co/3SMAk9TC1a) likely references a specific primary or local election incident on September 16. Without fetching the URL the specific claim cannot be verified, though minor administrative issues in large elections are common and do not constitute systemic fraud evidence. | | "Mail-in ballot expansion threatens accurate vote counting" | **Mostly False** | Studies of mail-in voting across states with longstanding all-mail systems (Oregon, Washington, Colorado) show comparable or lower error rates than in-person voting. Documented fraud in mail voting is extremely rare — Heritage Foundation database shows fewer than 1,300 proven cases over decades of American elections. | Overall Veracity: 22% ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 78%) ### Indicators - Scare quotes on 'voters' reflect contemptuous voice, not copyeditor style - Mid-sentence aside 'or wherever' is impulsive and unpolished - ALL CAPS on central claim consistent with authentic emotional arousal - Stream-of-consciousness structure with payload buried in dependent clause - Slogan termination 'Stop Ballot Madness!' is characteristic Trump close ## Psychological Profile ### State **Mixed State** **Trigger:** Preemptive Attack — Defeat (Approaching 2020 election with expanded mail voting + specific local election incident Sept 16) **Rage:** Intensity 55% targeting Mail-in voting system / unnamed electoral conspirators - Proportionality: 15% Sentiment: -0.68 **Mildly Hypomanic** - ALL CAPS usage on central emotional payload - Exclamatory slogan termination - Rapid escalation from policy concern to absolute declaration within single sentence - Contemptuous aside mid-clause suggesting racing, dismissive ideation ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 75% - Antisocial: 52% - Paranoid: 68% - Sadism: 18% **Defense Mechanisms:** - projection (immature) - distortion (pathological) - splitting (immature) - rationalization (neurotic) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 42% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Shared conspiratorial knowledge ('which is what some want') — creates insider feeling - Collective call to action ('Stop Ballot Madness!') — rally format in text - Scare quotes as wink to base — signals shared skepticism without explicit claim ## Danger Assessment **ELEVATED** ### Indicators - Pre-emptive electoral delegitimization 47 days before election - Framework construction making any Trump loss pre-certified as fraudulent - Unnamed conspiratorial 'some' — psychological preparation for mobilization against undefined enemies - Epistemic closure mechanism: followers primed to reject post-election evidence of integrity - Part of documented pattern that culminated in January 6, 2021 Capitol attack - 'NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED' — absolute language foreclosing acceptance of results ### Gaslighting - Scare quotes on 'voters' implicitly denies legitimacy of real registered citizens without argumentation - 'Or wherever' — contemptuous dismissal of documented mail delivery to registered addresses - Framing authorized pandemic-response policy as 'madness' inverts the reality of the situation - 'Which is what some want' — projects conspiratorial intent onto unnamed actors without evidence - Absolute claim ('NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED') is unfalsifiable by design — gaslights any future certification as inherently suspect ## Fact Checks (4) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-19._ > Massive amount of unsolicited ballots will be sent to voters **MOSTLY FALSE** Most 2020 mail-voting expansions allowed voters to request absentee ballots due to pandemic; some states mailed applications. The characterization as 'unsolicited' misrepresents authorized, legislatively sanctioned processes. Expansion was large relative to prior cycles but not to random addresses. Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures 2020 absentee voting data; Bipartisan Policy Center election administration reports > The November 3rd election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED **FALSE** The 2020 election was certified by all 50 states and D.C., reviewed by 60+ courts finding no evidence of outcome-altering fraud, audited in multiple contested states (including hand recounts), and assessed by DHS CISA as 'the most secure in American history.' Sources: CISA joint statement Nov 12 2020; State certification records; Court dismissals of election challenges > There was 'another election disaster yesterday' (September 16, 2020) **UNVERIFIABLE** The linked URL (t.co/3SMAk9TC1a) likely references a specific primary or local election incident on September 16. Without fetching the URL the specific claim cannot be verified, though minor administrative issues in large elections are common and do not constitute systemic fraud evidence. > Mail-in ballot expansion threatens accurate vote counting **MOSTLY FALSE** Studies of mail-in voting across states with longstanding all-mail systems (Oregon, Washington, Colorado) show comparable or lower error rates than in-person voting. Documented fraud in mail voting is extremely rare — Heritage Foundation database shows fewer than 1,300 proven cases over decades of American elections. Sources: MIT Election Data and Science Lab; Heritage Foundation Election Fraud Database Overall Veracity: 22% ## Tags - pre-emptive-election-delegitimization (95%) - mail-in-voting-disinformation (88%) - big-lie-precursor (92%) - conspiratorial-framing (82%) - epistemic-closure (85%) - narcissistic-preemptive-defense (78%) - electoral-integrity-claim (90%) - projection-unnamed-enemies (75%) - scare-quote-voter-delegitimization (80%) ## That day _From trump.fm's machine-generated digest of the day, not his words._ **47 Days Out: Election Delegitimization Campaign Reaches Saturation Intensity** Trump spent most of September 17 hammering a single message: mail-in ballots are fraudulent, the election is rigged, and chaos is coming. Across nearly a dozen posts, he seized on minor administrative errors in Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to build a case that the entire electoral system was compromised. The most aggressive moment came mid-morning when he warned states to abandon mail-in voting "before it is too late" or face "MAYHEM" -- while his own campaign simultaneously promoted absentee ballot sign-ups. Routine presidential business (a congratulatory note to Japan's new prime minister, healthcare claims, an Alaska mining promise) filled the gaps, but the day's mood was dominated by combative election anxiety. Full digest for 2020-09-17: https://trump.fm/date/2020-09-17/analysis ## Citation - APA: Trump, D. J. (2020, September 17). Because of the new and unprecedented massive... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1306557587375128600 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of..." X (Twitter), 17 Sep. 2020. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1306557587375128600. Accessed 13 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. 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