# Post x_1306655750283047000 - Post ID: `x_1306655750283047000` - Platform: X (Twitter) - Posted: 2020-09-17T22:06:22.000Z (UTC) - Deleted: no - Repost: no - Canonical URL: https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000 - Analysis page: https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000/analysis - Audio narration: https://static.trump.fm/audio/x_1306655750283047000.mp3 (a synthesized voice reading the post text, not a recording) ## Post text > ...egregious behavior, which is just the way they want it. This was not a mistake, it was done illegally and on purpose. We want Mike! https://t.co/m1LLdk7Cc4 ## Engagement - Likes: 0 - Reposts: 12,493 - Replies: 0 - Views: unknown - Metrics collected: 2026-02-01T01:33:24.818Z (UTC) # Analysis _Machine-generated by trump.fm on 2026-03-19T14:48:45.639Z (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 thread-continuation post alleges Michigan's Democratic Secretary of State deliberately and illegally misprinted military ballots, converting a documented administrative error into an asserted criminal conspiracy. The most clinically notable feature is paranoid attribution with delusional certainty — Trump employs no epistemic hedging, forecloses the parsimonious (error) explanation, and asserts intentional criminal conduct as established fact. This pattern is consistent with paranoid features within Kernberg's malignant narcissism framework. The conspiratorial "they" throughout the post presupposes audience familiarity with an enemy collective, reinforcing epistemic closure. The "We want Mike!" closing mimics rally-chant dynamics, transforming a criminal accusation into participatory mobilization. Danger is elevated: a named official is targeted with criminal accusations delivered to a mass audience primed for adversarial response — the stochastic terrorism pattern (target + grievance + implied urgency) is present though without explicit call to action. The ballot error claim is partially factual; the "done illegally and on purpose" interpretation is assessed as false based on available evidence. Authorship is likely authentic Trump based on stream-of-consciousness style, despite afternoon local timing. # Psychological Analysis: Post x_1306655750283047000 (2020-09-17) ## Contextual Frame This post is the second half of a two-tweet thread. The prior tweet accused Michigan's Democratic Secretary of State of "purposely" misprinting military ballots and listing a wrong party member as VP Pence's replacement. This post completes that sentence with "...egregious behavior, which is just the way they want it." The fragment structure (beginning with "...") confirms this is a thread continuation rather than a standalone statement. **Location/Timing:** On September 17, 2020, Trump was likely in Nevada or Arizona based on the documented Latinos for Trump roundtable in Phoenix and the Henderson, NV indoor rally. UTC 22:06 converts to approximately 3:06 PM PDT (Nevada) or 3:06 PM MST (Arizona) — mid-afternoon, not the late-night window associated with highest-authenticity Trump posts. However, the stylistic markers strongly favor authentic authorship over aide composition. --- ## Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five) | Trait | Expression | Evidence | |---|---|---| | **Neuroticism** | High — angry hostility, impulsiveness | Declarative rage-certainty: "done illegally and on purpose" | | **Agreeableness** | Very low — antagonism, suspicion | Zero allowance for accidental explanation; enemy-attributing | | **Conscientiousness** | Low — impulsive, undeliberated | Rally-chant closing is emotionally driven, not strategic | | **Extraversion** | Moderate — dominant, assertive | "We want Mike!" — crowd-leader posture | | **Openness** | Very low — rigid, closed | Binary framing: mistake vs. deliberate crime, no spectrum | The most salient facet is **angry hostility** (neuroticism) combined with **paranoid suspicion** (low agreeableness). The post shows zero epistemic uncertainty — an extremely closed information-processing style. --- ## Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations **Agency motives dominate:** This post is centrally about power and control — specifically, the threat to electoral integrity (and by extension, Trump's own power). The framing of a ballot printing error as deliberate criminal conspiracy reflects a **power motive** under threat. **Schemas revealed:** - *Self:* Exposer of truth, defender of Pence/military voters - *Others (Democrats):* Permanent enemies engaged in active, intentional sabotage - *World:* Zero-sum battleground where accidents don't exist — only attacks The phrase "just the way they want it" is a schema crystallization: Trump maintains a pre-formed interpretive lens through which all Democratic actions are decoded as intentional harm, regardless of evidence. --- ## Level 3: Narrative Identity **Protagonist role:** Truth-teller and defender — specifically defending Mike Pence's legitimacy and by extension, the military voters targeted. **Narrative sequence:** Contamination — legitimate democratic process (ballot printing) → corrupted by Democratic malice. **Identity claims:** "We want Mike!" — Trump casts himself as champion of Pence, by implication the true voice of the people demanding electoral integrity. **Contrasting other:** The unnamed "they" (Democrats broadly) and specifically the "Democrat Trump Hater Secretary of State of Michigan" (Jocelyn Benson). The naming of an adversary's motivation ("Trump Hater") as cause of official action is a signature identity-reinforcing move: my enemy's action is defined by hatred of me. --- ## Level 4: Clinical Indicators ### Paranoid Features (High Confidence) The clearest clinical signal in this post is **paranoid attribution with delusional certainty**. The move from "ballot printing error" to "done illegally and on purpose" requires: 1. Dismissal of the most parsimonious explanation (human error) 2. Substitution of deliberate criminal intent 3. Assertion of this interpretation with zero hedging This is consistent with **paranoid ideation** as described in Kernberg's malignant narcissism framework — specifically, the inability to tolerate ambiguity when the self is implicated (the attack on Pence is an attack on the ticket, which is an attack on Trump). ### Narcissistic Features (Moderate-High) The grandiosity here is epistemic rather than self-aggrandizing — Trump presents himself as uniquely capable of seeing the truth others miss ("This was not a mistake"). This is consistent with **specialness beliefs** and the conviction that the subject has privileged access to hidden reality. ### Antisocial Features (Moderate) Publicly accusing a named elected official of intentional criminal conduct without evidentiary basis, in a context that will reach millions of followers, constitutes **disregard for others' safety** in the forensic-linguistics sense — the accusation itself becomes a targeting mechanism. --- ## Defense Mechanisms 1. **Delusional projection (pathological):** Criminal intent is projected onto opponent as established fact 2. **Denial (pathological):** Possibility of innocent error is not engaged — it is foreclosed 3. **Projection (immature):** "Just the way they want it" attributes a scheming desire-fulfillment to Democrats --- ## Rhetorical & Propaganda Analysis The post accomplishes several rhetorical functions in 23 words: - **Names an enemy** (Michigan Secretary of State, "Democrat Trump Hater") - **Asserts criminal conduct** ("done illegally and on purpose") - **Invokes a conspiratorial collective** ("just the way they want it" / undefined "they") - **Mobilizes the audience** ("We want Mike!") The "We want Mike!" closing is formally a rally chant — it mimics the acoustic experience of a crowd and invites the reader to fill that subject position. It transforms a political accusation into a participatory event. The undefined "they" throughout this post and its predecessor is a hallmark of **conspiratorial rhetoric**: the audience is assumed to already know who "they" are, reinforcing in-group epistemic closure. --- ## Gaslighting & Reality Distortion **Gaslighting present (moderate):** The assertion that an administrative error is definitively intentional criminal conduct functions as reality substitution — followers who accept this framing are being inducted into a version of events that forecloses evidentiary reasoning. The phrase "This was not a mistake" is delivered as a factual statement with no epistemological basis offered. --- ## Danger Assessment **Rating: Elevated** The post names an individual official, attributes criminal intent to her ("done illegally and on purpose"), frames her as a "Trump Hater" (from the preceding tweet), and delivers this to millions of followers. This follows the **stochastic terrorism pattern**: - Identified target: Michigan Secretary of State - Articulated grievance: Deliberate criminal sabotage of military ballots - Implied action: None explicit, but the "We want Mike!" mobilization chant implies urgency This does not reach "high" or "critical" because there is no explicit call to action and no eliminationist language. However, the targeting of a named individual with criminal accusations in this rhetorical environment carries measurable incitement risk. --- ## Fact Verification | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |-------|---------|----------| | "Michigan Secretary of State misprinted ballots for the military" | **Mostly True** | A ballot printing error in Michigan was documented during this period; Jocelyn Benson's office acknowledged errors in some military/absentee ballots in Flint-area townships. | | "The wrong VP candidate name was listed on the ballot" | **Mostly True** | Misprinting of candidate names including down-ballot positions was part of the documented error, though scope and specifics of the Pence replacement listing require additional verification. | | "The misprinting was done illegally and on purpose" | **False** | No evidence of intentional conduct was established. Michigan election officials characterized the incident as an administrative/printing error. No criminal charges were filed against Secretary Benson. | | "This was not a mistake" | **Mostly False** | Available evidence from official investigations and reporting treated the ballot misprinting as an error, not deliberate sabotage. The assertion of intent is unsupported. | Overall Veracity: 45% ## Cognitive Status **Complexity score:** Low-moderate — short declarative sentences, high certainty, no subordinate clause complexity. This is consistent with Trump's baseline Twitter register, not a deviation. **No cognitive markers of concern** beyond those consistent with his established baseline. The thread-continuation format is coherent. No word-finding difficulty, perseveration, or temporal confusion observed. --- ## Archetypal Analysis **Primary archetype:** Warrior/Defender — the post is in combat mode, identifying an attack and demanding redress. **Secondary archetype:** Trickster — "We want Mike!" has an almost gleeful, disruptive quality, converting a legal accusation into a crowd-participation chant. **Shadow projection:** The deliberate election manipulation Trump projects onto Democrats maps directly onto concerns that critics raised about his own administration's actions regarding mail-in ballots and the USPS in the same period. The accusation mirrors the projected fear. --- ## Summary This thread-continuation post alleges that Michigan's Democratic Secretary of State deliberately and illegally misprinted military ballots to sabotage the ticket — converting what election officials characterized as an administrative error into a criminal conspiracy. Psychologically, the post is most notable for its **paranoid attribution with delusional certainty**: there is no epistemic hedging, no engagement with the possibility of error, only absolute conviction of malicious intent. This reflects Kernberg's paranoid features within malignant narcissism — specifically, the pattern of interpreting ambiguous events as deliberate attacks and counterattacking with disproportionate certainty. The rally-chant closing ("We want Mike!") represents a characteristic oscillation between grievance and performative dominance. The post carries elevated danger indicators: a named official is accused of intentional criminal conduct in language that will reach a mass audience primed for adversarial action. Factual claims are partially grounded (an error did occur) but the interpretation — deliberate illegality — is unsupported by available evidence and likely false. Authorship is assessed as probably authentic Trump based on stylistic markers, despite the afternoon local timing. ## Authorship Analysis **Self-Written** (score: 75%) ### Indicators - Thread continuation ('...') is characteristic of Trump's multi-tweet style - Declarative certainty ('This was not a mistake') matches authentic voice - Rally-style chant ending ('We want Mike!') is impulsive and unpolished - Emotionally reactive framing consistent with authentic Trump - UTC 22:06 = ~6:06 PM EDT if in DC/NYC, or ~3:06 PM if in Nevada/AZ — afternoon timing slightly favors aide involvement, but style contradicts that ## Psychological Profile ### State **Grandiose State** **Trigger:** Narcissistic Injury — Exposure (Democratic Michigan Secretary of State / perceived attack on election integrity and VP Pence) **Rage:** Intensity 60% targeting Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson / Democrats broadly - Proportionality: 20% Sentiment: -0.72 ### Clinical **Malignant Narcissism:** - Narcissistic: 60% - Antisocial: 55% - Paranoid: 75% - Sadism: 20% **Defense Mechanisms:** - projection (immature) - delusional projection (pathological) - denial (pathological) **Cognitive Complexity:** - Complexity: 28% **Parasocial Techniques:** - Rally-chant mimicry ('We want Mike!') invites crowd-participation feeling - Conspiratorial 'we' framing creates insider/outsider dynamic - Affective urgency ('egregious,' 'illegally and on purpose') activates follower threat response ## Danger Assessment **ELEVATED** **Stochastic Terrorism Pattern Detected** ### Indicators - Named individual (Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson) accused of intentional criminal conduct in mass-reach communication - Prior tweet branded her a 'Democrat Trump Hater' — personalizing grievance - Stochastic terrorism pattern: target identified, grievance articulated, urgency mobilized via rally chant - Criminal accusation ('done illegally') without evidentiary basis delivered to millions of followers - Rally-chant closing ('We want Mike!') invites participatory emotional investment in the grievance ### Gaslighting - Asserts 'This was not a mistake' as established fact — forecloses evidentiary reasoning - Substitutes preferred interpretation (criminal intent) for documented explanation (administrative error) without offering basis - Audience required to accept criminal-intent narrative as condition of in-group participation ## Fact Checks (4) _The model's verdicts from 2026-03-19._ > Michigan Secretary of State misprinted ballots for the military **MOSTLY TRUE** A ballot printing error in Michigan was documented during this period; Jocelyn Benson's office acknowledged errors in some military/absentee ballots in Flint-area townships. Sources: Known events context; General knowledge of 2020 Michigan ballot controversies > The wrong VP candidate name was listed on the ballot **MOSTLY TRUE** Misprinting of candidate names including down-ballot positions was part of the documented error, though scope and specifics of the Pence replacement listing require additional verification. Sources: Known events context > The misprinting was done illegally and on purpose **FALSE** No evidence of intentional conduct was established. Michigan election officials characterized the incident as an administrative/printing error. No criminal charges were filed against Secretary Benson. Sources: General knowledge of 2020 election administration outcomes > This was not a mistake **MOSTLY FALSE** Available evidence from official investigations and reporting treated the ballot misprinting as an error, not deliberate sabotage. The assertion of intent is unsupported. Sources: General knowledge Overall Veracity: 45% ## Tags - election-integrity-conspiracy (90%) - paranoid-attribution (85%) - stochastic-targeting (70%) - michigan-ballot-error (80%) - mike-pence-defense (60%) - thread-continuation (50%) - criminal-accusation (75%) - conspiratorial-certainty (85%) ## 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). ...egregious behavior, which is just the way they... [Social media post]. X (Twitter). trump.fm. https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000 - MLA: Trump, Donald J. "...egregious behavior, which is just the way they want it...." X (Twitter), 17 Sep. 2020. trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. - Chicago: Donald J. Trump, "...egregious behavior, which is just the way they want it....," X (Twitter), September 17, 2020, archived at trump.fm, https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000. ## 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_1306655750283047000 - Analysis as JSON: https://trump.fm/api/analysis/x_1306655750283047000 - All citation formats: https://trump.fm/api/cite/x_1306655750283047000 - Same day: https://trump.fm/date/2020-09-17 - The record alone, without the analysis: https://trump.fm/post/x_1306655750283047000.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`._