Analysis: Edward Snowden is absolutely killing the the U.S. with other...

13y ago Jul 1, 2013 at 10:17 AM

Edward Snowden is absolutely killing the the U.S. with other countries!

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-02-23. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Grandiose

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

38%

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

Timestamp converts to 6:17 AM EDT (New York) — pre-dawn, squarely within documented authentic Trump posting window
Typo: doubled 'the' ('the the') — hallmark of hasty, unreviewed composition absent from aide-drafted posts
Single punchy declarative sentence with superlative intensifier ('absolutely') — impulsive stream-of-consciousness style
No event announcement, scheduling information, or polished complete-sentence structure
Reactive nationalist affect consistent with authentic early-morning Trump Twitter behavior

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Grandiose State

Trigger: Maintenance (Edward Snowden NSA leak diplomatic fallout)

Sentiment

-0.65

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

35%

Antisocial

10%

Paranoid

20%

Sadism

Defense Mechanisms:

rationalization

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

20%

Parasocial Techniques:

Authoritative commentary positioning — projecting certainty on a contested policy issue to establish pundit credibility with followersNationalist identification — aligning self with 'the U.S.' as collective victim to activate shared in-group affect

Fact Checks (1)

"Edward Snowden is 'killing' (severely damaging) U.S. relations with other countries"

Mostly True

By July 1, 2013, Snowden's NSA leak disclosures (beginning June 6) had caused documented and escalating diplomatic strain. Revelations of surveillance of EU diplomatic missions, UN headquarters, and allied communications triggered formal protests from Germany, France, and Brazil, with heads of state publicly condemning U.S. surveillance programs. Multiple European governments summoned U.S. ambassadors. The directional claim of significant diplomatic damage is well-supported; 'absolutely killing' is hyperbolic but not factually inverted.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Analysis: Trump on Edward Snowden (July 1, 2013)

Contextual Background

By 6:17 AM EDT on July 1, 2013, Edward Snowden had spent eight days stranded in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after fleeing Hong Kong on June 23. His June 6 PRISM revelations had already triggered formal protests from European allies, congressional hearings, and a cascade of diplomatic summoning of U.S. ambassadors. The diplomatic fallout was measurable, front-page, and accelerating. Trump's tweet arrives in this charged moment and frames the situation exclusively through a nationalist, zero-sum lens: what matters is America's standing relative to other nations, full stop.

Authorship Attribution — High Confidence: Authentic Trump

Three converging indicators:

Timing: 10:17 UTC converts to 6:17 AM EDT (Trump was in New York). Pre-dawn posting is a well-documented Trump signature.
Typo: "the the" — the doubled definite article is a hallmark of hasty, unreviewed composition. Aide-drafted posts from this era are grammatically clean.
Style: A single punchy declarative with a superlative intensifier ("absolutely"), zero polish, no event announcement, no coordinating structure — the exact profile of impulsive early-morning authentic Trump.

Multi-Level Personality Analysis (McAdams & Pals)

Level 1 — Dispositional Traits The dominant facets are: high assertiveness (extraversion), very low agreeableness (unhedged judgment), and low openness (no acknowledgment of the civil liberties dimension driving the Snowden debate). The impulsiveness facet of neuroticism is visible in the absolute certainty projected — a single sentence, no qualifications, no counterargument entertained.

Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations Pure agency motive: Trump positions himself as a plain-speaking national-security commentator with an authoritative read others won't offer. This is the proto-political pundit persona he was refining via Twitter throughout 2012–2014 — claiming expertise, national concern, and moral clarity simultaneously. Status acquisition through political declaration.

Level 3 — Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Patriotic witness-prophet — the clear-eyed observer who names threats
Contrasting other: Snowden as damage-doer, implicit traitor — the one who harms the national collective
Narrative sequence: Contamination — something good (U.S. international standing) is being actively degraded by Snowden's agency
Identity claims: "I understand what harms America. I say what others won't."

Clinical Indicators

Narcissistic features (mild-background): The grandiosity is implicit, not overt — it resides in the epistemological confidence ("absolutely"), not in self-reference. Trump doesn't insert himself; he positions as invisible witness to a national harm. This is baseline, not elevated.

Defense mechanisms: Rationalization (neurotic level) — the entire complexity of the Snowden debate (civil liberties vs. surveillance state, public interest vs. national security) is collapsed into a single pragmatic verdict: diplomatic damage. This simplification justifies a preformed conclusion while appearing to be a geopolitical assessment.

Trigger: Routine maintenance/ambient political commentary. No personal narcissistic injury to Trump; this is characteristic supply-seeking through nationalist positioning.

Rhetorical Analysis

The post's rhetorical work is accomplished almost entirely by "absolutely" — which transforms a contestable opinion into self-evident fact. "Killing" is unambiguously metaphorical (diplomatic destruction, not physical harm). The construction "killing the U.S. with other countries" frames America as Snowden's passive victim in a global theater, strengthening the nationalist affect. No dehumanizing language. No violent imagery. No eliminationist framing.

Cognitive Status

The "the the" repetition is a typing artifact, not a linguistic cognitive marker. Sentence structure is simple but fully coherent. Lexical choice is sparse but functional. No word-finding difficulty, tangentiality, perseveration, temporal confusion, or confabulation is present. Completely consistent with Trump's 2013 Twitter baseline.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Edward Snowden is 'killing' (severely damaging) U.S. relations with other countries"	Mostly True	By July 1, 2013, Snowden's NSA leak disclosures (beginning June 6) had caused documented and escalating diplomatic strain. Revelations of surveillance of EU diplomatic missions, UN headquarters, and allied communications triggered formal protests from Germany, France, and Brazil, with heads of state publicly condemning U.S. surveillance programs. Multiple European governments summoned U.S. ambassadors. The directional claim of significant diplomatic damage is well-supported; 'absolutely killing' is hyperbolic but not factually inverted.

Overall Veracity: 80%

Longitudinal Context

The same-day cluster of posts (hotel recommendation, Boeing stock praise retweet, Africa corruption/Obama shot, Arizona firefighter condolences, Fox News appearance plug) reveals Trump's 2013 Twitter operation as a rapid-fire public commentary stream — a prototype of his later political communication. The Snowden tweet is one node in that stream, cycling through news events with brief confident verdicts. No escalation of affect, no departure from pattern.

Danger Assessment: None

Standard political opinion about a named public figure. No target + grievance + implied action structure. No mobilization signal. Routine commentary.

Sources consulted: Reactions to global surveillance disclosures — Wikipedia; Snowden disclosures — Wikipedia