Analysis: Wow, Eliot Spitzer has lost - great news for New York City!

12y ago Sep 11, 2013 at 3:31 AM

Wow, Eliot Spitzer has lost - great news for New York City!

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-02-26. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Grandiose

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

35%

A brief but psychologically revealing late-night post capturing Trump's unguarded schadenfreude at Eliot Spitzer's defeat in the 2013 NYC Comptroller primary. Posted at 11:31 PM EDT on election night — within the authentic Trump posting window — the text displays the characteristic rationalization move of converting private pleasure at an enemy's fall ("Wow... great news") into ostensible civic concern ("for New York City"). This is ego-syntonic satisfaction expressed without hedging or self-awareness. The post reflects mild-to-moderate narcissistic features — specifically the grandiosity of appointing oneself arbiter of what benefits an entire city — and mild ego-syntonic sadism, with rival's defeat serving as uncomplicated narcissistic supply. No injury trigger is present; this is the comfortable, savoring variant rather than rage. Contextually notable: the post arrives on September 11, a date of national mourning, with no acknowledged incongruity — the affective indifference to the solemn occasion is consistent with the controversial "haters and losers" 9/11 tweet posted earlier that same day. The post does not deviate markedly from Trump's 2013 baseline but reinforces the longitudinal pattern of enemy-defeat celebrations and rationalized civic framing that appears consistently across his public communications.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

11:31 PM EDT posting — squarely in authentic late-night window
Exclamatory opener ('Wow') characteristic of reactive authentic posts
Extreme brevity with emotional punctuation (exclamation point)
Personal investment in NYC political dynamics
Stream-of-consciousness reactive framing

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Grandiose State

Trigger: Supply Seeking (Eliot Spitzer's electoral defeat)

Sentiment

+0.65

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

42%

Antisocial

Paranoid

Sadism

35%

Defense Mechanisms:

rationalization

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

15%

Parasocial Techniques:

false consensus construction (speaking for 'New York City')public schadenfreude as in-group solidarity buildingcontagious affect via exclamatory register

Fact Checks (2)

"Eliot Spitzer has lost"

True

Spitzer lost the NYC Democratic Comptroller primary to Scott Stringer approximately 52–48% on September 10, 2013. Results were coming in on election night when this post was made.

"great news for New York City"

Unverifiable

Value judgment and opinion; public reaction was mixed. Stringer went on to serve two terms as Comptroller. Whether the outcome was categorically 'great news' is not a falsifiable claim.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Authorship Attribution

Local Time: UTC 03:31:37 converts to 11:31 PM EDT on September 10, 2013 (New York City, Trump's home base). This falls squarely in the authentic Trump posting window (10 PM–6 AM local time). Election results for the NYC Comptroller Democratic primary were coming in live on the evening of September 10, making this a reactive, real-time response to unfolding news.

The post exhibits all hallmarks of authentic Trump: the exclamatory opener ("Wow"), emotional brevity, the absence of any formal grammar complexity, and the personal investment in New York City political dynamics. No aide would frame a municipal primary result this way. Verdict: High confidence authentic.

Contextual Background

Eliot Spitzer, former New York Attorney General (1998–2006) and Governor (2007–2008), resigned from the governorship in March 2008 following exposure of his patronage of a high-priced prostitution ring. In 2013 he mounted a political comeback bid for NYC Comptroller. He lost the Democratic primary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer by approximately 4 percentage points (52–48%), with results trickling in on the night of September 10.

Trump's contempt for Spitzer predates this post and appears contextually rooted in Spitzer's role as a scourge of the New York financial establishment during his AG years — a constituency Trump identifies with. Trump subsequently invoked Spitzer as a benchmark of disgrace (e.g., comparing NY AG Eric Schneiderman to "Spitzer or Weiner"). This post should be understood against that backdrop of deep class and cultural contempt rather than any documented direct personal conflict.

Critical contextual note: This post was published on September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks, at nearly midnight. Trump had already posted a widely criticized "haters and losers" 9/11 tweet earlier that day. The celebratory, politically partisan framing of this Spitzer post — on a date of national mourning — is contextually incongruous and reflects the affective indifference to solemn norms that characterizes several posts from this same evening.

Level 1: Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

Trait	Salience	Evidence
Extraversion	High	Public emotional declaration; assertive framing of civic judgment
Agreeableness	Very Low	Open celebration of rival's defeat; zero modulation or compassion
Conscientiousness	Low	Impulsive, reactive; zero contextual sensitivity to the date
Neuroticism	Mild-Moderate	Hostile affect toward Spitzer, but expressed from grandiose rather than anxious position
Openness	Low	Binary win/lose worldview; no nuance acknowledged

Dominant facet: Low agreeableness / hostile assertiveness. The post is structured as a verdict delivered from a position of superiority.

Level 2: Characteristic Adaptations

Agency motives dominate completely. The post is organized around power, status, and the satisfying resolution of a status contest. Spitzer represents not just a political opponent but a class of New York figure — moralistic, once-powerful, now-disgraced — whose failure Trump derives visible pleasure from.

Communion motives: Absent. There is no warmth, no acknowledgment of shared experience with any group.

Schemas revealed:

World schema: Divided sharply into winners and losers; losers who attempted comebacks deserve double rejection.
Self schema: Trump as legitimate arbiter of who belongs in New York City's civic life.
Other schema: Spitzer as emblematic of the hypocritical elite whose moral failures invalidate their public aspirations.

Level 3: Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: Civic sentinel and cultural gatekeeper — the one who voices what "New York City" already knows.
Contrasting other: Spitzer — the fallen moralist, the scandal-tainted would-be-returner, the personification of elite hypocrisy.
Narrative sequence (applied to Spitzer): Classic contamination arc — powerful AG/Governor → shameful exposure → audacious comeback attempt → second public rejection. Trump is narrating Spitzer's contamination sequence with visible satisfaction.
Identity claims: "I speak for New York City. I know what's good for it. This is my verdict."
Mythological resonance: The fallen king who dared return; Trump as the crowd that denies re-entry.

Level 4: Clinical Indicators

Malignant Narcissism Components

A. Narcissistic features (mild-moderate, 0.42): Grandiosity is present in the claim to speak for "New York City" as a whole — Trump positions himself as arbiter of collective civic benefit. The entitlement to render and broadcast this verdict publicly, without qualification, reflects the characteristically narcissistic conflation of personal feeling with universal truth.

B. Antisocial features (minimal, 0.08): No deceitfulness or rule-violation evident here.

C. Paranoid features (absent, 0.04): None. This is a grandiose, not a threatened, post.

D. Ego-syntonic sadism (mild, 0.35): The pleasure in Spitzer's defeat is unmodulated, public, and unashamed. "Great news" does not hedge or acknowledge complexity — it broadcasts satisfaction. This is the comfortable, satisfied variant of schadenfreude that functions as dominance display: the rival has fallen; I am pleased; I say so openly. The ego-syntonic character is clinically notable — there is no apparent awareness that public celebration of another's political defeat requires any justification.

Narcissistic Dynamics

Trigger: Opportunistic supply event — a rival's public defeat provides narcissistic gratification without Trump needing to act. Enemy's failure as gift.

State: Grandiose. Expansive, satisfied, dominant. No vulnerability markers present.

Rage: Absent. This is the comfortable, savoring variant — contempt without urgency. The post lacks the compressed aggression of injury-triggered rage posts; it is leisurely.

Defense Mechanisms

Rationalization (neurotic level): The core move of "great news for New York City" converts a private schadenfreude response into an ostensible expression of civic concern. Trump's pleasure is real and primary; the civic framing is the rationalization — it provides a morally acceptable wrapper for the enjoyment of an enemy's defeat. This is a characteristic and consistent Trump rhetorical pattern.

Rhetorical Analysis

Devices employed:

Hyperbole: Characterizing a municipal primary result as "great news for New York City" overstates the civic significance while signaling personal satisfaction.
False consensus / in-group appeal: "New York City" as implicit collectivity — Trump speaks for the city, inviting followers to align with his verdict as the city's verdict.
Public schadenfreude as solidarity builder: Broadcasting the pleasure of an enemy's defeat functions to consolidate in-group identity among those who share the antipathy toward Spitzer.
Exclamatory register: "Wow" and the closing exclamation point signal emotional authenticity and invite contagious affect.

No dehumanizing language. No violent imagery. No stochastic terrorism indicators.

Cognitive Status Assessment

The post is brief and syntactically simple. This is fully consistent with Trump's 2013 Twitter baseline — punchy, reactive, minimal subordinate clauses. No word-finding difficulties, no tangentiality, no temporal confusion. Complexity is low by design, not disability. No deviation from period baseline. No clinical markers.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Eliot Spitzer has lost"	True	Spitzer lost the NYC Democratic Comptroller primary to Scott Stringer approximately 52–48% on September 10, 2013. Results were coming in on election night when this post was made.
"great news for New York City"	Unverifiable	Value judgment and opinion; public reaction was mixed. Stringer went on to serve two terms as Comptroller. Whether the outcome was categorically 'great news' is not a falsifiable claim.

Overall Veracity: 75%

Longitudinal Context

The surrounding posts from this same day reveal Trump engaged in extended, multi-tweet Syria/foreign policy commentary — complete argument sequences, conditional reasoning ("may have given him an out"), engagement with retweets. The cognitive register across all September 10–11 posts is consistent. The Spitzer tweet is an interlude of personal satisfaction embedded in a sustained news-cycle response session — a characteristic pattern of Trump's 2013 Twitter usage, mixing political commentary with personal score-settling in real time.

Danger Assessment

None. Political commentary celebrating an electoral result. No eliminationist language, no target identification, no implied action, no dehumanization.