By Daniel Dale, CNN
(CNN) – Throughout three presidential campaigns, President Donald Trump consistently repeated the same falsehood while addressing audiences in Michigan. He claimed that before entering politics, he was named “Man of the Year” in the state.
The issue: CNN and other news organizations have pointed out multiple times that this award does not exist. Yet, Trump brought up this story again during a misleading economic speech in Michigan on Monday and added another untruth by suggesting that a skeptical media later confirmed his story about the award.
“I was here 25 years ago, I got Man of the Year. They – oh, by the way, the press questioned that, and then they found out it was true, actually,” Trump said with a chuckle. “And I made a speech, and all I talked about was why are you letting them steal your auto industry?”
Nope. This is just another instance of fake history appearing in various speeches from Trump this month.
As we near ten years since Trump first told the “Man of the Year” lie, no one has found any proof to support it. The state of Michigan doesn’t give out such an award; Trump has never lived there; and neither he nor his team have ever clarified who allegedly presented him with this supposed honor or when it occurred.
In 2023, after nearly seven years of refutations regarding Trump’s “Man of the Year” claims, a Republican group in Michigan established a “Man of the Decade” award and presented it to him.
However, Trump clarified on Monday that he wasn’t referring to this new title since he mentioned receiving a “Man of the Year” recognition decades ago. (Notably: in several previous accounts of his “Man of the Year” narrative-like during his 2024 campaign-he placed this supposed honor in the 2010s instead of indicating it happened in the 2000s as he did on Monday.)
Dave Trott, a former Republican congressman from Michigan who has become an outspoken critic of Trump, proposed what might be the most credible explanation for Trump’s fabricated claim. In 2019, Trott reached out to CNN to point out that at an event two years earlier, Trump had suggested he received a “Man of the Year” award at a 2013 Republican dinner in Michigan where Trott invited him to speak.
At that 2013 dinner, Trott gave Trump gifts including a framed copy of the Gettysburg Address. But Trott stressed that no one gave Trump any kind of “Man of the Year” accolade.
At least once before, Trump admitted that claiming such an honor existed prior to his political career was puzzling.
“In fact, five or six years before I even thought about running, for whatever reason they named me Man of the Year in Michigan. I said, ‘How come?’ I didn’t even understand it myself,” he stated at a 2019 rally in New Hampshire – then repeated, “But I was named Man of the Year.”
The-CNN-Wire
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