Fact check: No evidence for Trump's claim he was once named Michigan's 'Man of the Year'

[CatWoman]

(CNN)At a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday, President Donald Trump made a handful of false claims, including returning to a claim he's made since the final days of the 2016 campaign.
He said he was once named Michigan's "Man of the Year."

Sounds impressive, but there is a significant problem here.

Facts First: Nobody has been able to find any evidence of Trump receiving such an award.

It is hard to definitively prove that something vague has not happened. So we'll leave open the possibility that Trump is talking about some actual event and that he and his team are just being coy about the details.

But neither we nor anyone else has been able to find a single detail. CNN has reached out to the White House and the Trump campaign about the claim, but has not heard back.

What Trump has said

Trump first publicly uttered the claim on November 6, 2016, two days before the election, when he was making his successful last-ditch effort to win Michigan. "I've been fighting for the car industry for years. I was honored five years ago. Man of the Year in Michigan. That was a great honor for me," he said at a rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan.


He then described a supposed controversy over his supposed Man of the Year acceptance speech.

"During my speech, all I talked about is what Mexico and these other countries are doing to us. And especially what they're doing to Michigan," he said. "That's all I talked about. And I was criticized. They said, 'Donald, speak about something else.' I said, 'No. What's happening is horrible."

Trump has repeated versions of the claim at least six times since, including at a roundtable with corporate leaders in Michigan in 2017 and a rally in Wisconsin this April.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/16/politics/donald-trump-michigan-man-of-the-year-fact-check/index.html?utm_content=2019-08-16T16%3A03%3A40&utm_source=fbCNNp&utm_medium=social&utm_term=link&fbclid=IwAR0E92TaOGzQPigDVotCTienK2rgYplO8EqMvXntv3ErdqkXygKp9tGj5ds

[Meadowoak]

1. I think he meant 'michelin man' of the year.

I'm from Michigan, and Trump is not very popular there.

[Karadeniz]

2. I think you've discovered the confusion!

[malaise]

6. ROFL

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[gratuitous]

3. The lie is bad enough

But Trump has to embellish the lie by claiming he stirred up controversy with his acceptance speech. He didn't win the award. He never made an acceptance speech. People didn't criticize a speech he never gave for an award he never won. This is just flat-out delusional. You'd take the car keys away from your grandfather if he started blathering like this.

[malaise]

8. The usual voices in his head

He's a raving lunatic

[Scurrilous]

12. ...

[Johnny2X2X]

4. The Klan

They forgot to check with the Michigan Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Trump has been their man of the year 3 years running.

[murielm99]

5. Michigan has a lot of militias, too.

Check those as well.

[Downtown Hound]

7. I'll be waiting with baited breath for the media to spend hours and hours on this "gaffe"

I have a hunch I'll be waiting a long time.

[Botany]

9. And he finished @ the top of his class @ Wharton..

... too.

He is on record of telling >12,000 lies as POTUS.

[NoPasaran]

14. Plus he's an excellent driver!

[MuseRider]

11. Spoken like a true malignant narcissist.

In his mind this is the truth. Not because it ought to be but because it is, because he thought of it so it is. You will never be able to talk him out of it, it is like most of his lies. They fit his narrative as being the hero of the world and always good and never bad. Those of us who do not agree with this either do not exist (his ability to govern only for those who support him) or need to be punished because he is our lord and master (his need to feel he is the only one). My experience with someone like this is that it takes more time that we have as a planet to actually change this if it is changeable. He could be dragged out of the White House in chains and somehow come out the persecuted king to himself and those who disagree he will never hear.

The only good thing here is hopefully some people will learn from this and there will not be a repeat.

They wanted something different, someone not a politician, a businessman. It would have to be better than what we have had. I hope they remember that what we had was light years better than this.

Same old same old made them look elsewhere. Same old same old looks pretty damned good right about now. It was certainly not perfect but it certainly was not this.

[CatWoman]

13. kick