Donald Trump Bragged About Michigan ‘Man Of The Year’ Award, It Was Actually Framed Copy Of Gettysburg Address

The mystery of Donald Trump’s seemingly fake Michigan “Man of the Year” award may have been solved, and it seems that the president’s lack of attention is the culprit.

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire this week, the president revived a regular claim that he was once named Michigan’s “Man of the Year,” an award that did not ever seem to exist. Newsweek reported that Trump frequently made reference to winning the award, including the mention this week and close to six other times. At the New Hampshire rally, Trump bragged about his popularity in Michigan after speaking up on behalf of the auto industry for years.

“[F]ive 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?” Trump said. “I didn’t even understand it myself, but I was named man of the year. I wasn’t even political. That was years before I did this, but I was always complaining that our car business is being stolen.”

The report found no evidence that the Michigan “Man of the Year” award ever existed. Now, a new report from WXYZ may have solved the mystery. The report cited former Michigan Congressman Dave Trott, who said that he believes that Trump was confused about another honor he had been given at a Republican event outside of Detroit. He said that the event was about six years ago, which would match research from HuffPost which had narrowed down the timeline of the fake award after Trump said at a November 2016 campaign stop that he was given the honor about five years before.

As Trott said, Trump was the keynote speaker at a Republican dinner and was given a framed copy of the Gettysburg address — which Trump apparently did not read and instead thought was a Man of the Year honor for himself.

Trott said that Trump brought up the honor yeas later, but the former Michigan congressman said local officials were too polite to correct him.

“When I reminded him of that dinner, he referenced receiving the man of the year award and I nodded and said it was a great speech. I didn’t feel it appropriate and I don’t think Mary Barra felt it appropriate to correct him in that setting on his exaggerations,” Trott said.

At least seven times since November 6, 2016, including at his rally last night, Trump has claimed that he was once named Michigan’s Man of the Year.

All signs point to this never having happened. https://t.co/bP1Y5PbdE5

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 16, 2019

Donald Trump’s incorrect claim that he was named Michigan’s “Man of the Year” had made for some viral fodder for his critics, with many taking to Twitter to mock the president for appearing to invent an honor for himself.