Trump asks supporters to help award ‘Fake News’ trophy

President Trump is asking his supporters to help him award a “Fake News Trophy.”

“Americans are sick and tired of being lied to, insulted, and treated with outright condescension,” reads an email sent to supporters Thursday. “That’s why President Trump is crowning the 2017 KING OF FAKE NEWS before the end of the year.

“There’s no point in pretending that some journalists are anything more than peddlers of falsehoods and liberal propaganda,” it continues.

Trump has feuded with reporters and networks during his campaign and presidency, labeling unflattering coverage as “fake news.”

In November, he suggested that there should be a contest among the networks, excluding Fox News, for the “Fake News Trophy.”

We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2017

A Rasmussen poll conducted after Trump’s tweet found that a plurality of Americans would award Fox News the trophy. In contrast to his attacks on CNN, ABC News and other networks, Trump has been complimentary toward Fox News, praising the network and its reporters for their ratings and appearing on the network more than a dozen times for interviews.

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The Trump campaign’s email links to a poll where participants can vote on three media stories as “fake,” “faker” or “fakest” news.

The candidates for “fakest news” are all stories that networks either retracted, corrected or apologized for, including an ABC News report that Michael Flynn would testify against Trump; a CNN report that Trump and his son, Donald Jr., were offered early access to WikiLeaks documents; and a Time magazine report that Trump had a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. removed from the Oval Office.

“The FAKE NEWS has utterly abandoned their duty to fairly report the news to the American people,” Thursday’s email reads. “Some journalists and liberal pundits think that Americans are too stupid to see through their amateur efforts to manipulate public opinion, but THEY’RE WRONG.”