Earlier this month, Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he would start the second year of his presidency much as he’d spent the first: by attacking the journalists and media networks covering him.
Back on Jan. 2, Trump tweeted that about a week later, on Jan. 8, he’d be announcing “THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR.” He later changed the date to Jan. 17 — today. But after two full weeks, it really doesn’t seem like Trump’s “Fake News Awards” are actually ever going to happen.
I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Trump tweeted to suggest that it was an abundance of interest in his Fake News Awards that forced him to push them back more than a week, from Jan. 8 to today, in a tweet on Jan. 7. But as late as Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t seem to know where, when, or if it was even happening, according to the Washington Post.
The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018
“We’ll keep you posted on any details around that potential event and what that would look like,” Sanders told reporters the day before Trump had said the Fake News Awards would take place. The use of the words “potential events” suggests nobody really knows if Trump actually plans to go through with the awards, or how he might do it.
On Wednesday, the day of the awards, Sanders mentioned them again in the daily White House Press Briefing, saying they would be coming in the afternoon, but offered no additional details as to their nature. And Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said on Fox News that the White House is “very excited about the Fake News Awards” without saying what they were, as Mediaite reported.
Trump originally said he’d “announce” the awards at 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7, which has the air of a Twitter rant about it, or maybe a White House press release.
So the Fake News Awards seem to be on the way even if nobody has made clear what they are. That’s despite objections from GOP Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, who criticized the president for his attacks on the press. Flake gave a speech on the Senate floor condemning Trump for his attacks on the press, and McCain penned an opinion piece for the Washington Post imploring Trump to stop his attacks on the media.
What exactly the Fake News Awards will entail, whether a Twitter rant from the president, a press release from the White House, or something more, remains to be seen. But the awards apparently are happening sometime today. If Trump’s original tweet might still apply, expect the Fake News Awards to be unveiled around 5 p.m. Eastern time.