‘Trump Big Lie Award,’ a response to ‘Fake News Awards’

Late Wednesday, President Trump, who finds new ways to demean the office of the presidency, continuing his failure to respect the truth with his attacks against the free press, released his “Fake News Awards.”

Regarding the merits of Trump’s attack against the free press, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) got it right in his Wednesday  speech on the Senate floor. Flake accurately charged that when Trump calls the free press the enemy of the people, he is repeating the same charge leveled by Soviet dictator and mass murderer Josef Stalin before his demise.

{mosads}While Trump should not be equated with Stalin on most issues, they do share a contempt for the free press. While Trump has never praised Stalin, he has praised Vladimir Putin, another Russian who does not wish America well and shares Trump’s contempt for a free press.

Instead of offering a full review of Trump’s “Fake News Awards,” let’s consider an alternative that gets to the heart of the matter, offered exclusively here, the “Trump Big Lie Award.”

With the Washington Post reporting that Trump has made more than 2,000 false or misleading claims during his first 355 days as president, let’s consider which one is the most egregious falsehood told by the president that deserves to win the award.

One of the strongest finalists, of course, is when Trump spent years repeating the lie that President Obama is not a true American. Trump’s history of repeating the birther lie is a strong candidate because it involved the first biracial president, which is the likely reason Trump perpetuated it, given his political modus operandi.

Another strong finalist, in a bipartisan spirit, is when Trump suggested that the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) was involved in the Kennedy assassination. It is hard to be sympathetic to Cruz, a sentiment shared by many on both sides of the aisle in the Senate. But Trump’s demented lie about his dad was bottom feeding, even by Trump standards. 

A third candidate for the award is Trump’s repeated claim that Mexico would pay for the wall on our border, which was ludicrous from the moment he first claimed it.

A compelling finalist for the “Trump Big Lie Award” involves his attack on the FBI for being biased in favor of Hillary Clinton, who won 3 million more popular votes than Trump did in 2016. When former FBI Director James Comey intervened twice in the last 10 days of the campaign, his poorly advised intervention predictably gave Trump, not Clinton, a major boost.  

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Trump’s attack against Federal District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over a case involving Trump University, cannot be overlooked. Trump charged that Judge Curiel could not give him a fair trial because he is Hispanic.

Perhaps Trump should have petitioned the court to send his case to a white judge and threatened a lawsuit to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court!

A frontrunner for the “Big Lie Award” is Trump’s charge that the investigations about Russian attacks against America are a hoax based on fake news. Trump would be well-advised to not repeat this tale when he is questioned by Robert Mueller and his special counsel team under oath.

Another candidate for any big lie award would be Trump’s attacks against some NFL football players who, keeping with Trump’s political modus operandi, happen to be black.

Trump, who regularly praises foreign dictators and the Russian strongman who continues to attack America, suggested the football players are unpatriotic because they kneeled during the national anthem to support social justice.

A leading contender for the big lie award would be Trump’s comments that immigrants from Latin America are rapists and criminals, and his description of immigrants from two continents as coming from countries he described with words that are widely viewed as racist.

While many viable candidates for the “Big Lie Award” could not be included here for reasons of space, it is time to announce the winner.

The “Trump’s Big Lie Award” winner is his repeated habit of insulting and demeaning women and saying that all of the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct are liars.  

The “Trump Big Lie Award” goes to the famous words he said in the Access Hollywood video, referring to women: “When you’re are a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

No, Mr. President, you can’t.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.