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Trump postpones his fake “Fake News Awards”

He’s probably worried about being overshadowed by the rest of awards season.

Trump.
Johnny Louis/FilmMagic/Getty
Johnny Louis/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Emily Stewart covers business and economics for Vox and writes the newsletter The Big Squeeze, examining the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism. Before joining Vox, she worked for TheStreet.

In a tweet posted late Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump said he plans to postpone his fake awards show for fake news to Wednesday, January 17, from Monday, January 8 — just in case you thought things couldn’t get any sillier. Guess the president doesn’t want to be overshadowed by the Golden Globes.

The “Fake News Awards,” as Trump calls it, are going to “the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media.”

Trump initially announced his intention to name “THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR” (all caps emphasis his) on Tuesday, January 2 — the same day he fired off multiple confounding tweets, including an alarming threat at North Korea that was apparently prompted by a segment on Fox News.

Late-night hosts used the plan as an opportunity to poke fun at the president — and put themselves up for the honor, of course.

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert threw his hat into the ring with a “for your consideration” billboard in New York’s Times Square, aiming to grab the president’s attention for what the comedian coined “The Fakies.” He asked that he be included in all categories, including “fakest dishonesty,” “corruptest fakeness,” and “smallest button.”

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ran an ad in the New York Times pushing itself to be given an award. The ad cites media outlet Breitbart News calling the show “political propaganda disguised as entertainment” and the New York Post describing it as “monotonous… liberal dogma.”

Live! host Jimmy Kimmel, who has become late night’s most surprising political figure, made fun of the idea as well. “The ‘Stupid People’s Choice Awards’ is what they’re calling it,” Kimmel said. “This is a real dilemma for the president, because on the one hand, he loves awards and trophies, but will he be physically able to give a trophy to someone other than himself? I don’t think so.”

Trump’s Sunday tweet postponing his made-up awards ceremony caps off what has been several days of odd online behavior from the president. As questions about his mental health mounted in the media, on Saturday the president hit back in a series of tweets, calling himself a “genius” and a “very stable genius at that!”

It’s not clear what prompted Trump to put off his fake news awards for another week and a half. Or what the awards are for. Or why he’s doing this at all.

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