Trump Says He Was ‘Man of the Year.’ His Source Says It Isn’t True.

Fact-checkers have found no evidence over the years that former President Donald J. Trump once received the honor in Michigan.

Former President Donald J. Trump expressed irritation on Thursday that anyone would challenge his claim that he had been declared “man of the year” in Michigan many years ago. During a speech in Detroit, he triumphantly pulled out a news story to prove that he was right.

The only problem: The news outlet that published the story corrected it online shortly after he cited it. The revised version of the story that he held up as evidence that his account was correct now reports that his account was wrong.

At issue is a claim that Mr. Trump has been making since at least 2016 and that he repeated on the campaign trail just last month. “Years ago, in this area I was honored as the man of the year,” he said during a campaign event on Sept. 27 in Warren, Mich. “It was maybe 20 years ago.”

For years, fact-checkers have found no indication that that ever happened. A former Republican congressman from Michigan, Dave Trott, told CNN, The Detroit News and other news organizations in 2019 that Mr. Trump was referring to a Republican dinner in the state’s Oakland County in 2013 that Mr. Trott had organized. Mr. Trott said Mr. Trump had been presented with gifts but no “man of the year” award at that event.

Mr. Trump raised the issue again on Thursday during an appearance at the Detroit Economic Club, where he complained that a recent New York Times article exploring the impact of age on his speeches and memory had cited that as an example of unverified claims that he often makes. Mr. Trump, 78, is the oldest major party presidential nominee in American history and would be the oldest president ever if he wins and finishes his next term.

“This was long before — many years before I ran for president, maybe 18 or 20 years ago,” Mr. Trump told the Detroit audience, referring to the supposed man-of-the-year honor. In response to the Times story, he said that he had instructed his staff to find proof that he really did win the long-ago award. “It was like 19 years ago. It was a long time. But I was honored. And guess what? They found it. I was.”