President Donald Trump’s controversial “Fake News Awards” are making headlines again as the term resurfaces in an unexpected diplomatic context—with Iran dismissing the U.S. leader’s recent peace overtures as “fake news” amid escalating Middle East tensions and a devastating month-long war.
The original awards ceremony, unveiled on January 17, 2018, created an internet firestorm when Trump announced ten “honorees” via Twitter, linking to a list on the Republican Party’s website that promptly crashed from overwhelming traffic. The spoof awards targeted major U.S. media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—all frequent targets of the then-President’s criticism.
CNN dominated the dubious honors, nabbing four separate awards for various reports Trump disputed. The New York Times and ABC News each earned two spots on the list, while Newsweek, Time, and The Washington Post rounded out the remaining “winners.” Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman secured the top spot for his election-night column suggesting markets would struggle following Trump’s 2016 victory—though Krugman had walked back those comments within days of publishing them.
ABC’s Brian Ross earned recognition after being suspended for four weeks without pay for incorrectly reporting details about former Trump aide Michael Flynn. Ross had erroneously reported that then-candidate Trump directed Flynn to contact Russian officials during the campaign, when the actual communication occurred during the post-election transition period. The network called it a “serious error” and issued a formal apology.
The awards included ten specific instances where Trump claimed media outlets falsely reported on topics ranging from alleged Russian collusion to empty amphitheaters and even overfeeding fish. An eleventh “bonus” award went broadly to any publication or broadcast that covered Trump’s alleged ties to Russia—claims the former reality star turned commander-in-chief vehemently denied throughout his first presidency.
Commentary, criticism, and outrage erupted across social media following the announcement. Newsweek’s Chris Riotta, called out for false reporting about a handshake, joked that he was “honored and humbled” to be included. Some outlets expressed mock offense at being excluded from the list entirely, with The Daily Beast, BuzzFeed News, and the Daily News sarcastically lamenting their omission.
Then-Senator Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican who had announced he would not seek re-election, delivered a stinging rebuke on the day of the awards. Speaking from the Senate floor, Flake accused Trump of undermining free press freedoms with despotic language. “It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,” Flake declared, referencing Trump’s “enemy of the people” attacks on the press.
Following the controversial unveiling, Trump attempted to soften the blow via follow-up tweets. “Despite some very corrupt and dishonest media coverage, there are many great reporters I respect and lots of GOOD NEWS for the American people to be proud of!” the president wrote at the time. His colleague John McCain, Arizona’s senior senator, also weighed in with a Washington Post op-ed warning that Trump’s attacks on the media made it harder to hold repressive governments accountable worldwide.
Fast forward to March 2026, and the phrase “fake news” has taken on international diplomatic dimensions. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf turned Trump’s own terminology against him when dismissing the current president’s claims of peace negotiations as indirect talks through Pakistan appeared to stall. In a social media post, Ghalibaf wrote that “no negotiations have been held with the US” and that “Fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.”
Trump has characterized Iran’s leadership as wanting to “make a deal so badly” while simultaneously threatening to “obliterate” Iranian energy infrastructure if a deal isn’t reached. The president claimed that envoy Steve Witkoff, son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance were all engaged in talks that had yielded “points of major agreement”—claims Tehran has flatly denied.
The Wall Street Journal reported on March 27, 2026, that Iran did not request Trump’s announced 10-day pause on strikes against its energy facilities, set to expire on Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M. Eastern Time. Pakistan has been facilitating indirect communications between Washington and Tehran, delivering a 15-point U.S. peace proposal that Iran has publicly rejected as “unrealistic.” The Islamic Republic has countered with its own five conditions, including war reparations and recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026, has killed more than 1,750 people in Iran and displaced hundreds of thousands in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have intensified against Hezbollah positions. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20% of global oil flows—has sent energy prices soaring and rattled financial markets worldwide.
The ironic deployment of Trump’s signature phrase by a foreign adversary underscores how the “fake news” concept has evolved from a domestic political weapon into global diplomatic vernacular. What began as awards targeting American journalists has transformed into terminology that both supporters and critics—including international actors—now wield in political discourse.
The 2018 awards represented Trump’s escalation of ongoing attacks against major U.S. media outlets. Media pundits described the initial announcement as a flop due to the Republican Party’s website experiencing technical difficulties and displaying a 404 error, along with a note stating they were “making it great again.” The highly publicized event drew massive online attention despite the technical difficulties that temporarily prevented access to the complete winners list.
Critics at the time argued the awards dangerously eroded public trust in journalism and democratic institutions. Flake warned that dictators worldwide were using Trump’s “fake news” terminology as a cudgel against their own critics, citing Syrian President Bashar Assad and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as examples. Supporters viewed the awards as justified pushback against what they perceived as biased coverage of the Trump administration.
The resurfacing of “fake news” rhetoric in 2026—now directed at Trump himself by Iranian officials—highlights the unpredictable consequences of political messaging in an interconnected world. As tensions in the Middle East continue and energy markets react to the ongoing conflict, the linguistic legacy of Trump’s original awards ceremony reverberates in unexpected ways across the international stage, with a phrase he once weaponized now being wielded against him by adversaries seeking leverage in high-stakes diplomatic negotiations.