On Friday, after President Donald Trump tweeted about the New York Times and the Washington Post’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Russia, Donald Trump Jr. agreed with his father’s assessment that the prize should be taken away, “unless they give Pulitzer’s for fiction.”
So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia – And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
He’s right… unless they give Pulitzer’s for fiction. #fakenews https://t.co/TN5CE84tvw
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 29, 2019
There’s just one catch: The Pulitzer Prizes do award an annual prize for fiction work.
Off-screen narrator: “They do.”
— Eric ⓥ Lindstrom (@TheSkepticalV) March 30, 2019
Twitter users, including past winners, quickly let Trump Jr. know about it.
https://twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen/status/1111818378384019456
Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American author, won the award in 2016 for his book The Sympathizer and mentioned it to Trump Jr. “Actually, I think I won one of those Pulitzers for fiction,” he wrote.
Author Andrew Sean Greer posed with a photo of his Pulitzer for his novel, Less.
https://twitter.com/agreer/status/1112030803620302848
Another added a caption from the Pulitzer Prizes’ website as evidence that yes, the committee does award a prize for fiction.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 29, 2019
— Dan Ozzi (@danozzi) March 29, 2019
Some Twitter users decided to make a joke about Trump Jr.’s errant apostrophe, too.
Does it have an apostrophe? If not then it doesn’t count. Them’s the rules.
— 𝔏𝔞 ℭ𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞 ℭ𝔞𝔯𝔩𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔞 🏳️⚧️ (@CharlySloane) March 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/morninggloria/status/1111791659518353411
Comedy writer Megan Amram just got “so fucking jealous” of how funny the tweet was.
This is the best joke of all time and i’m so fucking jealous
— Megan Amram (@meganamram) March 30, 2019
Others just marveled at how ridiculous it was.
https://twitter.com/PoleNordPoleSud/status/1112033490219028480
And then there are those that won’t let him live down his “S&L” snafu.
https://twitter.com/action_ian/status/1112025842991796225
The Pulitzer Prizes awards seven prizes in the general category of Letters, Drama, and Music each year. Prizes are awarded in the categories of biography or autobiography, fiction, general nonfiction, history, poetry, drama, and music.
The first Pulitzer Prize for fiction was given in 1918, but at the time the category was called the Pulitzer Prize for the novel. It became the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948.
The New York Times responded to the president’s original tweet, saying, “We’re proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Every @nytimes article cited has proven accurate.”
We’re proud of our Pulitzer-prize winning reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Every @nytimes article cited has proven accurate. https://t.co/NvG27oeuNv
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) March 30, 2019
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