The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. managed to catch himself in a spectacular self-own on Twitter late Friday.
It all started with a tweet from his dad (i.e., the president) on something incorrect, as he is wont to do. In this case, it was regarding Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The two papers did indeed win the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2018 for their “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.”
Since Attorney General Bill Barr released a short summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report stating that investigators found no one on the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians, the president and his supporters have been attacking the press, accusing them of fueling baseless conspiracy theories.
However, contrary to Trump’s tweet about the Pulitzers, nothing in those newspapers’ reporting has proven to be “fake” and there’s certainly no evidence these journalists were “either duped or corrupt.”
Still, the president tweeted that their prizes should be taken away.
Then Trump Jr. decided to pipe up with this short and sweet and completely self-owning tweet.
*kisses fingers like an Italian chef*
The Pulitzer Prizes, of course, do indeed have a fiction category that has been honoring novels for just over 100 years.
The first winner was His Family by Ernest Poole, awarded in 1918. Past winners also include many celebrated titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1961), The Color Purple (1983), and The Hours (1999).
People on Twitter were quick to call out the flub, including author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who won the prize for fiction in 2016 for The Sympathizer.
@DonaldJTrumpJr Actually, I think I won one of those Pulitzers for fiction @DonaldJTrumpJr
Truly, a spectacular effort.
@DonaldJTrumpJr This is the best joke of all time and i'm so fucking jealous
Just absolutely nailed it.
@TVietor08 @DonaldJTrumpJr Junior after hitting that send button
Trump Jr. did not correct his mistake and rather went on to retweet a promotional message about his own merchandise.