Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump after he again falsely claims he was ‘man of the year’ in Michigan

'I remember so well,' president says of award that no one else remembers at all

Donald Trump was back in Michigan on Thursday, and he was sure to repeat a baseless boast that has confounded fact-checkers for years when he claimed he is a former "man of the year" there.

The president has made the claim a handful of times since taking office, an apparent attempt to over-inflate his popularity in a state he won narrowly in 2016 over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This time, however, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel roasted Mr Trump over the claim.

He brought up the apparently erroneous tale twice while touring a Ford Motor Company plant that is producing ventilators and other anti-coronavirus equipment. The first came in response to a reporter's question about whether he is concerned he sent the wrong message to Michigan residents when he threatened to block federal aid dollars over a mail-in voting flap at a time when experts say the state is dealing with a 500-year flood.

"No, I'm not. I'm – no. I'm not concerned at all. We're going to help Michigan. Michigan is a great state. I've gotten tremendous business to go to Michigan. Michigan is one of the reasons I ran. I was honoured in Michigan long before I thought about - I was honored as the man of the year in Michigan at a big event."

"I remember so well," he said before describing a speech he gave that alleged night questioning why so many automobile sector jobs had migrated to Mexico. "And I posed many questions to Michigan that night, and I think it think made quite an impression."

Moments later, as he ascended a podium on the factory floor for a speech that was more campaign rally than coronavirus response update, Mr Trump went back to what's become one of his go-to stories when on Michigan soil.

"It was probably 10 years ago. The man of the year. They named me man of the year in Michigan," he said onstage. "And I said, 'What's going on in Michigan?' And we've stopped it. And thanks to a lot of great companies like Ford, a lot of things are happening here."

It was not immediately clear to what Mr Trump was referring when he allegedly asked the unnamed person(s) what was happening in the key 2020 battleground state. He might have been referring to the coronavirus outbreak, which hit metropolitan areas like Detroit hard, or perhaps it was after he learned the state government was sending mail-in ballot applications to 7.7m registered voters. (Democrats generally do better among remote voters.)

Mr Trump's boast appears to refer to a 2013 dinner organised by now-former GOP Congressman Dave Trott, who reached out to CNN to, in his words, "correct" the president.

Mr Trott described a Lincoln Day dinner for Oakland County Republicans, to which he invited Mr Trump to give a speech. At the event, he presented the then-businessman with a framed copy of the 16th president's Gettysburg Address and other gifts.

But there was no man of the year dinner or certificate, Mr Trott told CNN.

Enter Mr Kimmel, who declared this on his late-night ABC show on Thursday night: "It would appear, and you're not going to believe this, he made it up."

"But that doesn't mean he won't say he was every chance that he gets," Mr Kimmel added before playing clips of each time the president has made the claim.

Check out the full Kimmel Show bit: