President Donald Trump handed out his 2017 “Fake News Awards” Wednesday night — and the winner is Paul Krugman and The New York Times.

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Krugman, who grabbed top honors from the president, repeatedly wrote before the Nov. 8, 2016, election that the economy would tank if Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It didn’t. Krugman also suggested the markets would “never” recover. Yet the economy has been on a tear since Trump’s inauguration, setting new records in employment and in stock averages.

Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) also listed the runners-up. According to Fox News, they are:

2.) ABC News’ Brian Ross and his botched report on former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

3.) CNN report that the Trump campaign had early access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.

4.) Time magazine report that Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.

5.) The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, tweeting that Trump’s December rally in Pensacola, Florida, wasn’t packed with supporters. Weigel’s picture was taken before the rally started.

6.) CNN’s video suggesting Trump overfed fish during a visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In fact, Trump and Abe fed the fish the same amount, in the same way.

7.) CNN’s retracted report claiming former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci had ties to Russian bankers.

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8.) Newsweek’s report that Polish first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake Trump’s hand.

9.) CNN’s report that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim he was told he was not under investigation.

10.) The New York Times’ report that the Trump administration had hidden a climate change report.

11.) And finally, the narrative of “collusion with Russian hackers during the 2016 election.” In Trump’s words, “There is no collusion.”

The awards drew intense interest when Trump said earlier this month that he would release such a list. He postponed it. Then his critics attacked, including, most notably, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) who suggested Wednesday that Trump’s criticism of the media was like Stalinism in the old Soviet Union.

And ethics pundits Norm Eisen and Walter Schaub, both appointees of former President Barack Obama’s, said that White House staff could not be involved with the “awards,” as they disparaged specific private companies.

The RNC then took up the president’s banner — but it went as smoothly as Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director. Not everyone received the list, and when the president tweeted an RNC link, the webpage crashed and could not easily be reached.

The Hill reported the site appeared to crash from high traffic, as did Fox News’ Ed Henry.

Republican National Committee spokespersons did not respond to a request from LifeZette.

PoliZette White House writer Jim Stinson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage and article images: Paul Krugman [1], [2], CC BY 2.0, by Commonwealth Club)