The Strange Thing Donald Trump Is Demanding About A Former Pulitzer Prize Win

Donald Trump has been at the heart of many controversies, and the former president has also been vocal about calling out his political rivals and media publications. Particularly, he blasts any outlet that questions his motives and writes critically of him and his policies, slamming these outlets as "fake news."

And while Trump has had his eyes on the world, the world has had its eyes on Trump too. Along with the FBI, several other U.S. congressional committees have investigated possible ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential bid, per The New York Times. In fact, the reporting on the supposed election interference by The New York Times and The Washington Post drew broad appreciation; their respective staffs were awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting.

Evidently, Trump hasn't been too happy about the awards — and now has a specific demand about them.

In an October 3 letter addressed to Bud Kliment, the interim administrator of the Pulitzer awards, Donald Trump claimed that the reports by The New York Times and Washington Post regarding Russia's collusion were based on a "complete lack of evidence" as well as "false reporting." "As has been widely publicized, the coverage was no more than a politically motivated farce which attempted to spin a false narrative that my campaign supposedly colluded with Russia despite a complete lack of evidence underpinning this allegation," Trump claimed in his letter. (Robert Mueller's investigation didn't find any criminal interference, per CNN, though other reports suggest strong evidence of collusion.)

In his recent letter, Trump also expressed concerns about the framing of sources used by the publications in their coverage, and urged the Pulitzer committee to "act accordingly" as the awards carried "a level of reverence" that should be "credible, well-sourced and trustworthy." 

The former president claims that he hopes the recipients will "surrender" the award, but "would expect that [the Pulitzer committee] will take the necessary steps to rectify the situation, including stripping the recipients of their prize and retracting the false statements which remain on the Pulitzer website," Trump wrote. "Without holding the recipients to such a high standard of accountability, the integrity of the Pulitzer Prize namesake stands to be wholly compromised."