CNN fact checker tracks down the potential origin of one of Trump's most baffling lies

CNN's Daniel Dale, who has made his name as a tireless fact checker of President Donald Trump's many lies and false claims, may have just solved the mystery behind one of the president's biggest whoppers.

During a rally on Thursday night, Trump once again claimed that he had been named "Michigan's Man of the Year," despite the fact that no record of any such award exists. According to Dale, Trump has claimed to have won this nonexistent award no fewer than seven times since November 2016, even though he has never once provided evidence to back up this claim.

Dale on Friday decided to ask for help in tracking down the origins of this lie and he was given a promising lead from former Congressman Dave Trott (R-MI), who says that Trump believed that he received the award during a dinner in which he was invited to speak at in 2013.

"But Trott says there was no award, just a speech," Dale writes. "Trott says that Trump thanked him for the alleged award at a 2017 roundtable with auto CEOs. Trott says he wasn’t about to correct Trump in front of CEOs while in Congress, but now he’s out of office and doesn’t care, so he can say Trump made it up."