No, Donald Trump did not coin the term 'fake news'

I was surprised to hear a Sky News reporter state that Donald Trump 'coined' the term 'fake news'.  In fact that statement is itself 'fake news'.

Donald Trump may have popularised the term 'fake news' and he certainly used it more than anyone else I can think of but he didn't coin it.

The term 'fake news' was already in use in the 19th century.  Then it was used by newspapers and magazines to boast about the quality of their own journalism and attack that of a rival, which would then be described as publishing 'fake news'.

In 1895 the journal Electricity claimed that 'we never copy fake news' and the following year a writer at a newspaper in California attacked the publisher of another newspaper stating, 'It is his habit to indulge in fake news.  He will make up news when he fails to find it.'

Fake news seems to have been an issue at that time because the Toronto Daily Mail (13 June 1893) carried a report headed 'FAKE NEWS'.  It stated that the Connecticut legislature had introduced a bill providing for the punishment of people who sent 'fake news' to newspapers.

Some earlier newspaper reports used the term 'false news' but gradually 'fake news' became the preferred term and it was in widespread use long before Donald Trump was even born.