Time Magazine announced that President-elect Donald Trump is the magazine’s 2024 Person of the Year on Thursday. Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning to celebrate.
The title has been given every year for 97 years to the one person who wielded the most influence on global affairs.
The outlet stated that the choice to pick Trump this year was not a difficult one.
“Since he began running for President in 2015, perhaps no single individual has played a larger role in changing the course of politics and history than Trump,” Time’s editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote.
Donald Trump is TIME’s Person of the Year https://t.co/IjP5W2otV5 pic.twitter.com/CVHX9o0DB3
— TIME (@TIME) December 12, 2024
Jacobs specified that Trump was awarded the title this year “for marshaling a comeback of historic proportions” as well as “for reshaping the American presidency.” He noted that “all of us… are living in the Age of Trump.”
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This marks the second time Trump has been given the title. He was also named Time Person of the Year in 2016 following his presidential election victory.
Before ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 a.m., Trump said that it was “a tremendous honor” to be awarded the title for the second time.
President-elect Donald Trump. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Other individuals who were shortlisted for Person of the Year this year include Kate Middleton, Elon Musk, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Trump once publicly speculated that he would never be given the title.
“I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite,” he wrote in a social media post in 2015. Time picked then-German chancellor Angela Merkel that year for Person of the Year.
Time has named every U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, except for Gerald Ford, Person of the Year at least once. Previous non-presidential winners include Mark Zuckerberg and the 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift.
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