President-elect Donald Trump has been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, the magazine announced Thursday, after becoming only the second president in US history to lose re-election and then regain the White House four years later.
Trump beat a short list of finalists for the title, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s billionaire ally Elon MuskIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Catherine, Princess of Walesalso known as Kate Middleton. (Musk was Time’s choice in 2021.)
Trump is expected to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan to mark the occasion. According to the Associated Press, it will be the first time that the real estate magnate turned politician will sound the alarm.
Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016when he upset Washington’s expectations by defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the presidency. Trump is only the second president to serve non-consecutive terms, the other being Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Since 2000, Time has crowned the winner of the presidential race as Person of the Year, and in 2020 jointly awarded it to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Barack Obama won the title in 2008 and 2012, and former President George W. Bush held the title in both 2004 and 2000. Bill Clinton took the title in 1993 and 1998 (sharing it with . Kenneth Starr), George HW Bush in 1988, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1983 and Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Time has given a name Person of the Year (originally called Man of the Year) since 1927, almost a century ago. The magazine does not necessarily describe the title as an honor or distinction, but rather says the title is chosen based on one’s influence and importance in a given year.
Before Carter, other presidents to hold the title were Richard Nixon in 1971 and 1972, Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and 1967, John F. Kennedy in 1961, Dwight Eisenhower in 1959 (he had also won the title in 1944 while leading Allied forces) . in Europe during World War II), Harry Truman in 1945 and 1948, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, 1934 and 1941.
