TIME announced the Person of the Year Thursday, a prestigious title that has it bestowed for the past 97 years on an “individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months.” In many years, that choice is a difficult one, it said adding that in 2024, it was not.
Trump was named TIME’s Person of the Year in 2016 as well following his first victory in the presidential elections at the time.
“Time Magazine, getting this honor for the second time, I think it like it better this time actually,” he was quoted as saying by AP ahead of him ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
It said that 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.” Trump “shocked” many by winning the White House in 2016, then led the US through a chaotic term that included the first year of a pandemic as well as a period of nationwide protest, and that ended with his losing the election by 7 million votes and provoking the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
TIME magazine noted that although the American presidency has evolved across these eras, its influence has not diminished. “Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of populism, a widening mistrust in the institutions that defined the last century, and an eroding faith that liberal values will lead to better lives for most people. Trump is both agent and beneficiary of it all.” The magazine also mentioned how Trump campaigned for weeks largely from the New York courtroom, where he would be convicted on
34 felony counts and how his sole debate with President Joe Biden in June led to his opponent’s eventual exit from the race.
It further mentioned about Trump surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally and soon, outlasted Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Look what happened,” Trump told his supporters in his election night victory speech. “Isn’t this crazy?” He almost couldn’t believe it himself,” TIME said.
“Trump has remade American politics in the process. He won by enlarging his base, seizing the frustration over rising prices and benefiting from a global turn against incumbents,” TIME said and termed Trump’s political rebirth as “unparalleled” in American history.
“His first term ended in disgrace, with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results culminating in the attack on the US Capitol. He was shunned by most party officials when he announced his candidacy in late 2022 amid multiple criminal investigations.
“Little more than a year later, Trump cleared the Republican field, clinching one of the fastest contested presidential primaries in history. He spent six weeks during the general election in a New York City courtroom, the first former President to be convicted of a crime – a fact that did little to dampen his support,” it said.
He has realigned American politics, remaking the GOP and leaving Democrats reckoning with what went awry, it added.
