The legendary New York-based magazine says its Person of the Year unquestionably had the greatest effect on the world.
Time Magazine has named US President-elect Donald Trump as its Person of the Year.
It cited as reasons the businessman’s victory in the US presidential election and the upheaval in American politics this provoked.
“For 90 years Time has named the person who’s had the greatest effect on the world and the news for good or ill,” said Ben Goldberger, assistant managing editor at Time. “This year I think it is unquestionable that that is Donald Trump. Now the debate over whether that’s for good or ill is far, far less clear.”
The magazine published a short video about its choice, describing Trump as “President of the Divided States of America”.
See why Donald Trump was chosen as TIME's Person of the Year 2016 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/PmRkk3Bw0z pic.twitter.com/DVfHYiexoT
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2016
The magazine noted Trump’s eclectic career as real estate magnate and reality television star before winning the US presidency.
Read what Donald Trump said during his Person of the Year interview #TIMEPOY https://t.co/3jNUSpLwKJ
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2016
“It’s a great honour, it means a lot,” Trump told NBC’s “Today” show shortly after the announcement.
It was a change of tone from 2013, when in criticising the magazine he predicted that Time would “soon be dead”.
The Time Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential People is a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek,soon be dead. Bad list!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2013