President-elect Donald Trump has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the magazine announced Thursday, after he became only the second president in U.S. history to lose reelection and then reclaim the White House four years later.
“Trump’s political rebirth is unparalleled in American history,” Time said in the announcement. The magazine spoke to Trump ahead of the announcement, in which he told them he called his comeback “72 Days of Fury.”
Trump beat out a short list of finalists for the title that included Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Catherine, Princess of Wales, aka Kate Middleton. (Musk was Time’s choice in 2021.)
Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan to mark the occasion. It was the first time the real estate mogul-turned-politician has rung the bell, according to the Associated Press. Former first lady Melania Trump appeared alongside him in Manhattan, as did daughters Tiffany and Ivanka, and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he upset Washington’s expectations by defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the presidency.
“This is an honor, a tremendous honor,” Trump said Thursday. “And I have to say, Time magazine, getting this honor for the second time. I think I like it better this time, actually, but we did a good job.”
Trump is only the second president to have non-consecutive terms in office, the other being Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.
The magazine outlined Trump’s comeback during the wild 2024 campaign: how he cleared the GOP field to clinch the nomination; spent three weeks in May in a New York courtroom before ultimately being convicted; survived two assassination attempts; consolidated support from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk; and overcame the swapping of the Democratic nominee.
“The election gave Trump political capital to address the sources of American discontent at home and abroad,” Time’s article said. “The question now is how he intends to spend it. By his own account, Trump will push the limits of presidential power and the law.”
Trump told Time some of his plans for the upcoming administration, including defending his plan to use the military for mass deportations, not reintroducing family separation and planning to pardon people imprisoned for taking Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol “in the first hour … maybe the first nine minutes.”
Trump also told the magazine that he told former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick for attorney general who withdrew his name from consideration, that he didn’t think “this is worth the fight.”
Since 2000, Time has crowned the winner of the presidential race as the Person of the Year, giving it jointly to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020. Former President Barack Obama won the title in 2008 and 2012, and former President George W. Bush held it as well in both 2004 and 2000. Bill Clinton took the title in 1993 and 1998 (sharing it with Kenneth Starr), George H.W. Bush in 1988, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1983 and Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Time has named a Person of the Year (originally it was called Man of the Year) every year since 1927, nearly a century ago. The magazine describes the title as not necessarily an honor or an award, but rather, says it picks based on a person’s influence and importance in a given year.
Prior to Carter, other presidents who held 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 as he led Allied forces in Europe during World War II), Harry Truman in 1945 and 1948, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, 1934 and 1941.