TIME magazine has announced its person of the year, and that person is….
President-elect Donald Trump.
Ugh.
TIME managing editor Nancy Gibbs announced Trump’s cover on the Today show this morning. She said:
“When have we ever seen a single individual who has so defied expectations, broken the rules, violated norms, beaten not one but two political parties on the way to winning an election that he entered with 100-1 odds against him. I don’t think we have ever seen one person operating in such an unconventional way have an impact on the events of the year quite like this.”
TIME has put Trump on their cover many times in the past, notably publishing two caricatures of a melting Trump head on their cover during the election. This time, Trump is photographed in person.
Now, many people are pointing out — correctly — that the TIME person of the year isn’t a humanitarian award. According to TIME itself, the title goes to “the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year.”
Previous TIME people of the year include Hitler and Stalin.
But before you go thinking that TIME’s cover is a stand against Trump, look at Trump’s reaction: He’s overjoyed.
He teased the announcement on Twitter before TIME officially shared the news; he called in to Today and said that the cover was a “tremendous honor” and that TIME is “a very important magazine. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the cover many times this year and last year.”
As Politico points out, Trump has in fact campaigned to TIME’s person of the year in the past and sent out a tweetstorm when he lost the title to Angela Merkel in 2015: “I told you @TIME magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany.”
So, before you believe anyone who tells you this isn’t a big deal: Trump is happy about this. And that means something.
There’s never been a better time to support independent feminist media, just sayin’…
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