President-elect Donald Trump has recently been announced as TIME magazine’s chosen person of the year 2024. TIME’s Person of the Year is an annual award given to a person or group of people who have had a great influence or impact on the world over the past year, no matter how negative or positive the influence. The award was first awarded in 1927 to a pilot named Charles Lindbergh for becoming the first person to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and since has been awarded to people like Queen Elizabeth II, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and most recently Donald Trump.
This is Trump’s second time being awarded Person of the Year, the first being in 2016 after his first presidential election win. But this has sparked questions from users on social media about why Donald Trump is the Person of the Year for 2024. According to TIME magazine’s national political correspondent, Eric Cortellessa, “First Donald Trump steamrolls the primary, Donald Trump wrapped up the contessive primary faster than any other candidate in American presidential history…” He goes on to say in his interview with TIME magazine, “that debate [the presidential debate against Joe Biden] was obviously calamitous for Joe Biden, that then led to a panic among democrats who tried to get him off the ballot and as this is happening. Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt… that became one of the most iconic moments in American presidential history and certainly turbo-charged his campaign to a point where he seemed at that moment [to] hold history in his hands.” He brings the interview to a close by stating, “As the story ends up noted, this was a historically close election. In fact, this is the closest presidential election by popular vote margins since the 19th century. So, the country remains very divided, and I think there’s going to be a titanic battle in the coming months and years over the nature and scale of a mandate that Donald Trump believes the American people have handed to him.”
People have had lots of different reactions to this news. Micheal Kosta, a cast member on The Daily Show, made a joke about it while on the air. “This morning the editor of Time Magazine came on TV to reveal who this year’s person was, even though the moment you see the editor’s face, you know right away it’s Donald Trump…That’s the most unenthusiastic reveal I’ve ever seen. That’s how I act when my sister gives me scented lotion for Christmas.” While the Daily Show did not enjoy hearing the news, others did enjoy it. Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, came on X (formally Twitter) and tweeted “Well deserved!”
Overall, according to Time Magazine, Donald Trump has had the biggest comeback of this year from the beginning of 2024 and being convicted of felony charges, to the middle of the year with having two assassination attempts, but by the end of 2024 was named to be the next president of the United States of America.