Do you know what’s more important to Donald Trump than winning the presidential race? Being named Time‘s Person of the Year for the second time in less than 10 years. Forget about the nightmare administration that is in the wings; you know as well as I do that he’s never going to let us live this one down.
Trump has had one heck of a year in 2024. From plodding through courtrooms to answer for two dozen alleged crimes (sexual abuse, tax fraud, and incitement not least among them) to fumbling in front of Joe Biden during their first and only debate and almost getting killed during one of his rallies, and finally winning the election and breathing a sigh of relief knowing that he wouldn’t need to cause another insurrection to stake his claim, this might go down as the most eventful year in the president-elect’s life. (Not to tempt fate, though; we still have the next 4 years of his second term to live through.)
To cap it all off, Time has just announced Trump as their 2024 Person of the Year. This is the second time the 45th president has been chosen for the annual issue, with the first time also coming on the heels of his win in 2016. This is not an exclusive honor in and of itself since there have been multiple people in history who were chosen for the honor twice, including such names as Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon. But either way, Trump must be on cloud nine right now, so no one tell him that he still has one more election win to beat Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only person in history to have been chosen three times as Person of the Year.
Now, the question any sane individual is asking themselves right now is this: Why on Earth is Trump Person of the Year again if he’s essentially the most controversial person out there right now? Well, Time is attributing this choice to the “unparalleled” political renaissance that Trump experienced in 2024. Per the magazine’s own words:
“Trump’s political rebirth is 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 U.S. 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. An assassin’s bullet missed his skull by less than an inch at a rally in Butler, Pa., in July. Over the next four months, he beat not one but two Democratic opponents, swept all seven swing states, and became the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years. He has realigned American politics, remaking the GOP and leaving Democrats reckoning with what went awry.”
So, I guess however we feel about the man himself, there’s no denying that he’s relentless in his pursuit of power. And as we prepare to stare down four more years of incompetence, bigotry, and ceaseless scandal, I wish someone had told the editors at Time that Trump is the last person on the planet they should’ve given an ego boost.