US President-elect Donald Trump was on Thursday named by TIME magazine as the
2024 TIME Person of the Year for "marshaling a comeback of historic proportions' and "altering America's role in the world.'
The magazine honoured Trump also "for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment' and "for reshaping the American presidency,' second time for the president-elect after receiving it in 2016.
TIME announced the Person of the Year Thursday, a prestigious title that has it bestowed for the past 97 years on an "individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months."
In many years, that choice is a difficult one, it said adding that in 2024, it was not.
Trump was named TIME's Person of the Year in 2016 as well following his first victory in the presidential elections at the time.
"Time Magazine, getting this honor for the second time, I think it like it better this time actually," he was quoted as saying by AP ahead of him ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
It said that since he began running for President in 2015, "perhaps no single individual has played a larger role in changing the course of politics and history than Trump.'
Trump 'shocked' many by winning the White House in 2016, then led the US through a chaotic term that included the first year of a pandemic as well as a period of nationwide protest, and that ended with his losing the election by 7 million votes and provoking the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
TIME magazine noted that although the American presidency has evolved across these eras, its influence has not diminished.
"Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of populism, a widening mistrust in the institutions that defined the last century, and an eroding faith that liberal values will lead to better lives for most people. Trump is both agent and beneficiary of it all." -- PTI