TIME names Trump Person of the Year 2024

President-elect Donald Trump, who has endured a turbulent 2024 marked by several high-profile court cases, an unusual election campaign and an assassination attempt, has been named TIME magazine’s Personality of the Year 2024.

Time magazine has named President-elect Donald Trump as 2024’s person of the year.The publication announced its selection Thursday. This is Trump’s second time, after first being selected in 2016. Pop megastar Taylor Swift was 2023’s person of the year.

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) 2024-12-12T12:56:34.270Z

After complaining repeatedly in recent years about not receiving this title, which he felt he deserved, Trump is finally being honored this year.

It’s the second time he’s earned the distinction, having already been named Person of the Year in 2016.

This year, Trump was up against several notable figures for the title, including his 2024 election campaign rival Kamala Harris, as well as Princess of Wales Kate Middleton and billionaire Elon Musk, winner of the title in 2021.

Other candidates included Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Vladimir Putin rival Alexei Navalny, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, META CEO Mark Zuckerberg (2010 incumbent), Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, animator Joe Rogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Donald Trump unquestionably marked 2024 by decisively winning the presidential election against all odds. For the first time, he won a majority of the popular vote and swung all the key states in favor of the Republicans.

A spectacular comeback, despite the many controversies surrounding him, not least his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden, the results of which he still refuses to acknowledge.

In 2024, he was at the center of numerous court cases, becoming the first convicted felon to be elected president.

A New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of fraud for falsifying business records to conceal a payment, made on the eve of the 2016 election, to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, an adult star with whom he allegedly had an affair, while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with their son Barron.

In January 2024, following a retrial, Trump was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages.

This follows further defamatory statements by Trump, having already been found guilty in 2023 of sexual assault and defamation in a civil case, for which he was ordered to pay $5 million.

Donald Trump was also under investigation for alleged mishandling of confidential documents after his presidency. A grand jury had indicted him on 40 criminal counts, but the case evolved when the Supreme Court granted him presidential immunity.

Charges related to his official duties as president had to be reframed, and with his election victory, the case was finally withdrawn by special prosecutor on the case Jack Smith.

In 2024, Donald Trump was the target of several assassination attempts, underscoring the extreme tensions surrounding his presidential bid and return to politics.

Despite the high risks, these incidents only reinforced his image among his supporters, illustrating a deeply polarized and volatile political climate.

Whether we like him or not, Trump has undeniably left his mark on 2024, attracting considerable attention. This visibility earned him Time Magazine’s 2024 Personality of the Year award.

And as 2024 draws to a close, 2025 promises to be just as turbulent for Trump, as he prepares to return to the White House to begin his second term at the end of January.

A deserved title, in your opinion?