TIME magazine named President-elect Donald Trump as its annual ‘Person of the Year’ on Wednesday, citing “for better or worse” the influence he held throughout 2016.
During a phone interview on NBC’s Today show just after the announcement was made, Trump called it a “great honor,”
“It’s a very important magazine and I’ve been lucky enough to be on the cover many times this year,” he said.
Trump won the presidency last month after a campaign in which he promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., and deliver change for those who’ve felt maligned by the government.
Time managing editor Nancy Gibbs wrote in an essay for the magazine saying that “it’s hard to measure the scale of [Trump’s] disruption” within the political arena, and reminded readers that Time editors select the Person of the Year based on who had the greatest impact on the news.
"For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow’s political culture by demolishing yesterday’s, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2016 Person of the Year," she wrote.
Trump beat out 10 other finalist to win the award, including his election rival, Hillary Clinton, who came in second. Last year German Chancellor Angela Merkel won the award with Trump as a runner-up.