President-elect Donald Trump is TIME magazine’s 2016 Person of the Year, it was revealed Wednesday.
The brash billionaire who Americans voted into the Oval Office last month, despite the fact that he has never held public office, was chosen by TIME editors as the person deemed to have most influenced the year’s news—for better or worse.
“Me growing up reading TIME magazine, it’s a very important magazine. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the cover many times this year and last year, but I consider this a very, very great honor,” Trump said Wednesday on the Today show moments after the announcement was made. “To be on the cover of TIME magazine as Person of the Year is a tremendous honor.”
TIME editor Nancy Gibbs writes that Trump is Person of the Year 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.”
Read more of Fortune’s coverage of Trump below:
- Most Americans Are OK With Donald Trump Keeping His Business Empire, Poll Finds
- Donald Trump Is Inheriting the Best Economy in a Generation
- This Major Hedge Fund Manager Loves Donald Trump’s Tax Plan
- Warren Buffett Says Donald Trump Won’t Derail the Economy
- Fortune 500 CEOs Are Finally Flocking to Donald Trump
This is the 90th year that TIME has named a Person of the Year. On this year’s short list is Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hackers and the CRISPR pioneers.