Magazine says we are ‘living in the Age of Trump’ as US president-elect outlines mass deportation and foreign policy plans.
TIME Magazine has named Donald Trump its “Person of the Year”, saying “perhaps no single individual has played a larger role in changing the course of politics and history” than the United States president-elect.
In a statement on Thursday explaining the choice, TIME wrote that Trump — who defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to win last month’s presidential election — is experiencing his “apotheosis”.
“On the cusp of his second presidency, all of us—from his most fanatical supporters to his most fervent critics—are living in the Age of Trump,” the magazine said.
“For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year.”
Trump surged to victory in the November 5 election after a campaign marked by incendiary and often hateful rhetoric against migrants, Democrats and other perceived opponents.
The Republican, who will take office on January 20, has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history – a pledge that has drawn rebuke from rights advocates and spurred a sense of fear in many communities.
Late last month, Trump also threatened to impose huge tariffs on Mexico and Canada if the two countries do not stem irregular migration as well as the flow of illegal drugs over their borders with the US.
In an interview with TIME published on Thursday, the US president-elect said he would be willing to use the army to deport migrants from the country. “It doesn’t stop the military if it’s an invasion of our country,” he said, adding that he would “only do what the law allows”.
“But I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows,” Trump said.
Asked whether he would reinstate a policy that saw migrant children separated from their parents, Trump said: “I don’t think we’ll have to because we will send the whole family back”.
The Republican leader’s “America First” foreign policy has also been in the spotlight since his election victory.
Trump has pledged to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in the White House and take a hard line against China and Iran.
He also has reiterated his staunch support for Israel while threatening in early December that there will be “hell to pay” if captives held in the Gaza Strip are not released before he takes office.
In his TIME interview, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows he wants the war in Gaza to end. Asked if he trusts the Israeli leader, he answered: “I don’t trust anybody.”
Trump also told the magazine that he disagrees with Ukraine’s firing of US missiles into Russian territory, saying the move was “escalating this war and making it worse”.
But he said he would use Washington’s support for Kyiv as leverage against Moscow to end the conflict. “I want to reach an agreement,” he told TIME, “and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon.”
Trump was named the magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House.
The other finalists for this year’s designation were Harris, Netanyahu, X owner Elon Musk, and Kate, the Princess of Wales.
The magazine emphasises that its choice of “Person of the Year” is based on the figure being “newsworthy – not necessarily praiseworthy”, and acknowledges that the choices are “often controversial”.
Previous picks include Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin, as well as more popular figures such as the US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr and the South African anti-apartheid figure and later President Nelson Mandela.