Time Magazine has named U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Person of the Year, citing the upheaval in American politics brought about by the election campaign and victory of the New York businessman.
“It’s a great honour, it means a lot,” Trump told NBC’s Today show in an interview shortly after the announcement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also in the running for Time’s annual honour of person of the year.
“It’s hard to measure the scale of his disruption,” Time said in its announcement on Wednesday, noting Trump’s eclectic career as real estate magnate and reality television star before winning the highest office in the land.
“For those who believe this is all for the better, Trump’s victory represents a long-overdue rebuke to an entrenched and arrogant governing class,” it said.
The shortlist included: Putin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, US gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, ex-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, CRISPR Scientists who developed a groundbreaking new technology that can edit DNA, the Flint Whistleblowers who along with civil-engineering professor Marc Edwards and local pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, blew the whistle on the lead-poisoned water in Flint, Mich and singer Beyonce.