President-elect Donald Trump once again was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” marking the second time he’s been selected in the past decade.
Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor-in-chief, announced on NBC’s “Today” show that Trump was Time’s 2024 selection, adding that the president-elect was someone who, “for better or for worse, had the most influence on the news in 2024.”
“This is someone who made a historic comeback, who reshaped the American presidency, and who’s reordering American politics,” Jacobs said. “It’s hard to argue with the fact that the person who’s moving into the Oval Office is the most influential person in news.”
He said that “there’s always a hot debate” at the magazine over the honor.
“Although I have to admit that this year was an easier decision than years past,” he said.
“I called it 72 Days of Fury. There were no days off. There were no timeouts. If you made a mistake, it would be magnified at levels that nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump recalled.
“So you couldn’t make a mistake. And I think we just really ran well. It was a drive to go through it. It started 72 days out. For some reason, it just seemed to be it. And I worked very hard.”
Speaking about how Democrats performed in 2024, Trump said that the party never “got a feel for the country” because Americans “are angry over immigration,” taxes, and inflation.
The president-elect, who is due to take office on Jan. 20, 2024, was asked about a range of topics, including when he will pardon Jan. 6 Capitol breach defendants, the Musk- and Vivek Ramaswamy-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), mass deportations, recess appointments for his Cabinet nominations, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vaccines, Ukraine, and the Middle East.
When asked about DOGE, which will not be a federal agency, Trump told the Time reporters that the United States has a government “that is bloated with rules, regulations” and suggested there are too many federal workers.
“We are going to need a lot of people in a lot of other jobs. We’re looking to get people into private sector jobs where they can do better and be more productive,” the president-elect said.
“We have some interesting months coming up, at the beginning. We’re going to see what happens. But this country is bloated.”
Meanwhile, Trump reiterated that he’s going to pardon most of those convicted of breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It’s going to start in the first hour,” he said of the pardons. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”
On the Israel–Hamas war, Trump said he wants to end the conflict and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aware of his views. When Time asked Trump whether he trusted Netanyahu, Trump responded with one sentence: “I don’t trust anybody.”
The incoming commander-in-chief also made references to his plans on how he will deport large numbers of illegal immigrants out of the United States, stating that the military can assist him in doing so. During the 2024 campaign, Trump and his surrogates often said he would initiate the largest mass deportation plan in U.S. history, saying it would be a net positive for the economy and would lower crime levels.
“I’ll only do what the law allows,“ he said on deportations, ”but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows.”
Trump is expected to be on Wall Street to mark the ceremonial start of the day’s trading. The Time magazine cover featuring him was projected onto a wall at the stock exchange, flanked by American flags.
