We’re so glad the runner-up for “Time’s” Person of the Year lost
After plenty of rumors and conjecture, the results are in: Time has officially named their Person of the Year. The yearly acknowledgement of the most influential person in the world went to not one, but many. The Silence Breakers — those who dared to speak out against sexual assault — graced the cover. But turns out the runner-up for 2017’s Person of the Year was none other than Donald Trump.
This might come as a confusing turn of events for anyone who follows Trump’s Twitter account. After all, the President had previously said that Time contacted him about taking the title, but he “turned it down.” Time quickly countered on its own Twitter account, stating the claim was false.
https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/934189999045693441
The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6.
— TIME (@TIME) November 25, 2017
In fact, the decision had already been made by the time Trump started tweeting. In a Wednesday morning interview on Today, Time Magazine’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal further clarified the situation. Apparently, by the time Trump was tweeting, the magazine had already completed the cover photo shoot — five days earlier, in fact.
So why did President Trump come so close to the title? According to Felsenthal, the former reality star earned an honorable mention, “because he has changed the nature of the presidency and the way the White House functions.”
If they mean by undermining American democracy, okay, we get it.
We’re not going to lie: we are so happy the Silence Breakers ultimately received the honor and would have been supremely disappointed if Trump — an accused sexual assaulter — had taken Person of the Year for a second year in a row (he was named Person of the Year in 2016).
Congratulations to the women and men who took home the 2017 title. We hope their bravery leads to a time when all sexual abusers are held accountable for their actions.
