Donald Trump Has Been Named TIME’s Person Of The Year

It’s official: Donald Trump has been named TIME Magazine’s 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, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2016 Person of the Year,” wrote TIME’s managing editor Nancy Gibbs in 2016’s “How We Chose” article.

The choice did not come as much of a surprise to many. The annual Person of the Year is normally a single figure or group that has influenced the year’s s events - whether that change is for good or bad. Donald Trump, the political outsider turned leader of the United States and most lethal military in the world, definitely fits that description. The news cycle this year surrounded the controversial figure, and his election to the presidential office has been one of the most influential events in the world.

Other finalists for the person of the year included Hillary Clinton, Simone Biles, Beyonce, Mark Zuckerberg, and the people of Flint, Mich., who alerted the country that the city’s water was undrinkable and contaminated with lead. According to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton was the No. 2 person of the year, as she is on track to win the country’s popular vote.

Although Trump was honored by his selection (clearly unaware of the fact it isn't always an "honor"), he wasn’t too happy about his title of the “president of the divided states of America.”

“When you say divided states of America, I didn’t divide them,” Trump told Matt Lauer in a phone interview. “They’re divided now. I mean there’s a lot of division, and we’re going to put it back together and we’re going to have a country that’s very well healed.”

Social media showed some of the country’s division as people reacted to the president-elect’s selection as person of the year.

Many twitter users were quick to point out that past “winners” of the honor include Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Vladmir Putin.

Others compared Trump’s selection to fictional evil dark lords/shapeless evil entities.

The people who really won the internet, though, are the ones who took this opportunity to celebrate all of the amazing memes afforded by TIME’s Trump cover.