Many people don’t think Trump should’ve been chosen as Time’s “Person of the Year” because he’s a horrible person who will do nothing but make the country worse over the next four years. But my take is different than most because even though I also don’t think Trump should’ve been chosen at all, it’s not only because he’s a dangerous sociopath actively making the world worse, but because his actual “impact” is questionable.
I understand that Time’s “Person of the Year” isn’t meant to be a popularity contest or someone making an unequivocally good impact on the world. Under the sole criteria of “Who’s making the biggest impact on the world?” you can absolutely understand people like Hitler during the years when they were making a horrific splash around the globe.
But Trump isn’t really the most impactful person of 2024 the way it was unquestionably Zelenskyy in 2022. In fact, seeing Don Jr. brag about “kicking Zelenskyy off the cover” is part of the ongoing joke where we pretend a bunch of puppets are some macho he-men ready to “remake” America rather than just empty vassals going about an agenda they can barely even understand. There are indeed several contenders who would’ve made more sense…
—Elon Musk would’ve made more sense: he is now halfway to being the world’s first trillionaire, he gave more money to Trump than all small donors combined and was rewarded with an actual administration post, his “stewardship” of Twitter is more impactful than anything Trump is doing with Truth Social, etc. [I also like the added benefit of knowing that Musk winning would’ve driven Trump crazy.]
—Vladimir Putin would’ve made more sense: his international lawlessness has never seemed more bulletproof, he “won reelection” this year as well, his top antagonist Navalny was murdered by him with little consequence, Assad fled to Russia for his protection, the Russian-sponsored riots in the UK, the bomb threats during America’s Election Day, etc.
—Benjamin Netanyahu would’ve made more sense: There was no issue more discussed, debated, or covered than what he’s been doing all year. In the past few months, he’s killed the architect of the October 7th attacks, blew up half of Hezbollah with those pager bombs, attacked Iran, and inadvertently helped sweep away Assad. Whether you agree with his Middle East actions or think he’s a monster, he is absolutely making a huge impact in the Middle East.
—Kamala Harris would’ve made more sense: You really do not have to “win” an election to become Time’s Person of the Year, and I think what she was able to do in only 100 days (securing the nomination, campaigning like crazy, combining her and Biden’s campaign staff, raising a record amount of money, a huge ground operation, killing Trump at a debate, stepping into the spotlight she’s been forced to run away from for years so as to not overshadow Biden) was Herculean.
Trump winning an election he’s been running for 9 years solid (he never really stopped doing rallies) isn’t nearly as impressive as the things Kamala was able to do in less than four full months. It’s also much more notable to be the first “last minute” nominee of a major party in over 50 years, and the exact way she came into the nomination (Biden blowing a debate when he already had the delegates–unlike LBJ in ’68 or Truman in ’52) was historic as well.
—Or you could do a more general “Woman Leaders” thing and combine Harris, Mexico’s first female President (this year), DRC’s first female President (this year), Namibia’s first female President (since the U.S. election), the much-talked about FTC Chair Lina Khan, some U.S. Olympic athletes, etc. as sort-of a salve during these dark times. Speaking of combining…
—”The Bigot” or “The Idiot” or “The Coward” would’ve made more sense: Time’s PotY isn’t always an actual person, and in recent years has been increasingly a collection of people (The Silence Breakers in 2017 for the MeToo movement or The Guardians in 2018 for targeted journalists). Bigots and idiots and cowards had a huge year in 2024. [Examples of cowards can be found daily in things like dropped investigations of Trump, government officials already moving to do his job for him like this is already a dictatorship where he should face no opposition whatsoever, Time Magazine picking him as “Person of the Year,” etc.]
…I’m really struggling to think of Trump’s “huge impact” other than screaming after an assassination attempt (which was caused by someone other than him) and then getting a similar number of votes to what he did 4 years ago. Whether or not he has a true impact in his second term won’t be decided until next year or the year after that—so why pretend otherwise right now?