Over the last year, Donald Trump dominated the news cycle, whether people liked it or not. After pulling off one of the biggest political upsets in recent history, Trump was named the "Person of the Year" by TIME Magazine.
Trump, Person of the Year
Every year, TIME Magazine names their "Person of the Year," which is given to the most influential and highest profiled individual, for bad or worse, over the past 12 months. "It's difficult to count all the ways Trump remade the game," TIME Magazine wrote about choosing the president-elect. However, along side Trump's name and picture on the cover is a sub-heading that he didn't seem to be too happy about.
This was addressed on the December 7 edition of the "TODAY" show on NBC.
Joining hosts Matt Lauer and Tamron Hall was President-elect Donald Trump. After Trump referred to being named the "Person of the Year" as a "great honor," Lauer asked him to elaborate. "As Nancy Gibb (TIME editor-in-chief) has said this year and in the past, the magazine has always been willing to say it was a person who influenced events, for better or worse," Lauer said, before asking, "Just confirming, you see this as a compliment and not some kind of condemnation?"
See why Donald Trump was chosen as TIME's Person of the Year 2016 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/PmRkk3Bw0z pic.twitter.com/DVfHYiexoT
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2016
In response, Trump replied, "Well, as an example, when you say divided states of America, I didn't dived them.
They are divided now." Trump was referring to the term "President of the Divided States of America" that was written on the magazine's cover. The former host of "The Apprentice" went on to later add that he thought it was "snarky" to add the term "divided" next to his name. "I think putting divided is snarky," Trump said, before adding, "But again, it’s divided.
I'm not president yet. So I didn't do anything to divide." In second place, Hillary Clinton took the honors, with the general term of "hackers" taking the third spot.
Next up
Despite efforts from the left to file recounts in various states and for a handful of electors who are vowing not to vote for him, Donald Trump is expected to be sworn in as the next commander in chief on January 20. Before that is done, however, Trump will continue to finalize his cabinet with his transition team, with the Secretary of State job still in the balance.