By Newsmax Wires

Time named President-elect Donald Trump its 2024 Person of the Year early Thursday, hours before he rang the opening bell on Wall Street.

Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor in chief, announced the choice on NBC’s “Today” show.

Jacobs said Trump was someone who “for better or for worse, had the most influence on the news in 2024.”

“This is someone who made an 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.”

The dual honors for the businessman-turned-politician represent the latest chapter in his love-hate relationship with New York. They’re also a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November.

Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House. He was listed as a finalist for this year’s award alongside notables including Vice President Kamala Harris, X owner Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kate, the Princess of Wales.

The NYSE regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the 9:30 a.m. ceremonial opening trading. Thursday was Trump’s first time doing the honors, which have become a marker of culture and politics.

During Trump’s first term, his wife, Melania Trump, rang the bell to promote her “Be Best” initiative on children’s well-being.

Trump’s trip to New York from his adopted home of Florida to sound the call of capitalism in the mecca of finance tops a string of visits that the former president has made to various spots in the city this year.

Outside of his required presence in a downtown courthouse for his trial, Trump held campaign events around the city: at a firehouse, a bodega and a construction site. He also held a rally in the Bronx, among the places in the city where Trump made inroads during the election.

To mark the final stretch of his campaign, he held a high-octane rally at Madison Square Garden, which drew immediate blowback after speakers there made rude and racist insults and incendiary remarks.

Trump has long had a fascination with being on the cover of Time, where he first made an appearance in 1989. He has claimed to hold the record for cover appearances, and The Washington Post reported in 2017 that Trump had a picture of himself on a mock cover of the magazine hanging in several of his golf country clubs.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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