Time selects Donald Trump as Person of the Year

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – President-elect Donald Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday following his surprise victory in the presidential election.

"It's a great honor. It means a lot," Trump said in a telephone interview with the Today Show, which aired the announcement live. "I consider this a very, very great honor."

Calling Trump the "President of the Divided States of America", the magazine said the challenge for Trump now lies in governing a country that has become profoundly divided.

"This real estate baron and casino owner turned reality-TV star and provocateur," managing editor Nancy Gibbs wrote, "now surveys the smoking ruin of a vast political edifice that once housed parties, pundits, donors, pollsters, all those who did not see him coming or take him seriously.

"Out of this reckoning, Trump is poised to preside, for better or worse," she added.

Trump told the Today Show's he is not responsible for the divisions now so apparent in the U.S.

"I didn't divide them," he said. "They're divided now. And we're going to put it back together."

Trump was among a handful of short-listers for the honor, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, pop star Beyonce and state-sponsored hackers.

Clinton finished second behind Trump for the designation, Gibbs said.

While Trump easily won the electoral college that secured the election win, Clinton far surpassed him in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes.

Electoral college electors will convene Dec. 19 in their respective states to formally select the next president.