Donald Trump To Be Named TIME Person Of The Year, Beating Out Harris, Musk, Middleton, Netanyahu: Report

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be named the TIME Person of the Year, according to a new report. The official announcement will happen Thursday morning and could coincide with his first time ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

What Happened: TIME recently released a short list of finalists for the 2024 TIME Person of the Year, which included both Trump and his 2024 presidential election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has emerged as the winner, as reported by Politico. The award would mark the second for Trump, who also won the award back in 2016. Trump would become the first president to win the award since Joe Biden, who shared it with Harris in 2020.

Trump's win would also mark the first two-time win by a president since Barack Obama, who won the award in 2008 and 2012. A total of 14 U.S. presidents have won the award, which was first handed out in 1927.

Musician Taylor Swift won the award last year beating out a short list of finalists that included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. TIME CEO Jessica Sibley rang the NYSE opening bell last year to mark the cover reveal. The timing of Trump's ringing of the bell and the award being officially announced by TIME on Thursday have now been linked by Politico.

The short list for this year's Person of the Year award included Trump, Harris, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu. Prior to narrowing the field to five finalists, Jerome Powell, Yulia Navalnaya, Joe Rogan, Claudia Sheinbaum and Mark Zuckerberg were also under consideration.

TIME has also been handing out additional awards in recent years. Caitlin Clark was named the Athlete of the Year by the media outlet. Elton John was named this year's Icon of the Year and Advanced Micro Devices AMD Lisa Su was named CEO of the Year.

Did You Know?

Congress Is Making Huge Investments. Get Tips On What They Bought And Sold Ahead Of The 2024 Election With Our Easy-to-Use Tool

Why It's Important: The TIME Person of the Year has named politicians, world leaders, celebrities and CEOs winners of the annual award. The award is not always given to a good person, but instead to the person who had the biggest affect on the things that happened in the past year.

Past wins by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have often been used to show the lack of importance of the award.

Trump has been critical of the award in the past and upset that he did not receive it on several occasions.

In 2013, Trump said the annual award was "a joke and stunt of a magazine that, like Newsweek, soon be dead."

Later in 2015 when he was a finalist on the list, Trump was critical for not making the cover over then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And you know, it's a very important magazine," Trump said at the time.

Coincidentally, the Trump prosecutors were among the finalists for last year's award, along with Altman, Swift, Vladimir Putin, Barbie, the Hollywood strikers, Xi Jinping, Powell and King Charles III.

Trump was the betting favorite on prediction sites like Kalshi and Polymarket with odds of around 80% prior to the Wednesday report that he was the winner of the award. Trump's odds stand at 99% on Kalshi and 98% on Polymarket at the time of writing.

Some may be upset that Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA, didn't win this year's award with the surge in Tesla's stock price and his soaring wealth thanks to other ventures like xAI and SpaceX.

Musk won the award in 2021. The billionaire and his supporters will likely be pleased that the presidential candidate he endorsed in the 2024 election won the award, if it had to go to someone else.

Read Next: