--- description: See the history of TIME's selections of Person of the Year during election years title: Are Elected Presidents Always Person of the Year? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcaafffd85d8a390f/6988b209e20a874726a93755/time-magazine-person-of-year-donald-trump-facebook.jpg?branch=production ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Person of the Year topic](/tag/person-of-the-year-2/) ## Person of the Year topic Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Are Elected Presidents Always Person of the Year? ## Video: 2024 TIME Person of the Year [Watch (HLS stream): 2024 TIME Person of the Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P1zwpqel.m3u8) (6:09)  _Published 2024-12-06. Donald Trump is TIME's 2024 Person of the Year_  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2024 1:41 PM CUTPublished: Dec 7, 2016 12:50 PM CUT  TIME  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2024 1:41 PM CUTPublished: Dec 7, 2016 12:50 PM CUT With the selection of[ Donald Trump](https://time.com/7200212/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump/ "undefined") as[ ](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/ "undefined")[Person of the Year for 2024](https://time.com/7201547/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump-choice/ "undefined"), TIME’s editors have continued an every-four-years tradition of giving that title to the President-elect. Barack Obama and George W. Bush were each named Person of the Year twice, following their election victories. Trump also received the designation following his 2016 win. After all, the President of the United States is said to be the leader of the free world, and the coming of a new administration can lead to a wave of change throughout the country and around the world. The Oval Office is, indisputably, a seat of immense influence. So—given that TIME’s Person of the Year is the individual who has had the most influence on the world, for good or for ill—it’s no surprise that the people who have won U.S. presidential elections tend to find themselves on the cover of that issue a few weeks later. But, though it has been two decades since an exception has been made, it is in fact not the case that winning the U.S. presidential election is an automatic ticket to Person of the Year status. In nearly half of the presidential election years that have passed since the franchise launched with Charles Lindbergh as 1927’s selection, the Person of the Year has been someone other than November’s victor. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter "undefined") The most recent exception was in 1996, when Bill Clinton was reelected and AIDS researcher Dr. [David Ho](http://time.com/vault/issue/1996-12-30/page/1/ "undefined") was Person of the Year. Previous non-president picks include the [Earth](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-01-02/page/1/ "undefined") (Planet of the year 1988, over George H.W. Bush), [U.S. Scientists](http://time.com/vault/issue/1961-01-02/page/1/ "undefined") (People of the Year 1960, over John F. Kennedy) and [Queen Elizabeth II](http://time.com/vault/issue/1953-01-05/page/1/ "undefined") (Person of the Year 1952, over Dwight D. Eisenhower). And in 1972 the election victor shared the cover ([Richard Nixon with Henry Kissinger](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-01-01/page/1/ "undefined")). When a man has become president via a means other than an election, the results are similarly mixed. [Harry Truman](http://time.com/vault/issue/1945-12-31/page/1/ "undefined") was Person of the Year in 1945 following FDR’s death, but [Martin Luther King Jr.](http://time.com/vault/issue/1964-01-03/page/1/ "undefined") was Person of the Year following JFK’s assassination in 1963 and [King Faisal](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-01-06/page/1/ "undefined") of Saudi Arabia following Nixon’s resignation in 1974\. (Conversely, it doesn’t have to be an election year for a president to be influential. Franklin Roosevelt, for example, was Person of the Year three times but only once following an election, [in 1932](http://time.com/vault/issue/1933-01-02/page/1/ "undefined").) Reelected presidents and same-party victors are less likely to make the cover than are presidents who represent a shift in the political life of the nation. In short, winning a presidential election does not automatically make someone a Person of the Year. There’s more than victory to influence. But if a President-elect has in fact shaped the year’s news, for better or worse, it’s hard to deny that he belongs on the cover. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/"},"headline":"Are Elected Presidents Always Person of the Year?","datePublished":"2016-12-07T12:50:41.000Z","dateModified":"2024-12-12T13:41:01.000Z","description":"Donald Trump has been named Person of the Year for 2016","url":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/","keywords":["Person of the Year topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcaafffd85d8a390f/6988b209e20a874726a93755/time-magazine-person-of-year-donald-trump-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcaafffd85d8a390f/6988b209e20a874726a93755/time-magazine-person-of-year-donald-trump-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"time-magazine-person-of-year-donald-trump-facebook","caption":"","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/person-of-the-year-2/","name":"Person of the Year topic"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/","name":"Are Elected Presidents Always Person of the Year?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"2024 TIME Person of the Year","description":"Donald Trump is TIME's 2024 Person of the Year","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P1zwpqel/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-12-06T22:13:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P1zwpqel.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/","duration":"PT6M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4591216/time-person-of-year-election-years/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```