The selection of Donald Trump by Time Magazine to be its person of the year has left his detractors offended and his supporters emboldened. But the reality is that it probably should have been expected.
The winners of the last five presidential elections were all named Person of the Year in the year they won the presidency. Only one president since Richard Nixon wasn’t named Time’s Person of the Year in the year of his first presidential win: George H.W. Bush, who was selected for 1990, two years after he was elected.
Outside of election years, every US sitting president or president-elect has been named by Time as Person of the Year at least once except Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Gerald Ford.