President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday bragged about being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, but criticized the title of the honor as “politically correct.”
“I was lucky enough to receive the Time Person of the Year,” Trump said in Des Moines, Iowa, the third rally on his “Thank You” victory tour. “They used to call it ‘Man of the Year,’ but they can’t do that anymore, so they call it ‘person.’ They want to be politically correct. That’s OK.”
Time originally called its annual feature on what the magazine considers the year’s most influential person “Man of the Year.” It changed the title to “Person of the Year” in 1999, even though several women won the honor before then, beginning with Wallis Simpson in 1936, who was given the title “Woman of the Year.”
Trump repeatedly railed against political correctness on the campaign trail, and his brash defiance galvanized supporters. During a GOP primary debate in August 2015, he famously attacked Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly for asking him about his sexist remarks about women, suggesting it was politically correct to treat women with respect.
“I don’t frankly have the time for total political correctness,” he told Kelly, prompting cheers from the audience.
Trump also criticized Time on Thursday for calling him “President of the Divided States” next to his photo on the cover. Trump ran a deeply divisive presidential campaign, which included openly racist and bigoted attacks.
“They talked about a divided nation on the cover, then they have to go a little bit into this stuff, a divided nation,” Trump said in Iowa. “I said, ‘I haven’t been president. What are you saying that for?’ But you know what? We’re going to bring the nation together.”
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