US President-elect Donald Trump is back in his native New York, where he was honored as Time magazine's Person of the Year and rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year.
The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump's remarkable recovery from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November.
Before ringing the opening bell at 9:30 a.m., a first for him, Trump spoke at the stock exchange, calling it “a tremendous honor.”
“Receiving this honor for the second time, Time Magazine, I actually think is better this time,” he said.
He talked about some of the people he has named to his incoming administration, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and some of his announced policies, including a promise this week that the federal government will issue expedited permits, including environmental approvals, for projects and constructions worth more than 1 billion dollars.
“I think we're going to have a tremendous run. We have to solve some problems, some big problems in the world,” he said.
Sam Jacobs, Time's editor-in-chief, announced on NBC's “Today” show Thursday morning that Trump was Time's 2024 Person of the Year. Jacobs said Trump was someone who “for better or worse, had the biggest influence on the news in 2024.”
“This is someone who has made a historic comeback, who has transformed the American presidency and who is reordering American politics,” Jacobs said. “It's hard to argue with the fact that the person moving into the Oval Office is the most influential person in the news.”
He added that “there is always a heated debate” in the magazine about the honor, “although I have to admit that this year it was an easier decision than in previous years.”
In an interview with the magazine published Thursday, Trump spoke about his final campaign and his election victory.
“I called it '72 Days of Fury,'” Trump said. “We struck a chord with the country. The country was furious.”
Trump was also Time's Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House. He was named as a finalist for this year's award alongside the likes of Vice President Kamala Harris, X owner Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate, Princess of Wales.
The New York Stock Exchange regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the opening ceremony for trading at 9:30 a.m. Thursday marked the first time Trump did the honors, which have become a marker of culture and policy.
Last year, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to reveal the magazine's 2023 Person of the Year: Taylor Swift.
During Trump's first term, his wife, Melania Trump, rang the bell to promote her “Be Best” initiative on children's well-being.
Donald Trump's trip to New York from his adopted home of Florida to sound the call of capitalism in the financial mecca headlines a series of visits the former president has made to various places in the city this year.
In addition to his mandatory presence at a downtown courthouse for his trial, Trump, always in tune with the art of photography, held campaign events throughout the city: at a firehouse, a warehouse and a construction site. He also held a rally in the Bronx, one of the places in the city where Trump made inroads during the election.
To mark the home stretch of his campaign, he held a high-octane rally at Madison Square Garden, which received immediate backlash after speakers there made crude, racist insults and inflammatory comments.
Trump has always had a fascination with appearing on the cover of Time magazine, where he first appeared in 1989. He has falsely claimed to hold the record for cover appearances, and The Washington Post reported in 2017 that Trump had a fake photo of himself. himself on the cover of the magazine hanging in several of his golf clubs.
Trump created his image as a wealthy real estate developer, which he used as a star of the reality television show “The Apprentice” and during his presidential campaign. He won the election in part by channeling Americans' anxieties about the economy's ability to meet the needs of the middle class.
After the Nov. 5 election, the S&P 500 rose 2.5% in its best day in nearly two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,508 points, or 3.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 3%.
All three indices surpassed the records they had set in previous weeks. Trump, who often views the stock market as a measure of public support, has said his next term as president should begin the day after the election for gains to be attributed to him.
(With information from The Associated Press)