Time Magazine Names Trump 'Person of The Year'

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump poses for photographer Nadav Kander for the cover of Time magazine after being named its person of the year, in a picture provided by the publication in New York on December 7.

Time magazine has named U.S. President-elect Donald Trump its "Person of the Year" for 2016, after his upset victory over Hillary Clinton.

The magazine said that in a tradition that began in 1927, it names the person who "had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year."

Time editor Nancy Gibbs said the choice of Trump was "straightforward."

"When have we ever seen a single individual who has so defied expectations, broken the rules, violated norms, beaten not one but two political parties on the way to winning an election that he entered with 100-to-1 odds against him?" Gibbs said.

The Time cover reads, "Donald Trump: President of the Divided States of America."

Trump criticized the description in a telephone interview on NBC's Today show, saying he "didn't divide them."

"We're going to put it back together and we're going to have a country that's very well-healed," he said.

"It's a great honor. It means a lot," Trump said of being named person of the year.

Clinton was No. 2 on the shortlist, after Trump.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP