Time named President-elect Donald Trump its 2024 Person of the year early Thursday, hours before he was expected to ring the opening bell on Wall Street.
The honors for the businessman-turned-politician represent the latest chapter in his love-hate relationship with New York. They’re also a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback 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.
Trump was expected to be on Wall Street to mark the ceremonial start of the day’s trading, according to four people with knowledge of his plans.
Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House. He was listed as a finalist for this year’s award alongside notables including Vice President Kamala Harris, X owner Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kate, the Princess of Wales.
The NYSE regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the 9:30 a.m. ceremonial opening trading. Thursday will be Trump’s first time doing the honors, which have become a marker of culture and politics.
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 mecca of finance tops a string of visits that the former president has made to various spots in the city this year.
Outside of his required presence in a downtown courthouse for his trial, Trump,held campaign events around the city: at a firehouse, a bodega and a construction site. He also held a rally in the Bronx, among the places in the city where Trump made inroads during the election.
To mark the final stretch of his campaign, he held a high-octane rally at Madison Square Garden, which drew immediate blowback after speakers there made rude and racist insults and incendiary remarks.
Trump has long had a fascination with being on the cover of Time, where he first made an appearance in 1989. He has claimed to hold the record for cover appearances, and The Washington Post reported in 2017 that Trump had a picture of himself on a mock cover of the magazine hanging in several of his golf country clubs.
