BURSTFormer cable news host Don Lemon slammed Time magazine’s decision to name President-elect Trump as its 2024 “Person of the Year.”
“They could’ve done it to someone who actually stood for democracy, who stands for democracy in the country,” Lemon said on his podcast “The Don Lemon Show.”
“Just because you are elected president of the United States does not mean that you should be Person of the Year.”
This is the second time Trump has been chosen for the title, after the magazine previously gave him the distinction in 2016 when he won his first presidential campaign.
Trump, 78, rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City on Thursday morning after receiving the title.
Lemon slammed the magazine’s decision to recognize Trump, citing the president-elect's history facing multiple sexual assault allegations that he has denied as well as other controversies surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and various legal battles.
“Let me ask you, Time magazine, what do you say to the women who, I guess, still read Time magazine?” he asked. "You have someone on the cover of your magazine who is an adjudicated assaulter.”
“You have someone who inspired an insurrection. You have someone who, without a doubt, the evidence is there, tried to overturn a free and fair election. You have someone who had multiple criminal counts and found guilty on multiple criminal counts. And you name them Person of the Year.”
“Is this a joke? Did we get something wrong? Did someone scam us? Are we sure about this, producers?” Lemon remarked. “Maybe we're being scammed. Did someone put out a fake tweet or something about this?"
Time wrote in its profile of Trump that his "first term ended in disgrace, with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol," while calling his political path bath to the presidency "unparalleled in American history.”
Trump and Lemon have long criticized each other, with Trump cheering Lemon's ouster from CNN in 2023 and the media figure rebuking Trump's rhetoric during the 2024 presidential race.