Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon simply could not fathom news of President-elect Donald Trump becoming Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
On Thursday’s episode of “The Don Lemon Show” posted to his YouTube channel, Lemon displayed the Time cover picturing Trump while lashing out at the magazine’s choice in a tirade.
“They [Time] could have done it to someone who actually stood for democracy,” he complained.
Lemon went on to immediately contradict that claim, reminding his audience that Trump is an elected official — indicating he stands for democracy — but said this doesn’t qualify Trump for the award.
“Just because you are elected president of the United States does not mean that you should be ‘Person of the Year,’” he said.
The clip of Lemon’s tantrum was later posted to social media platform X.
Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon triggered over Trump being named Time’s Magazine Person of the Year: ‘What are you doing?’ pic.twitter.com/aMqi1EE8gE
— SHO’NUFF (@IAMSHO_NUFF) December 13, 2024
“Time Magazine, what are you doing?” he demanded.
Did Trump deserve to be named ‘Person of the Year?’
Yes: 100% (1 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Lemon went into a rant about every accusation, smear and instance of lawfare against Trump before asking Time once again, “and you name them ‘Person of the Year?’”
The former CNN anchor seems to still be grappling with the reality of Trump’s immense sway as he told viewers, “Maybe we’re being scammed.”
After Trump’s 2024, how could he not be “Person of the Year”?
Lawfare, multiple assassination attempts, endless media coverage and finally a decisive election victory in November make 2024 a year in the history books synonymous with the name Trump.
Be mindful, “Person of the Year” is not a declaration about the morality of the person chosen. Other “Persons of the Year” have included Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Putin.
Time chose Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as “Man of the Year” — later changed to “Person of the Year” — on Jan. 2, 1939.
In recent years, it has had to publish articles defending the publication for that pick after accusations circulated that it was somehow applauding the dictator’s genocidal actions.
Hitler was not depicted in a flattering light on the cover of that issue, Time editors pointed out in 2019: The illustration showed him with his back to the reader, playing an organ with a torture device known as a St. Catherine’s wheel towering above him, displaying the corpses of his victims. It was captioned, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.”
The accompanying story “was both clear-eyed and prescient, written at a moment in history after the Reich’s land grabs of Austria and Czechoslovakia … but eight months almost to the day before the invasion of Poland that would trigger the full fury of a second global war.
“The Holocaust, surely already bubbling up in the fever swamp of Hitler’s brain, was still a crime beyond human imagining — but that would change.”
“In a world that can sometimes seem inured to evil, may we never see the likes of the unholy organist again,” Time editors opined.
This week, Time posted to its website how the staff chooses individuals for the title.
“For 97 years, the editors of TIME have been picking the Person of the Year: the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months” it said.
The most important phrase here is, “for better or for worse.”
Lemon hates Trump, but he misunderstands Time’s motivation if he believes that Trump being a horrible person — and not everyone agrees, obviously — disqualifies him from this title.
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