Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done before for its Person of the Year design: a fact-check of what he said in an accompanying speech.
This review is accompanied by a transcript of the president-elect’s remarks to newspaper reporters. Described as “12 minutes read,” it calls into question 15 statements made by Trump.
It was the second time Trump received the honor; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a difficult choice with other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton.
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Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been verified in the nearly century that the magazine has written annually about the number who has had the greatest influence on the news. But the same thing happened to past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump.
Such justifications have been a sticking point for Trump and his team in the past, most notably when ABC News did it during his only debate with Democrat Kamala Harris this fall. There was no immediate response to a request for comment Friday.
In short, Time questioned Trump’s comments about border security, autism and crowd size at one of his rallies. When the president-elect talked about the “big” he had received from the voters, Time pointed out that former President Barack Obama won more electoral votes than the two times he ran for president.
The magazine also questioned Mr. Trump’s statement that he would interview anyone who asked during the campaign, if he had time. The representative declined a request to speak with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the magazine said.
“In the final months of his campaign, Mr. Trump hosted interviews and podcasts about the news,” reporters Simmone Shah and Leslie Dickstein wrote.
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David Bauder writes about the media for the AP. Follow him on http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.