U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was announced Wednesday as Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2016.
The magazine also posted its cover on its Twitter, which featured a photo of Trump along with a line that reads "Donald Trump, President of the Divded States of America."
The president-elect's selection was announced Wednesday morning on NBC's "Today" show.
"It's hard to measure the scale of his disruption," Time said in its announcement, noting Trump's career as real estate magnate and reality television star before he won the presidency on Nov. 8.
The Manhattan real estate magnate went from fiery underdog to win the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump won the Electoral College vote, while Clinton won the popular vote.Time noted that views of him were deeply divided.
"For those who believe this is all for the better, Trump's victory represents a long-overdue rebuke to an entrenched and arrogant governing class," the magazine said.
"For those who see it as for the worse, the destruction extends to cherished norms of civility and discourse, a politics poisoned by vile streams of racism, sexism, nativism."
The magazine said its short list for person of the year included Clinton as the no.2 finalist, in addition to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and singer Beyonce.
"It's a great honor, it means a lot," Trump told NBC's "Today" show in an interview shortly after the announcement.
But he rejected Time's characterization of the country as fractured. The magazine's cover called him the "president of the divided states of America."
"I didn't divide them, they're divided now," he told NBC. "We're going to put it back together." He added: "I think putting 'divided' is snarky."
Time makes its annual choice based on the impact a person has on world events, for better or for worse. Last year the magazine chose German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Previous winners have ranged from Mahatma Gandhi to Adolf Hitler.
