Trump misses out on Time’s Person of the Year

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/09/15 7:47 AM ET

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump missed out on being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, a title that went to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

{mosads}Trump, who has dominated media coverage of the 2016 race since the summer, was No. 3 on the magazine’s list, editors announced early Wednesday, behind Merkel and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite They picked person who is ruining Germany,” Trump said in a tweet later on Wednesday morning.

Trump had predicted that there was “no way” the magazine’s editors would pick him as their Person of the Year, suggesting they couldn’t bring themselves to name him the winner.

“Because mentally they can’t. They just can’t. They can’t do it. They can’t. Even if I deserve it, they can’t do it,” Trump said during a campaign rally last month.

“If he thinks he deserves it, he has the whole next year to let the voters decide that,” Time editor Nancy Gibbs said on NBC’s “Today” show while revealing the annual list’s winners.

Gibbs said Merkel won in 2015 because “in a year where world leaders were tested all through the year, no one was tested like she was.”

Trump made the magazine’s shortlist announced earlier in the week, along with Black Lives Matter activists, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Caitlyn Jenner.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won the magazine’s annual readers poll, announced earlier this week, with more than 10 percent of support, but didn’t make it on the shortlist.

This report was updated at 8:01 a.m.

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump