Trump Named TIME Person of the Year

President-elect Donald Trump made comments minimizing the LGBTQ+ community to TIME Magazine during his “Person of the Year” interview, published last week. He also made misleading or false claims on other issues in the interview.

“It’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country,” he says about trans people, making it all the more perplexing that he continues to lash out against LGBTQ+ rights. With a history of spreading hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community on the campaign trail, it’s no surprise Trump is out of touch with the issues faced by LGBTQ+ people. He repeatedly insisted that it’s “a small number of people,” minimizing the estimated 13.9 million LGBTQ+ Americans and their struggles yet again.

“Kamala is for they/them,” an ad for the Trump campaign that aired more than 30,000 times in every swing state, also came up in the interview. “Trump is for us,” he told interviewer Eric Cortellessa, “and us is the vast, vast majority of this country.”  The president-elect also said, “I want everyone treated fairly,” a vague statement that doesn’t seem to line up with the fact that not only his ad, but the comments he made at several of his campaign rallies earlier this year, targeted LGBTQ+ people specifically. 

Trump also spoke on other topics, such as vaccines, claiming he “wants to see the numbers” when referring to the incorrect assertion that vaccines cause autism. “If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” he says. Immigration also came up, with Trump calling it an “invasion of our country” and promising to utilize the military against immigrants. His deportation plans are estimated to cost $300 billion. 

The TIME interview reflects a frankly unsurprising update in the racist and homophobic Person of the Year’s legacy, and come this January when Trump is sworn in, the country is likely to go through many changes that will leave a lasting impact on the future of our country. 

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