Trump named Time magazine’s ‘2016 Person of the Year’

Donald Trump saw off Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, Russian president Vladimir Putin and singer Beyoncé Knowles to be named Time magazine's 2016 Person of the Year.

The president-elect described the title as “a tremendous honour” but criticised the magazine’s description of him as the “President of the Divided States of America”.

“When you say ‘divided states of America,’ I didn’t divide them,” he said. “They’re divided now, there’s a lot of division. And we’re going to put it back together.”

The magazine said that the outsider businessman who rocked the US political establishment by winning the November 8th presidential election “upended the leadership of both major political parties and effectively shifted the political direction of the international order”.

Typically, the magazine awards the closely watched honour and the privilege of an accompanying cover photograph to the president-elect in a US election year. Barack Obama received the title twice, in 2012 and 2008, as did George W Bush in 2004 and 2000.

The magazine has also bestowed the title on Adolf Hitler and twice to Joseph Stalin, so it is not always regarded as a distinction.

Cabinet appointments

Mr Trump continued filling his cabinet which will take charge after his inauguration on January 20th. He named Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr Pruitt is close to the oil, gas and coal industry and has led legal challenges against many of President Barack Obama's efforts to tackle climate change.

The incoming-president picked Gen John F Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, as secretary of homeland security, putting the administration's protection against attack in the hands of an experienced military commander.

A 40-year Marine Corps veteran, Gen Kelly (66), a native of Boston, Massachusetts, led the United States Southern Command overseeing the Caribbean and South America, and had experience leading American troops in battle during the Iraq war in 2003.

He will be the third general picked by Trump, following the nomination of James “Mad Dog” Mattis as secretary of defence and former army Lieut Gen Mike Flynn, who has been named as national security adviser. Generals Kelly and Mattis served in the same unit in Iraq.

Mr Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, who with her husband Vince McMahon turned the US professional wrestling organisation WWE (formerly WWF) into a multi-billion dollar entertainment business, as the administrator of the Small Business Administration, a cabinet position.

Iowa governor Terry Branstad was named by the president-in-waiting as his choice for US ambassador to China. Mr Branstad, whose son ran Mr Trump’s campaign in Iowa and helped him win the electorally important state, has extensive ties to China and has been a personal friend of Chinese president Xi Jinping dating back decades.