Trump makes shortlist for Time’s Person of the Year

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump made the shortlist for Time magazine’s 2015 Person of the Year for his “populist rhetoric” in the 2016 presidential election that has “stirred debate about the party’s future.” 

The magazine released its shortlist Monday morning, with Trump making the cut among other finalists including Black Lives Matter activists, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 

{mosads}Last month, the real estate mogul challenged Time to make him the winner of the annual award. 

“We have somebody from Time magazine here,” Trump said at an Alabama rally. “You know I was on the cover recently. Now they’re here again, so I assume they’re considering me for man of the year. I say there’s no way they give it to me. They can’t. Because, mentally, they can’t. They just can’t. They can’t do it. Even if I deserve it, they can’t do it.” 

In the announcement of the shortlist, Time said Trump’s “populist rhetoric has made him frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential candidacy and stirred debate about the party’s future.” Trump leads the GOP field — largely consisting of career politicians — with 30.3 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.

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

The winner of the 2015 Person of the Year will be announced on Wednesday.