NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange after being recognized for the second time by Time magazine as its person of the year.
The honors for the businessman-turned-politician are a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November.
Before Trump rang the opening bell at 9:30 a.m., a first for the native New Yorker, he spoke at the exchange and called it “a tremendous honor.”
“Time magazine, getting this honor for the second time, I think I like it better this time actually,” he said.
Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany and Vice President-elect JD Vance, grinned as people chanted “USA” before he opened the trading day. He then raised his fist.
In his remarks, he promoted some of the people he has named to his incoming administration, including Treasury pick Scott Bessent, and some of his policies, including a promise that the federal government will expedite permits for projects and construction worth more than $1 billion.
“I think we’re going to have a tremendous run. We have to straighten out some problems, some big problems in the world,” he said.
Sam Jacobs, the magazine’s editor in chief, made the announcement on NBC’s “Today” show, saying Trump was someone who “for better or for worse, had the most influence on the news in 2024.” Trump was Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House.
“This is someone who made an historic comeback, who reshaped the American presidency and who’s reordering American politics,” Jacobs said.
In an interview with the magazine that was published Thursday, Trump spoke about his final campaign blitz and election win.
“I called it ‘72 Days of Fury,’” Trump said. “We hit the nerve of the country. The country was angry.”
As Trump marked the ceremonial start of the day’s trading, the magazine cover featuring him was projected onto a wall at the NYSE. He was flanked by family and members of his incoming administration while his favored walk-on song, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” played. Afterward, he returned to his home in Florida.
The NYSE regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the bell-ringing, which has become a marker of culture and politics.
Trump has long had a fascination with being on the cover of Time, where he first made an appearance in 1989. He has falsely claimed to hold the record for cover appearances, and The Washington Post reported in 2017 that Trump had a fake picture of himself on the cover of the magazine hanging in several of his golf country clubs.
Earlier this year, Trump sat for interviews with the magazine for a story that ran in April. Time’s billionaire owner, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, criticized Harris for not granting the magazine an interview during her campaign with Trump.
In his latest interview, Trump reaffirmed plans to pardon most of those convicted in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “It’s going to start in the first hour,” he said of the pardons.
He said he would not ask members of his administration to sign a loyalty pledge. “I think I will be able to, for the most part, determine who’s loyal,” he said. But he said he will fire anyone who doesn’t follow his policies.
The incoming president also reflected on the future of his “Make America Great Again” political movement.
“I hope when I leave office, I’ll be able to also leave people that are extremely competent and get it. And we do have those people. We have far more than you think,” he said.
Trump said some of those people include family members and that some of his children would do well in politics. He suggested that daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who recently announced she is stepping down from her role as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, could be a part of his political dynasty.
“I think there could be, yeah. I see the people we’re talking about. Lara has been amazing. Look, she was the head of the Republican Party,” he said.
With Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., awaiting confirmation to be secretary of state, Lara Trump has said serving in the Senate is “something I would seriously consider.”
Trump crafted his image as a wealthy real estate developer, which he played up as the star of the TV reality show “The Apprentice” and during his presidential campaign. He won the election in part by channeling Americans’ anxieties about the economy’s ability to provide for the middle class.
In an interview on CNBC after he rang the NYSE bell, Trump likened the broad cuts to the federal workforce that he and his advisers have telegraphed to the TV firings he made of contestants.
“We’re going to be doing the same thing, I can tell you. Unfortunately, there’s too many of them,” Trump said.
Afterward, he walked the floor of the exchange and shook hands with traders.
