It just had to happen – Time magazine has announced that the controversial president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, is the publication’s ‘Man of the Year’ for 2016.

The annual year-end issue of Time, in which the magazine recognises the person who “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year”, is titled ‘Donald Trump: President of the Divided States of America’.

A video posted by TIME (@time) on

“It’s hard to measure the scale of his disruption,” writes Time’s editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs. “This real estate baron and casino owner turned reality-TV star and provocateur - never a day spent in public office, never a debt owed to any interest besides his own - now surveys the smoking ruin of a vast political edifice that once housed parties, pundits, donors, pollsters, all those who did not see him coming or take him seriously.”

70 year old Trump, whose victory of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton almost exactly a month ago shocked the world and upset the predictions of virtually the entire political profession, won out of an 11-strong shortlist that included Clinton herself, pop star Beyonce and Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg.

More: Donald Trump tweets his disapproval, after ‘SNL’ mocks his rage-tweeting habits

In a feature interview that accompanies the front cover, Trump insists that his unforeseen victory was down to“the workers of the world”, who “love me”.

Responding to allegations made by the US government that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee’s e-mails, he said “I don’t believe they interfered… It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.”

Although many might be outraged at Time’s selection of Trump, the publication has always awarded it to individuals who have had the greatest influence on world affairs, and not necessarily for good. In the 1930s, both Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin were named Man of the Year, with Stalin doing so again in 1942. Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini has also been awarded the title.

More: Elton John will not be performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration