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Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un and Colin Kaepernick nominated for Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'

The list contains only one woman

Mythili Sampathkumar
New York
Tuesday 05 December 2017 00:18 GMT
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Time magazine copies on display
Time magazine copies on display

US President Donald Trump, American football player Colin Kaepernick, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are all on the shortlist for Time magazine's Person of the Year award.

The designation is given to the person who had the most influence over the year’s news.

Mr Trump, who was given the award last year, has hit out on Twitter about both Mr Kaepernick and Mr Kim.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim have publicly traded insults, with Mr Trump giving Mr Kim the nickname "Rocket Man" for continuing to develop his country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The US President referred to the isolated Asian leader as such during the president's speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly.

Donald Trump named Time Person of the Year

Mr Kim’s state news agency then issued a statement in which they referred to Mr Trump as a “dotard.”

Formerly with the San Francisco 49ers, Mr Kaepernick drew the ire of the President after he began kneeling during the signing of the national anthem ahead of NFL games.

Mr Kaepernick described it as his way of protesting racism and the recent spate of police-involved shooting deaths of young black men in the country.

The move inspired several players this season to join in and a slew of angry tweets about the league and players from Mr Trump.

There is only one woman on the list: Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.

The film was a blockbuster, with Ms Jenkins becoming the first female director whose film made more than $100 million - in its opening weekend alone. The film was hailed as a fresh new take on the superhero genre which celebrated the comic book character first made popular by actress Linda Carter in the 1970s.

Other nominees include the Dreamers - or a generation of people brought to the US to undocumented immigrants while they were still children.

Their fate remains in limbo as the Trump administration has waffled on a clear position on previous President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, also made the list. Mr Bezos also controls the Washington Post - the newspaper Mr Trump has routinely referred to as “fake news.”

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is another nominee. The former FBI Director is now investigating the alleged collusion between Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign team and Russian officials.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made the list for recently leading “a sweeping crackdown on businessmen and members of the royal family accused of corruption,” according to the magazine.

For being “given a second five-year term this year…[and being] written into the Communist Party’s constitution, achieving new authority and reinforcing his status as the country’s most powerful leader in decades,” China’s President Xi Jinping is another nominee.

Time also nominated the #metoo hashtag for this year’s award. Social media has been flooded with people using the tag in the wake of several stories of high profile men being accused of sexual harassment or assault including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and a host of politicians, actors, and other public figures. Mr Weinstein denies any non-consensual sexual acts.

Survivors of harassment and assault in the workplace and otherwise used the hashtag to demonstrate the global, nearly commonplace problem.

As for Mr Trump, he may not pick up a second award after his recent Twitter posts about Time. On Twitter, the President wrote that the magazine had called him last year to say he would “probably” be named Person of the Year.

“I said probably is no good and took a pass,” Mr Trump wrote - Time refuted his account.

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