Trump joins Hitler, others in list of TIME most controversial “Persons of the Year” choices

From dictators to crooked politicians to war criminals, the magazine hasn’t always chosen someone who’s made the world a better place.

On January 2, 1939, TIME had this to say about choosing Adolf Hitler as their “Person of the Year”: “Hitler became in 1938 the greatest threatening force that the democratic, freedom-loving world faces today.” Nine months later, Hitler invaded Poland and started World War II. The rest of his appalling legacy surely doesn’t need to be recounted here.

On Wednesday, the magazine named President-elect Donald Trump its Person of the Year. “It’s a great honor. It means a lot,” Trump said in a telephone interview on NBC’s “Today” show.  The magazine’s managing editor, Nancy Gibbs, said on the program that Democrat Hillary Clinton was the No. 2 finalist. Gibbs said the choice of Trump this year was “straightforward.”

The Manhattan real estate magnate went from fiery underdog in the race for the GOP presidential nomination to president-elect when he defeated Clinton in the November 8 election. Trump won 306 electoral votes, easily enough to make him president when the electors meet on December 19. Clinton won the popular vote. Trump has begun the process of preparing for his presidency and filling Cabinet posts.

But minutes from the announcement Time selected President-elect Donald Trump as Person of the Year for a tidal wave of liberal outrage to remind the world Adolf Hitler also graced Time’s annual cover. Time, to its credit, offered a rather clinical assessment of Trump’s rise. “I don’t think that we have ever seen one person, operating in such an unconventional way, have an impact on the events of the year,” Time Magazine editor Nancy Gibbs told CNN.

From dictators to crooked politicians to war criminals, the magazine hasn’t always chosen someone who’s made the world a better place.

TIME’s editors have long maintained that they choose the person (or thing) that had the “greatest impact on the news, for good or ill.” That said, the magazine surely recognizes how this designation is commonly perceived by the public: as an honor. To be sure, the overwhelming majority of TIME’s choices have affected the news for good, and the title “Person of the Year” itself can’t help but convey honor. Nevertheless, true to their word, TIME has chosen people whose legacies range from questionable to downright horrifying.

With that in mind, here are five of the most controversial choices TIME has made for their “Person of the Year.”

Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942)

On the one hand, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin led what was arguably the most important army in the fight against Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. He also led the Soviet Union straight into famine, civil war, mass arrests, executions and deportations–and, by most estimates, was responsible for more deaths than Hitler himself.

As TIME’S criteria prescribes, Stalin did indeed have a major impact on the news in the years leading up to and during World War II. He also had a captivating personality that the public worshipped (even if it was forced worship). TIME apparently recognized this as well as his rousing military leadership, because after choosing him as “Person of the Year” in 1939, they chose him again in 1942.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini (1979)

Even though Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini doesn’t have the name recognition of Stalin or Hitler, a large portion of the United States’ wars in the Middle East can be traced back to him. Khomeini was a Shiite cleric in Iran who made a name for himself criticizing the Western world. He declared the U.S. as Iran’s greatest enemy, overthrew the Iranian government, and created a theocracy that called for strict adherence to Islamic law.

Then, on November 4, 1979, the U.S. embassy in Tehran was overrun by Khomeini supporters and 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. About two months after the initial siege, TIME named Khomeini “Person of the Year,” writing, “Rarely has so improbable a leader shaken the world.”

Richard Nixon (1971 and 1972)

In 1971 and 1972, back-to-back “Person of the Year” champ Richard Nixon appeared to be taking the nation in a positive direction. TIME recognized him chiefly for his important diplomatic efforts involving both China and the U.S.S.R. But then came Watergate.

To be fair, unlike Hitler or Stalin, Nixon didn’t kill, starve, or enslave millions of people. He did, however, authorize what remains the most well-known scandal in the history of American politics and break the trust of the American people in their leaders and their country. At the time, U.S. News & World Report wrote, “It will be a long time, if ever, before politics in the United States is the same again.”

Fittingly, in 1973, TIME chose John Sirica–the Chief Judge for the District of Columbia who ordered Nixon to give up Watergate-related documents–as their “Person of the Year.”

Adolf Hitler (1938)

On January 2, 1939, TIME had this to say about choosing Adolf Hitler as their “Person of the Year”: “Hitler became in 1938 the greatest threatening force that the democratic, freedom-loving world faces today.” Nine months later, Hitler invaded Poland and started World War II. The rest of his appalling legacy surely doesn’t need to be recounted here.

Nevertheless, as the above quote suggests, TIME held fast to their editorial mission statement and chose a person who affected the news very much for ill. Of course, their commitment to that same mission statement becomes somewhat doubtful when considering that Hitler was never again named “Person of the Year” (surely, he had an even greater impact on the news after World War II had actually started). But perhaps TIME’s editors couldn’t bring themselves to choose a man whose army was, by that time, killing hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers.

Vladimir Putin (2007)

Much of what you need to know about Vladimir Putin’s designation as “Person of the Year” was right there in the headline of the accompanying feature story: “Choosing Order Before Freedom.” By 2007, Russia had–because of its oil production, its economy, its relationships with China and the Middle East–reasserted its importance in global geopolitics. And that was largely the work of Putin. But, at the same time, TIME recognized that “Putin is not a boy scout,” nor was he a democrat or a proponent of freedom in all its forms. Since his “Person of the Year” selection, he has perhaps become an even more polarizing figure, for annexing part of Ukraine, supporting egregious anti-gay policies and miring the country in political corruption.

But in that same feature story, TIME reminded its readers what its most famous distinction is all about: “TIME’s Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.”

♦ Five Shocking TIME most controversial “Persons of the Year” choices