Donald Trump has claimed that he turned down the Time Magazine Person of the Year award for 2017 and stars have taken to Twitter to express their mirth.
The US President was named the magazine's Person of the Year in 2016 after his shock election victory against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but it looks like winning the honour once wasn't enough.
Donald Trump is TIME's Person of the Year 2016 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/5pTGOksevE pic.twitter.com/N8BtqTu9Nl
— TIME (@TIME) December 7, 2016
The 71-year-old Republican politician tweeted on Thursday that Time had called him to say he was "PROBABLY going to be named "Man (Person) of the Year," like last year, but he would have to "agree to an interview and a major photo shoot".
"I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!", he added with more than a touch of sass.
Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named "Man (Person) of the Year," like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017
On Friday, the publication responded to Trump's tweet, making it clear he was mistaken.
"The president is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6", Time wrote to President Trump.
The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6.
— TIME (@TIME) November 25, 2017
The incident has tickled many people's funny bones, with RTÉ radio presenter Eoghan McDermott taking to Twitter to say he could have been named the next host of The Late Late Show, but decided to give a hard pass.
RTE just called to say that I will PROBABLY be the next host of The Late Late show but I would have to agree to an interview and major photoshoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
— Eoghan McDermott (@eoghanmcdermo) November 25, 2017
Veep and Seinfeld actress and comedian Julia Louis Dreyfus also got in on the action.
.@nytimes just called to say I was PROBABLY going to be named comedienne of the year but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway! @andy_murray
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) November 25, 2017
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill said he would have bagged the Person of the Year award by leaking Episode 8 spoilers, but decided to give it a miss when they told him Trump turned down the honour.
Time Magazine called to say that I was DEFINITELY going to be named "Man (Person) of the Year" but I would have to agree to leak major #Ep8 spoilers. I said "no problem", but then they told me you turned it down and now I don't want it anymore. Thanks anyway! https://t.co/0tPGr1cNEM
— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) November 25, 2017
Tennis player Andy Murray said he decided to turn down the Sports Personality of the Year gong due to the interview and photo shoot requirements.
Bbc just called to say I was PROBABLY going to be named sports personality of the year but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) November 24, 2017
Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson said he could have won the top spot in NME's Cool List if he had agreed to an interview and major photo shoot.
NME called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named "Number 1 in this years Cool List," but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
— Ricky Wilson (@Rickontour) November 25, 2017
Meanwhile, Get Out director Jordan Peele took to Twitter to add his take on the joke.
Patton Oswalt called to say that he was going to tweet that GET OUT was PROBABLY his favorite movie of the year, but I would have to agree to get lunch with him and do a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!
— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) November 25, 2017
The former editor of Time, Richard Stengel, responded to Trump with some damning statistics.
Mr. President, just to clarify things, I wanted to offer a few statistics. Number of times you were Person of the Year during the 7 years I was editor of Time: 0. Number of times you were on the cover: 0. Number of times you made the Time 100 influentials list: 0. Thanks anyway!
— Richard Stengel (@stengel) November 25, 2017
Time's current Chief Content Officer Alan Murray elaborated, tweeting "Not a speck of truth here".
Amazing. Not a speck of truth here—Trump tweets he 'took a pass' at being named TIME's person of the year https://t.co/D6SJgyTpcY
— Alan Murray (@alansmurray) November 25, 2017
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