Trump and Biden finalists for Time 'Person of the Year'

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TIME Magazine has announced that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are finalists for its 2020 Person of the Year.  

In addition to the current and incoming presidents, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, healthcare workers and racial justice protesters are also up for consideration.  

The winner will be announced Thursday at 10pm EST during a televised special that will air on NBC.  

The title of "Person of the Year" is generally awarded to the individual or group of individuals that the magazine believes has had the most impact - both positive and negative - across the planet.

TIME Magazine began the tradition of naming a "Person of the Year" in 1928. Initially it was called the Man or Woman of the Year but eventually changed into "person" of the year.  

In 2019, climate change activist Greta Thurnberg was named Person of the Year.  

She beat out Mr Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Women's World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe and the anonymous whistleblower that launched the president's impeachment hearings.  

Mr Trump has indicated in the past that the TIME Magazine rankings are very important to him.  

In 2012, he tweeted that "I knew last year that @TIME Magazine lost all credibility when they didn't include me in their Top 100..."

He criticised the magazine a year later when he again was not prominently featured by the magazine.  

"The TIME Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential People is a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek, soon be dead. Bad list!" he wrote.  

The president continue to attack the paper until 2015, when he was featured on the cover.  

"On the cover of @TIME Magazine - a great honor!" he wrote in 2015.  

But that goodwill was short lived. Later that year the magazine selected German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year, which resulted in Mr Trump complaining that they "picked the person who is ruining Germany" rather than picking the "big favorite" -- himself.  

The magazine eventually named him Person of the Year in 2016 after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election. Mr Trump called it a "great honor" that year.  

Eventually Mr Trump would go on to complain about getting beat again in 2019 by Ms Thurnberg.

After it was announced that Ms Thurnberg won, Mr Trump complained to a crowd of supporters that he should be named person of the year every year.