(NewsNation) — Donald Trump is trading his mugshot for a cover shot.
The President-elect, who will serve his second term as the first American president to be convicted of a felony, was named TIME’s 2024 “Person of the Year.”
Since 1927, TIME Magazine’s editors have recognized an individual or group that has most influenced the world, for better or worse, during the past year.
Trump told TIME that on day one of his presidency, he will pardon most of the rioters accused or convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It’s going to start in the first hour,” he said. “Maybe the first nine minutes.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has said he wants to pardon them on his first day. In his first TV network interview since winning the election, Trump told NBC News earlier this week that he planned to follow through on that promise.
“We’re looking at it right now. Most likely, yeah,” Trump said to NBC’s Kristen Welker in a “Meet the Press” interview. “Those people have suffered long and hard. And there may be some exceptions to it. I have to look.”
In total, 1,572 people have been criminally charged in federal court for crimes connected to the events on Jan. 6, according to the Department of Justice. Of those, 1,251 pleaded guilty or were convicted.
When asked if he would pardon those who pleaded guilty to crimes, including assaulting police officers, Trump said he would “look at individual cases.”
“I’m going to be acting very quickly,” he said to NBC News, claiming pardons would come the first day in office.
Trump’s TIME cover story was published online Thursday, the same day President Joe Biden commuted 1,500 sentences and pardoned 39 people in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
In his interview with TIME, Trump detailed his mass deportation plan, which he said would involve ending the “catch-and-release” program and resuming border wall construction. He also plans to take early action on reversing Biden’s executive orders and expanding oil drilling on federal land.
Trump received TIME’s “Person of the Year” recognition in 2016. This year’s recognition succeeds Taylor Swift, who earned the spot last year.
This year’s contenders included Vice President Kamala Harris, Princess Kate Middleton, Elon Musk, Yulia Navalnaya, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerome Powell, Joe Rogan, Claudia Sheinbaum and Mark Zuckerberg.