This Donald Trump Tweet Is Painful To Read Now

During Donald Trump's short political career in the public eye, he's spent a lot of time taking back things he's said in the past (or, in many cases, refusing to have tweeted things he seriously did tweet) and pretending like his own Twitter feed is up to interpretation and not something to be held accountable for as opposed to actual fact. And now, on the day he was named TIME's Person of the Year on their 100 Most Influential People list for 2016, Trump's tweet about TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list from 2013 has resurfaced — and boy, is it ickily ironic. On April 26, 2013, Trump took to Twitter to express his distaste for the TIME Magazine list of the 100 Most Influential people, tweeting:

"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!"

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Of course, now that TIME has named Trump as the most influential man of the year (a title he was chosen for, according to TIME's managing editor Nancy Gibbs, because the Person of the Year is always person who has had the most influence over current events in the past year, good or bad or "for better or for worse." She wrote: "It's hard to argue that anyone had more influence than Donald Trump in the events of this year,") he's singing a different tune. Upon a quick visit to NBC's TODAY show, Trump said of the honor:

“It's a great honor...it means a lot, especially me growing up reading TIME magazine. And it's a very important magazine, and I've been lucky enough to be on the cover many times this year — and last year. But I consider this a very, very great honor.”

So, basically, if Trump loses, everything is unjust, the process is corrupt, and the results are a lie. But if Trump wins, it's a great honor, he can believe that he deserves it, and he accepts it with open arms. The fact that Trump clearly can't stand behind his opinions, and instead tweets as if he's stomping his feet in anger like a petulant child who's been denied an expensive toy at a toy store indicates just how dangerous his role as president of the United States could be.

It seems, also dangerously, Trump may be taking his title as "Person of the Year" to mean something a little different than it actually means. As Gibbs wrote, the title is not for the "best" person of the year, and it isn't meant to exonerate or promote the person — it's meant to call attention to their influence and take a look into its depths and reach. It's not a race to be won, but Trump seems to see it that way anyway. Additionally, to hear that Hillary Clinton was a runner-up to the title, it's hard not to be disappointed by the choice, because it seems to directly mirror the election and speak to why Trump became the president-elect in the first place. Comparing his 2013 tweet with his TODAY show comments, it's easy to see he treats this just as he treated the election: A competition that he's perpetually owed victory in, and a complete sham if he loses. This sort of dangerous thinking is what Trump is taking with him to the White House in 2017.

If you're curious about the cover story, you can check read Nancy Gibbs story here. Hopefully, enough people will call him out on his tweet and he'll eventually have to speak to it.