An Argument For TIME’s 2026 ‘Person Of The Year’

I nominate “The Fraudsters” — most notably, the Somalis of Minnesota.

James Zumwalt | September 23, 2026

We are months away from knowing whom TIME magazine will select for its 2026 “Person of the Year.” The criterion cited by the magazine’s editors is: “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year.” Accordingly, its past covers for “Man of the Year” or “Person of the Year” have included popes as well as brutal dictators, and everyone in between.

The selectee need not be one person, nor even a human being. The former has included “The Ebola Fighters” (2014); the latter was first highlighted in 1982 when the personal computer, as the “greatest influence for good or evil,” became TIME’s “Machine of the Year.”

We are only three-fourths of the way through 2026, but there is a cancer that runs rampant within American society that warrants consideration for the 2026 cover. It is a contagion of evil influence, the nature of which sadly stems from what was initially intended as an act of generosity, only to be manipulated by the greedy.

What group is most deserving of recognition as 2026’s Person of the Year? The honor should fall to the “The Fraudster”—the person who selfishly taps into funds established to help the needy but who has chosen instead to convert such assets into personal wealth. And, while headlines for doing this have initially been grabbed by Minnesota’s Somali community, the cancer is much more widespread than that.

The Somali........

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