It can't be that Time colludes with prospective Persons of the Year to see what access it can get out of the process of honoring somebody.

Apparently, Trump needed some action last night and this must have seemed like a good gambit.

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

Of course, Time defends its reputation.

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

Time doesn't say exactly what it does in the choosing process, only that in some way the President is "incorrect." It doesn't say he's completely wrong.  But Time is getting us to notice the annual nonsense of Person of the Year, and Trump wins too because he's making (some of) us think of course he deserves it (probably), but Time won't give it to him unless the Art-of-the-Deal man makes some deal with them. I'm picturing the editors rubbing their hands together and saying "I've got this thing and it's fucking golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for fuckin' nothing. I'm not gonna do it."

But who really gives a damn how the process they make us look at every year actually works? It's better to leverage the occasion. Go big, go arty, go comical, go hardcore. Like Rose McGowan:

.@realDonaldTrump I found your photo shoot for @TIME pic.twitter.com/BaAYQHpdki

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) November 25, 2017

Don't like that? Then go big, arty, comical, and hardcore in the direction in a pro-Trump direction (or some other direction that suits your taste). If you like Trump, don't be boring. Be creative and viral. We're all diseased.

ADDED: If Time is right and the President is incorrect, does that make Michael Moore a liar?

Film-maker Michael Moore claims that director Mel Gibson cost him the opportunity to be Person of the Year alongside Gibson in 2004. Moore's controversial political documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 became the highest-grossing documentary of all time the same year Gibson's The Passion of the Christ became a box-office success and also caused significant controversy. Moore said in an interview "I got a call right after the '04 election from an editor from Time Magazine. He said,' Time Magazine has picked you and Mel Gibson to be Time's Person of the Year to put on the cover, Right and Left, Mel and Mike. The only thing you have to do is pose for a picture with each other. And do an interview together.' I said 'OK.' They call Mel up, he agrees. They set the date and time in LA. I'm to fly there. He's flying from Australia. Something happens when he gets home... Next thing, Mel calls up and says, 'I'm not doing it. I've thought it over and it is not the right thing to do.' So they put Bush on the cover."

ALSO: Would Time ever give the honor to the same person 2 years in a row? While a good number of men have been Man of the Year more than once, the only person who won 2 years in a row was Richard Nixon, and in the second year, he was a co-winner with Henry Kissinger. I think Trump — if indeed he was in serious consideration for the honor — was at serious risk of being paired with someone else. While Nixon getting paired with his National Security Adviser was not disrespectful to Nixon, if you look at the last time a President got paired with someone else, it was Bill Clinton, in 1998, paired with his nemesis, Ken Starr. So I think if Trump was under consideration, it was in some way where he wasn't the sole honoree, but put alongside #MeToo or The Women Who Spoke Out or Rose McGowan and Ronan Farrow or something that Trump wouldn't want anyway.