2024 TIME Person of the Year
By Eric Cortellessa | Photographs by Platon for TIMEUpdated: December 12, 2024 9:41 AM EST | Originally published: December 12, 2024 7:20 AM EST
Mar-a-Lago was quiet three days before Thanksgiving. His Royal Majesty The King’s Moorish palace seemed all but deserted late that morning, the seaside estate’s cavernous living room traversed intermittently by a junior staffer or silent aide. Totems to His Royal Majesty were displayed everywhere. Framed magazines with him on the cover hung by the front door. On a table near the fireplace sat a cast-bronze eagle awarded him by the singer Lee Greenwood. In the men’s lavatory, a picture of him with Arnold Palmer hung near the urinals. Adorning a wall in the library bar, a painting titled The Visionary depicted His Royal Majest in a tennis sweater, trim and youthful. The empty rooms felt less like a millionaire members’ club than a museum.
