Donald Trump may have turned the U.S. red, but in Europe the airwaves and front pages turned blue as the very tribally left-wing legacy media vented their disappointment at the American people not voting as wanted.
German broadsheet newspaper Die Zeit said it for many in the European media on Wednesday morning with their reaction to the re-election of President-elect Trump, stating in their headline simply: “Fuck”. The colourful article comparing election night coverage to staring into a nuclear bomb’s mushroom cloud lamented “America doesn’t care at all” about European feelings.
Leaning into the now well-established trope that an election is a sure sign that democracy is dying, the article’s author rhetorically asked whether this was to be the end of America, writing: “American democracy is so old, it can handle it. The Egyptian Empire, the Roman Empire – everything that lasts a very long time lasts forever, we know that. And if not, if that was the last US election, at least people were watching. And now we can hardly wait to see what the next day will bring.”
Top-selling Spanish left-wing newspaper El Pais called the election a victory of a “convicted felon” and editorial by the paper’s editor-in-chief claimed a “victory of disinformation” and of reactionaries. France’s Liberation stated: “It would be tempting to decree that 50% of Americans are morons, but that would be flippant… all these people adhere to the priorities defined by Trump (violent economic protectionism, geopolitical isolationism, mass expulsions of migrants)”.
Of Trump himself they claimed: …convicted felon, misogynist, racist, egocentric, liar and probably disturbed. Either the voters did not take these accusations seriously, or they were perfectly aware of them but they do not care.”
Generally, European political leaders have been far more circumspect in both the run-up to this election and in their responses to the result. This contrasts very strongly with the attitude by the capitals of Europe back in 2016 in the days when to that ruling class, the notion of a Trump victory seemed utterly impossible, even laughable. This time, they bit their tongues — even if some, like Germany’s Chancellor couldn’t even bring himself to mention Trump by name in his statement responding to the election.
Broadcasters don’t have the same worries as politicians, they don’t have to try and forge alliances with a President Trump-led America from January. But there are still some very minor consequences, it seems, for some. British journalist Emily Maitlis, formerly senior political journalist at state broadcaster the BBC and now a founder of new venture The News Agents — a sort of super-podcast — saw herself get a telling off during live election coverage overnight because she couldn’t stop herself swearing.
As the Trump victory became ever-more apparent, Maitlis’s language during a live panel discussion on Britain’s Channel 4 news soured, the journalist calling Trump’s rhetoric about migrants eating pets “batshit”. She was quickly reprimanded by co-host Krishnan Guru-Murthy who said: “Stop swearing. I have to tell [the other guests] off for swearing and then you do it”.
Guru-Murthy said later after a break, during which Maitlis had left the set: “I will, I’ll tell Emily off later because I know she started swearing. It may be the middle of the night in Britain but they’re still a little bit sensitive about that stuff.” Maitlis denied she’d been kicked off set for her blue language, and that instead she’d gone to record an episode of The News Agents. But there too she was on form, evidently dressed for a party with oversized novelty cocktail earrings, and hosing the Trump campaign with criticism.
She said: “a lot of that has been done on the back of lies, right? It’s been done on the back of propaganda. Now I’m not saying he hasn’t won fairly… but a lot of the messaging and the stories he told were lies, whether it was about cats and dogs being eaten in Springfield, Ohio”.