Party’s over: Trump takes fizz out of election night as embassies ditch soirees
U.S. election night 2024 promises to be a sober affair in Europe.
After months of campaigning, a last-minute swap at the top of the presidential ticket and one of the closest-fought election races in recent American history, election day has finally arrived in the United States. But don’t expect Europe to join in the election night fun.
In stark contrast to pre-pandemic ballots, U.S. election night 2024 promises to be a sober affair in Europe, with U.S. officials in most European power centers having ditched the usual festivities. Embassies from Brussels to London, Paris and Berlin have decided against holding their usual watch parties.
The reason? The Trump effect. Many officials are still smarting from the shock 2016 election, when Donald Trump unexpectedly beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency — a political earthquake that left many top members of America’s diplomatic corps exposed as they absorbed the stunning election results in the presence of hundreds of journalists, foreign diplomats and officials who had been invited to election night parties.
“I don’t think there was appetite to watch another Trump victory,” said a senior diplomat based in Europe, adding that the 2016 embassy events had been “calamitous.”
That cringe moment was captured by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who recalled in her autobiography how she had invited all female ambassadors to the U.N. to her residence for an election night bash only to watch her dreams of America’s first woman president go up in smoke.
Similar scenes played out in embassies across Europe. In Brussels in November 2016, then-Ambassador Anthony Gardner hosted an election party in the regal U.S. Embassy on Boulevard du Régent in Brussels. Attendees entered through the foyer under a smiling portrait of then-Commander in Chief President Barack Obama.
Attendees enjoyed wine and amuse-bouches as they watched the results roll in on giant TV screens. But as it became apparent voters were breaking for Trump, the mood darkened; one woman wept quietly. Trump’s poll-defying win revived uncomfortable Brussels bubble memories of the shock Brexit referendum result a few months earlier.
This time around, then, Europe is hedging its bets. The U.S. Mission in Brussels is not hosting a party (though the U.S. ambassador to Belgium will host a breakfast the following day). Similarly, embassies in London, Paris and Berlin won’t be opening their doors,
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-us-election-eu-embassies-hillary-clinton/