Like many, I can say precisely where I was and what I was doing when some of the most indelible events during my lifetime took place: I was watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell revealed that John Lennon had been shot, waking up at the cottage to the stunning news of Princess Di’s death, and staring at a screen at the office when the news of 9/11 literally exploded. I also recall the morning after Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016.
The latter comes to mind as our neighbours south of the border decide tomorrow the electoral fate of the most controversial president in recent US history (perhaps ever).
When Trump was first elected I was in London, attending World Travel Market along with close to 50,000 members of the global travel trade – a unique setting to be in for an election that was known even then to be an unprecedented occasion.
It might be noted that the annual early-November trade show is taking place virtually this year in a pandemic-induced lockdown, a symbol of just how much has changed in the world during the past four years.
The pandemic, and Trump’s reaction to it, is a central issue in this year’s election, of course, but not the only one of significance.
However, on election day Nov. 8, 2016, the future of the US presidency was still unknown, but many suspected just how much was at stake.
The mood on the floor at WTM was nervous – echoing the angst felt in 2002 during the build-up to the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 (I remember staying up all night arguing about WMD with a couple of colleagues), and, just a year before, the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
However, it must be remembered that very few – not least among the considerable number of US delegates there – truly expected Trump to win.
Indeed, on the evening of the election, I shared a drink with an American acquaintance who admitted to having voted for Trump (or more precisely, against Hillary) but only because he had no expectation that he would prevail. Ballots were still being cast on the West Coast of the US when we all went to bed in the UK.
In the morning: shock! Trump had won, the world had changed, and World Travel Market knew it, even if most Americans back home, still a-snooze due to the time difference, did not. The bustling trade floor at WTM was quiet, as if someone had died. A cannon could have been shot through the US pavilion, many of the stands unmanned until later in the day when astonished tourism representatives tentatively ventured back to work, too distracted and embarrassed to even try to sell their destinations in the moment.
There were few words from the Americans to international colleagues who sought explanation and reassurance. Only “sorry” and half-serious enquiries about how to move to Canada.
With the benefit of hindsight, the fears of most have been justified, a domino having fallen that will continue to reverberate long after this week’s election takes place, even if Americans choose to fire Trump.
Even if the sentiment is exaggerated, it’s not normal days in the new normal.
On Wednesday (presumably), it will be interesting to see where America stands. I won’t be at World Travel Market, but on this morning-after I will be staring at my TV, in pandemic-induced isolation, bleary-eyed from staying up too late the night before.
I might be doing a jig or hanging my head in despair; but in any case, I don’t doubt that I will remember it.