The 500-person venue in Brussels where the US election night watch party was being held was fully sold out. Earlier in the day, organisers had sent out an email warning that staff would be checking IDs to make sure they matched the name shown on a person’s ticket. They also warned guests against bringing anyone else along as there was a “long waiting list” and those plus-ones would be turned away.
I got a little excited after reading that email. This would be my first watch party and I realised that watch parties are like any kind of party: you want to go to the hottest one.
When I spotted a camera crew from Belgium’s public broadcaster VRT minutes after showing up, and correspondents from Politico and NPR later into the evening, I knew I was in the right place.
Brussels being Brussels, there were as many Americans there as there were Belgians and EU expats. Even though we were in the city that hosts the EU institutions, there were no EU lawmakers that I could see.
After the first panel debate of the evening – which tried to explain why the election was so close – and hearing people clap and chant any time a speaker landed an anti-Trump zinger, I concluded that there were no Trump supporters at the party. That, or they were being discreet.
I saw one young man with a MAGA hat pose next to a cardboard life-size cut-out of Trump. A photographer standing next to me wondered whether he was wearing the hat “ironically”, and I too struggled to take it seriously. Cardboard Trump, ordered off Amazon I was told by one of the organisers, looked a little faded next to a glowing Kamala, like he’d been printed as the toner was running out.
Later that evening, cardboard Trump briefly fell over after a Spanish journalist backed into him as she did a live segment to camera. He was down for the briefest of seconds, but a guest nevertheless saw an opportunity to land a few imaginary kicks on him. No one encouraged it, but no one stopped the imaginary violence either.
The carpeted room on the ground floor was packed. Many of the guests huddled in little groups by the bar at the back of the long oblong room.
During every one of the three debates, there were repeated attempts to shush the crowd. It didn’t work. A few people had too much to drink, but beyond a bit of heckling at one point, even they largely behaved themselves.
I left the room towards the middle of the final debate, which saw someone from Republicans Overseas face off against a spokesperson for Democrats Abroad in a mock debate. Neither of them were professional politicians, the moderator informed us before introducing them, which suggested that we shouldn’t expect too much of a fight. He was right. It was a meek replay of the actual and only presidential debate back in September. Both speakers seemed to be play-acting. The Republican speaker even did a brief impression of Trump at one point.
CNN was playing on the giant screens in the ballroom downstairs.
Even though we’d had three speakers explain to us what was at stake for Europe during the second panel debate, there was no nail-biting suspense that I could tell of. Maybe more like watching a friendly between two football teams. No one seemed that invested. It all seemed quite light-hearted and trivial.
As locals, we know that Trump doesn’t think too highly of our city. We are a “hellhole”, he once informed a Fox Business anchor. But as one of the US’s biggest trade partners and closest allies, Trump will have to deal with the EU. And that means he’s likely to pay us a visit in the next four years. This hellhole is ready to welcome him.
Linda A Thompson is a Belgian journalist and editor living in Brussels
