In this weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, we continue to explore how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world.
This week, again in Paris…but monitoring the world, and in the throes of Trump- inspired panic…and delight….
America…Euphoria for autocrats
Hours before Donald Trump was carried across the 270-electoral-vote threshold to victory, long before the president-elect emerged to celebrate his triumph, Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban—the stalking horse of Vladimir Putin in Europe was exulting.
As the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet reported:
"Good morning, Hungary! On the way to a beautiful victory," Viktor Orbán wrote on Facebook about the American elections. The Hungarian Prime Minister also shared a picture of him watching the election results. He put it like this:
“It's already in the bag!”
[Foreign Minister] Péter Szijjártó: “Hungarian-American political relations may return to peak form.”
Even before Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, the Kyiv Independent reported on Orban’s view of the consequences of a Trump victory on the war:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a radio interview on Nov. 3, as cited by Hungarian news outlet Telex, that if Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency, "Europe cannot remain pro-war," supposedly referring to EU's defense assistance to Ukraine, which Orban has repeatedly criticized.
Orban also said that Europe cannot bear the burden of Russia's war against Ukraine alone, into which Europe was "irresponsibly dragged", and Europeans will also have to "adapt to the situation."
Under Orban's leadership, Hungary has repeatedlyblocked aid to Kyiv, pushed for negotiations with Moscow, and spouted Kremlin talking points. Orban is a long-standing ally of Trump, whose potential presidency of the U.S. has raised concerns about the fate of Washington's further defense assistance to Ukraine.
Orban recently dismissed President Volodymyr Zelensky's victory plan, which calls for more long-range weapons and the permission to use them against Russian targets.
At least for the moment though, Putin appears prepared to rest on his laurels, as the Russian news agency Tass observed:
Still, Putin already seems to be moving forward having seen his preferred candidate win on Tuesday. Russian daily Pravda, effectively the Kremlin’s voice, had two lead stories on life now under Trump in Europe:
As it happens, Orban and Hungary are drawing to an end of its six-month rotating leadership of the European Union, giving way on January 1 to Poland, a frontline nation of the war in Ukraine—a nation that has become as determinedly pro-Ukraine as Hungary has been pro-Russian. But while Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk was notably silent in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory, his far-right-wing opponent at home had some advice, as Euractiv reported:
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk behaved provocatively towards then-president Donald Trump when he was head of the European Council, said opposition PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, commenting on the words of a fellow MP who argued that Tusk should step down if Trump returned to power in the US. [That won’t happen, incidentally.]
Tusk, who returned as prime minister after parliamentary elections a year ago, was president of the European Council for most of Trump's first presidency. The two leaders disagreed on most issues, from security to trade.
“What concerns me is that the current government, Donald Tusk and his team, have set their sights on Kamala Harris, so Donald Tusk should resign after Donald Trump's win,” former defence minister Mariusz Błaszczak (PiS, ECR) told Polsat News broadcaster.
And on the other major war front
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t even waiting for the votes to be counted. As cable News 18 reported:
Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the removal of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on November 5, coinciding with the US election, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Israel Katz is expected to take over the defence portfolio. Additionally, Netanyahu has offered Gideon Saar the position of Foreign Minister, succeeding Gallant.
“My highest duty as prime minister of Israel is to safeguard Israel’s security and lead us to a decisive victory," Netanyahu’s statement read.
Meanwhile, the daily Haaretz reported
'Trump Will Be Generous to Netanyahu': The Arab World Sees No Hope in U.S. Election
The paper also reported:
Netanyahu congratulated Donald Trump on his presidential win, describing it as "history's greatest comeback!"
"Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America," Netanyahu added.
Iran, meanwhile saw its currency, the rial, fall to an all-time low of 703,000 rials to the US dollar.
Above all, Haaretz was perhaps more clear-eyed than any American media:
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Elsewhere, in the (still) free world….
And then there were the headlines from democracies, many now throwing up their hands in surrender—not to mention horror, fear and a still searing memory of things past:
Le Monde:
But then the page 1 editorial:
The end of an American world This is an observation that must be examined with eyes wide open. The path on which Donald Trump, strengthened for this second term by the success of his party in the Senate, will engage his country, fundamentally diverging from the path drawn by the United States since the end of the Second World War. It is the end of an American cycle, that of an open and engaged superpower in the world, eager to establish itself as a democratic model—the famous "shining city on the hill" praised by President Ronald Reagan. The model had already been undermined over the last two decades. The return of Donald Trump drives a nail into its coffin.
The world according to Donald Trump is a world that he views solely through the prism of American national interests. A world of power struggles and trade wars, which disdains multilateralism. A world where transactional diplomacy replaces alliances based on values. A world, finally, where the President of the United States reserves his harshest words for his allies but spares autocrats, who are seen as partners rather than adversaries.
Risk of Europe fracturing
Europeans rightly have bad memories of Trump's first term. The second will be even more perilous, in a context where war is raging on their continent, waged by a Russian power that is ignoring all its international obligations and is deploying increasing aggressiveness. If, as he threatened during the campaign, Donald Trump stops military aid to Ukraine and negotiates a peace with Vladimir Putin that is favorable to the invader, the consequences of such an outcome will go far beyond the fate of Ukraine alone: they will affect the entire security of the continent.
The risk of division, even fracture, in Europe in the face of such a prospect is real. This danger is existential for the European Union; its leaders must become aware of it and prepare to face it, without waiting for Donald Trump to take office—they have waited too long.
In Singapore, The Straits Times website (the news arrived too late for their print edition) was stunned …..
But it did take special note of the fact that the leader of the strategically-located city-state, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong….
…looks forward to working with US President-elect Donald Trump and hopes for increased bilateral and regional cooperation with Washington.
PM Wong said Singapore is familiar with Trump, noting how he had visited the Republic during [the catastrophic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] during his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021.
“We had also, under his (Trump’s) watch, extended our 1990 Memorandum Of Understanding Regarding United States Use of [military] facilities in Singapore, and we had continued to advance our trade and investment flows between both America and Singapore in a very productive manner,” he said.
In Latin America….
Miguel Jimenez, Washington correspondent for the leading daily El Pais reported:
Perhaps many in the United States are not yet ready to elect a woman president, and even less so if she is of Indian and African-American descent. The Democratic candidate did not appear at the Democratic party—or funeral—on election night at Howard University in Washington, waiting to burn her last options….
Trump has benefited from citizens' frustration following the sharp price increases of the last four years and the increase in illegal immigration. The Republican has shown himself immune to scandals and becomes the first convicted criminal to be elected president, which will also clear his judicial future. The new victory of a demagogic and populist, but at the same time charismatic, politician represents a real earthquake for the future of the United States and the world.
A Paris initiative: What if the world could vote?
You do still have a chance, incidentally, to send a message—not that it will have a jot of influence over who’ll be sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office on January 20. Paris-based tech entrepreneur Jamie Rosen and his Mexican architect wife Mariana Gomez Pimienta and their teenage children at the Ecole Jeannine Manuel, a bilingual school in Paris, have created a website to allow the world to do just that—cast (unofficial) ballots.
The site is The World Vote and it has accumulated a huge worldwide vote (the map tells it all) of virtually every continent. So far, Harris is well in the lead, but there are some surprising Trumpian pockets.
But the website is still open. So, Vote—your vote may not count in sending one or the other to the Oval Office but will certainly provide a most intriguing snapshot of the winner (or loser’s) standing in the world.
Everything is hanging in the balance for the two summits organized in Budapest on Thursday and Friday. Viktor Orban is to blame. The US presidential election will be the backdrop for discussions between the leaders of the countries invited to the meeting of the European Political Community, followed by a working dinner among the 27 EU leaders in the evening, before the informal European summit on competitiveness the following day. The Hungarian prime minister is unpredictable, and numerous rumors have increased tension. An admirer of Donald Trump, Orban openly hopes that he will return to the White House and could take a position that would poison the debates….He did it for the legislative elections in Georgia, hailing the victory of the Georgian Dream party even before the results were announced. What will the other EU leaders do? "It is not the first time that Viktor Orban defends an opinion different from that of the other leaders and finds himself isolated," a senior European official recalled. Orban is getting tired and some will not hesitate to “tell him certain truths” during dinner, he added.
“We will have to stay calm and see what happens. The new president will not take office before January 2025”. The post-election message agreed by the 27 is as follows: congratulate the winner, recall the importance of transatlantic relations, affirm the will to strengthen them, underline that the EU also has its own agenda, which includes the defense of the multilateral system and the determination to ensure prosperity, stability and security for its citizens. If the results are disputed or doubtful, the leaders will avoid offering congratulations and declare that they have confidence in the American system and US institutions. The big question is whether Viktor Orban will stick to the agreed line.
We’ll be following all this and more every week going forward…next up, Sunday’s regular The World This Week on Andelman Unleashed.
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As usual, Walter, you make much sense BUT i must cavil with your portrayal of The NYT....they really have the best journos in the world on this story, labouring under intolerable conditions. My dear friends Maggie and Peter (Baker) are such pros ... Maggie Haberman gets her dna from her sainted father Clyde (google him!) ... trust me, they have NO agenda but the truth ... and the Sulzbergers leave them the hell alone, quite rightly !! I value your views immensely and your membership in the inner circles of the Unleashed family !!
Hi David, your coverage is splendid as usual. Can't resist making a comment and suggestion, following Nov 5.
Did you see the front-page coverage in the Good Gray New York Times on Nov 6? It was astonishing, and seems to reflect a whitewash of the Trump victory, sort a re-do of America's public rooms, perhaps to the outside world. I can't recall ever seeing anything as crass, fawning, and duplicitous in the so-called National Paper of Record. Perhaps, to reassure Wall Street and foreign investment, or just the Ownership of the Times. (Or, fear of Donald's promised Retribution.) At any rate, will there be any coverage of that page in the wider world? By the way, Singapore, for all its wealth and prosperity (much praise to it for that) is one of the most conservative polities in Asia, and virtually a 1-party state. No surprise that Donald Trump will not annoy them.
As usual, Walter, you make much sense BUT i must cavil with your portrayal of The NYT....they really have the best journos in the world on this story, labouring under intolerable conditions. My dear friends Maggie and Peter (Baker) are such pros ... Maggie Haberman gets her dna from her sainted father Clyde (google him!) ... trust me, they have NO agenda but the truth ... and the Sulzbergers leave them the hell alone, quite rightly !! I value your views immensely and your membership in the inner circles of the Unleashed family !!
Hi David, your coverage is splendid as usual. Can't resist making a comment and suggestion, following Nov 5.
Did you see the front-page coverage in the Good Gray New York Times on Nov 6? It was astonishing, and seems to reflect a whitewash of the Trump victory, sort a re-do of America's public rooms, perhaps to the outside world. I can't recall ever seeing anything as crass, fawning, and duplicitous in the so-called National Paper of Record. Perhaps, to reassure Wall Street and foreign investment, or just the Ownership of the Times. (Or, fear of Donald's promised Retribution.) At any rate, will there be any coverage of that page in the wider world? By the way, Singapore, for all its wealth and prosperity (much praise to it for that) is one of the most conservative polities in Asia, and virtually a 1-party state. No surprise that Donald Trump will not annoy them.