Behind the story How I experienced US election day – and met a Hollywood star

And who do you choose? This question was floating around in my head as I sat on the subway to Brooklyn early in the morning on November 5th and observed my fellow human beings. The little grandma with a bobble hat and a shopping cart: definitely Kamala Harris. The businessman who is already conducting his first stock market discussions via Airpods: maybe Donald Trump? The two young women engrossed in their TikTok feed? Hopefully they will vote at all.

It’s Election Day in the USA. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. As a foreign reporter, there is nothing more exciting than reporting locally on the most important election of the year. And as someone who has lived in the States for a long time, I am also personally interested in what direction this country is taking. For weeks before the decisive day, I traveled across the USA to talk to as many Americans as possible about the election.

When I arrive at the polling station at the Brooklyn Museum around nine o’clock, a long line has already formed. Some do their voting on the way to work, others push strollers or combine voting with walking the dog. Hundreds have already cast their votes, and so far everything is going smoothly, report the coordinators on site. I’m going to get votes.

At a smaller polling place in another corner of Brooklyn, I was grabbing a coffee and taking notes when I noticed a man out of the corner of my eye. With wet hair, none other than actor Adam Driver (known from “Star Wars”) walks past me into the polling station.

Was that really him just now? A quick Google search shows that Driver actually lives in Brooklyn. So it must be him. I don’t have time for any more mind games because he’s already leaving the polling station at this moment. So access. “Excuse me, are you Adam?” I ask a little shyly. He answers my question with a laugh. I introduce myself as a reporter from Germany and we talk briefly about the election. Driver doesn’t want to reveal who he just voted for. But he was “very positive” about the result. And at the end I get a quick selfie – for our US election live blog, of course.

Inspired by my reporter’s happiness at having met a Hollywood star for the first time (and a nice one at that), I set off for Manhattan. In the gilded Trump Tower, Rolando and Anna García have just stocked up on fan merchandise. Both wear USA sweaters. The couple from Florida are hoping for a “too big to rig” victory for their favorite. “Only Trump can save our country,” says Rolando.

A man wearing a Trump mask, suit and red tie performs gymnastics in the middle of the four-lane road to the amusement of pedestrians, giving hand kisses and imitating Trump’s typical dance moves. “I love you,” shouts a woman laden with shopping bags, and the next hand kiss is hers.

I spend the beginning of election night in a small neighborhood bar in the East Village. The polling stations have been closed since 6 p.m. The atmosphere is joyful and the bartenders have their hands full feeding their thirsty guests. But the later the evening, the more noticeable the tension becomes. Things are not going well for the Democrats. In the important swing states of Georgia and North Carolina, Trump can hardly be caught. My colleague Nicholas Büchse tells us from Atlanta that the Republican election party is already in full swing there. Harris’ only hope is now to get through the so-called “Blue Wall”, Michigan, Wisconsin – and the most important state of all: Pennsylvania. But here too there is now a grave mood among the Democrats, reports my colleague Jan Christoph Wiechmann from Philadelphia.

Tareq moved to New York from Michigan just a few months ago. His parents, both Lebanese, voted for Trump at home. The 33-year-old is afraid that his home state – an important swing state – could also go to the Republicans. “It would be a catastrophe for the people of Lebanon and Gaza,” he tells me. A young woman named Hanuki believes: “If Harris loses, it’s her own fault.”

The first people leave the bar around 11 p.m. In Washington, my colleague Marc Etzold continues to wait for Harris’s planned victory party until it becomes clear at some point: the vice president will no longer be coming.

When I arrive in the hotel room shortly after midnight and turn on the television, the first breaking news is flashing across the screen: Donald Trump is the predicted winner of the presidential election. I have to hear the words from the presenters a few times before they really sink in in my brain.

It’s not so much the shock of the fact that Trump – a liar, a convicted felon, the instigator of the storming of the Capitol – won. I’m more amazed at how clear the result is in the end. Trump can’t just win all seven swing states. He is the first Republican since Bush in 2004 to narrowly win a majority of all votes cast.

At around 2 a.m., Trump takes the stage at Mar-a-Lago. He will “make America great again,” he repeats his campaign slogan and speaks of the “greatest political comeback in history.” His supporters cheer. My social media feed shows me the other side of the emotional spectrum: tears, angry outbursts and broken heart emojis. An American friend just writes to me: “I am not okay”.

It is already clear in these hours: it was not fear of democracy, not the dispute over abortion rights, not even the polarizing issue of immigration that decided this election – but simply Americans’ concern for their own wallets and the feeling that they are under Trump was doing better.

When I finally fall into bed with sore fingers and after too many energy drinks, morning has long since dawned – and people are waking up in Trump’s America.

You can find all the making-of stories from the stern editorial team in this overview.