At the beginning of the evening, the US calls are still sparse, but the later the evening gets, the more frequently they are heard. The Hilton Midtown hotel, in the middle of Manhattan, is at the center of world politics on Tuesday evening. In front of the building there are countless security guards and television crews, and in the upper ballrooms Donald Trump has invited people to a "winning party", which is testament to both the controversial candidate's bursting self-confidence and his prophetic gift. But no one suspects this at 7:30 p.m. when my colleagues Manfred Klemann, Oliver Prange and I enter the lobby of the hotel.
The fact that we can sneak into the building at all - without indonesia rcs data accreditation and without a room - is nothing short of a miracle. Especially on an evening when New York has been transformed into a high-security area. But somehow everything is strange on this evening of November 8th. There are four TV screens mounted in the Hilton bar, two showing CNN, the others the conservative channel FOX. The more states Trump wins, the more excited the mood becomes.
But true euphoria looks different, not comparable to the "Obamania" eight years ago. Perhaps it is also due to the fact that even Trump's supporters are overwhelmed by the clear results. But perhaps also due to the fact that here - in the middle of Manhattan - we are in Trump's greatest enemy territory, even though he has never lived outside the city and embodies the cocky New Yorker most perfectly with three Trump buildings of his own in the middle of the city.