Welcome to ElectionLine’s A View From Overseas collection, during which we communicate with media figures who don’t reside in America however hold an in depth eye on its politics. These good observers have offered a singular perspective on the race to the White Home. Following Donald Trump’s victory, we return to a earlier contributor: Matt Frei, who serves as an anchor and Europe editor for Channel 4 Information. His reporting for Channel 4 Information’ Inside Gaza: Israel and Hamas at Struggle gained Worldwide Emmy and BAFTA awards.
The second Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro had been whisked away from reporters, Matt Frei sensed Kamala Harris could have botched her U.S. election race.
The adorned British journalist, a veteran of the marketing campaign beat, listened as the 2 actors delivered polemics in assist of their candidate at a Philadelphia occasion days earlier than the vote. “It makes me so f***ing offended that we’re right here speaking a couple of piece of s**t like Donald Trump,” De Niro rasped. Then he was off. “What occurs if she doesn’t win?” Frei requested by the jostle of a safety guard. “Good query,” De Niro barked again, strolling into the space.
Frei was not amused. “I simply thought, cling on a minute. You might be actors. You’ve determined to return out right here to be very partisan and fairly offensive, to be sincere, however you’re afraid to check your assumptions with a journalist,” says the anchor for Channel 4 Information within the UK.
He in contrast the “swarm of Hollywood folks” to an encounter with the Trump marketing campaign only a day earlier in rural Newport, Pennsylvania. Right here, he jousted with Kimberly Guilfoyle — Gavin Newsom’s ex-wife turned Trump evangelist — after the president-elect delivered a rally speech. “She was very completely satisfied to do a little bit of tough and tumble with a bloke known as Matt she’d by no means heard of,” Frei displays. “I believed that was spectacular … it confirmed the divisions and engagement on each side.”
For Frei, it crystalized the sense that Harris’ lean into Hollywood had backfired. “It was counterproductive with Trumpian caps[lock],” he says in a telephone interview. “It in all probability moved the dial, however within the flawed course.”
The previous BBC journalist just isn’t the primary to make this statement: John Oliver memorably blamed Katy Perry for Harris’ defeat after she wailed Whitney Houston’s “Biggest Love of All” at a Pittsburgh rally on election eve. Frei acknowledges that the explanations for defeat are assorted and nuanced, however believes the vice chairman’s embrace of star energy helped reinforce the impression (even when it was an unfair one) that she was an out-of-touch “woke warrior.”
He explains: “We now have forgotten the first rule of Trump’s election mojo, which is: You upset liberals and liberals howl in anger and throw their fingers up in despair. Each time a liberal does that, one other Trump voter is born elsewhere within the nation.”
Deadline caught up with Frei after the presenter, who additionally works for influential UK radio station LBC, initially sat down for ElectionLine’s A View From Overseas column in February. Again then, Frei mentioned Trump was constructing a wall of electoral assist that was not getting any increased, however was turning into extra structurally sound. He was proper. Trump’s 76.6M votes edged up from 2020, however not by a lot. His supporters remained loyal due to, not despite, courtroom instances, conspiracies, and cognitive questions.
“What Trump was superb at was bringing out the grievances in folks. He did it in 2016 as a backlash to the period of austerity attributable to the monetary disaster. He couldn’t do it in 2020 as a result of he was an incumbent, and COVID had skewed every part, however he did it once more in 2024,” Frei says. “Trump was desirous about kitchen desk stuff: The financial system, immigration, crime.”
Frei says the Trump ticket was additionally helped by Harris’ curse of incumbency, which has turn into the “shallow grave” of election campaigns around the globe. He additionally thinks the knowledge of the end result has been useful for America: “Astonishingly, it has precipitated various calm as a result of the Democrats can’t argue with it. Republicans now personal the store, so that they’re gonna must do one thing with it.”
Frei thinks the U.S. Structure will seemingly comprise Trump, ought to he entertain any want to squat within the White Home past 2028, however says all bets are off with regards to predicting the occasions of his second time period in workplace. Frei says he wouldn’t rule out World Struggle III or Trump successful the Nobel Peace Prize as he confronts conflict within the Center East and Ukraine. “That’s what retains me awake at evening as a journalist, and I feel that’s what’s going to maintain the viewers watching,” he provides.
One factor he predicts with certainty is embarrassment for Britain’s Labour authorities, which has been pressured to “kiss the ring” after ministers, together with International Secretary David Lammy, trashed Trump in opposition. For Prime Minister Keir Starmer, pragmatism seems to trump precept, a minimum of for now.
On the proof of Frei’s expertise in Philadelphia, nevertheless, an identical rapprochement from DiCaprio and De Niro appears unlikely.
