Some in the news media are still reeling and somberly reflecting on their feelings about President Trump’s historic win one year after his upset election victory. Journalists and political commentators this week recalled how they felt on election night last year and some suggested they still haven’t moved on.
In an op-ed headlined “Anniversary of the Apocalypse,” liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg said Monday night, “In the terror-struck and vertiginous days after Donald Trump’s election a year ago, as I tried to make sense of America’s new reality, I called people who lived, or had lived, under authoritarianism to ask what to expect.” She added she’s “still poleaxed by grief at the destruction of our civic inheritance.”
Recommended Stories
Goldberg’s colleague Charles Blow led his own column the previous day, “A year ago this week, America made what I believe history will record as one of the greatest electoral mistakes in the life of the nation: It elected Donald Trump president of the United States.”
At the Washington Post, columnist and former speechwriter to George W. Bush Michael Gerson said the Republican Party, with Trump as its de facto leader, is now dying along with the Democratic Party.
“The lead ideology of the Republican Party at the national level is now immoral and must be overturned — a task that only a smattering of retiring officeholders has undertaken,” he wrote in an op-ed published Monday night. “The lead ideology of the Democratic Party is likely to be overturned — by radicals with little to offer the country save anger and bad economics. Where does this leave us at Year One of the Trump era? With two very sick political parties that have a monopoly on political power and little prospect for reform and recovery.”
Trump has only been in office 10 months but his relationship with the news media has largely remained as hostile as it was during the 2016 campaign. His readiness to buck Washington norms and and combat seemingly all criticisms, especially from the press, has drawn sustained outrage from the people charged with covering his administration.
Esquire magazine on Sunday published quotes from several journalists remembering the election and how it made them feel.
“We agreed that night, and we agree today, that the Trump presidency is an emergency,” said New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick. “And in an emergency, you’ve got a purpose, a job to do, and ours is to put pressure on power. That’s always the highest calling of journalism, but never more so than when power is a constant threat to the country and in radical opposition to its values and its highest sense of itself.”
Journalist Ana Marie Cox, who writes for several publications and previously reported for MTV News, remembered a remark she made on social media related to her struggle with alcoholism.
“I happen to be in recovery,” she told the magazine. “I had a moment of, like, ‘Why the fuck not [have a drink]?’ I went on Twitter and said, ‘To those of us ‘in the room’ together, he’s not worth it. Don’t drink over this.’ And the response I got was amazing. I said, ‘I’m going to a meeting tomorrow. Everyone get through this 24 hours, get to a meeting, we’re not alone.’”
