They’re not calling you a Ku Klux Klan loving loser now, my friend!
Star-studded. Surreal. Scintillating .A week that shook the world... by our man with a hotline to the Trumps
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
6PM: Flew in to New York tonight. The streets are buzzing – everyone’s talking about the election.
America is two countries: the East and West coasts, and everywhere else. New York and California will vote Hillary, but many of the ‘fly over’ states in between are far less predictable. That’s why the whole world is glued to this contest.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
9AM: I wrote a lengthy article for this paper today on why Trump’s not the new Hitler, has huge support in Middle America, and may well still pull off a Leicester City-style shock. Many on social media mocked and abused me for it, but golfer Rory McIlroy sent me a note saying: ‘I felt compelled to say this is the best piece I’ve read about this whole election. It won’t be as bad as everyone is predicting if he gets in, just as it wasn’t as good when Obama got in.’ He’s right.
If Trump does win, I’ll be in the very surreal position of being good friends with the most powerful person on Earth. Three weeks ago, after the final TV debate, Trump sent me a note: ‘Piers, you are the greatest! Nobody like you. Getting really great marks on the debate last night. She is highly overrated. See you soon! Best wishes, Donald.’
What are the chances of our next meeting being in the Oval Office?
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7 10AM:
Lord Sugar and I have exchanged numerous barbs about his fellow billionaire Apprentice host’s election chances ever since Trump announced he was running.
During a dinner at designer Kelly Hoppen’s house six months ago, things got heated in front of other guests including Holly Willoughby and Bradley Walsh. ‘Trump has no chance,’ Sugar snapped.
‘Is that as accurate a prediction as the time you said iPods would be dead by Christmas 2005 – and they went on to sell another 400million units?’ I asked.
This morning, he emailed me: ‘Come on then, God’s gift to journalism, you still think Trump can win?’
‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘If he wins 5 or 6 swing states, he’s President.’
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
8AM ELECTION DAY: Hillary Clinton’s spent the past week parading a bunch of celebrity supporters at rallies, including Beyoncé, Jay Z, Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. I don’t understand why she thinks this does anything but reinforce her rich, elitist image?
As another golfer, Lee Westwood, put it: ‘Always makes me chuckle when politicians roll out the celebrities – who’d listen to them?’
Madonna even offered free oral sex to anyone who voted Hillary. It’s hard to imagine anything more likely to increase Trump’s vote.
10AM: The New York Post has decided not to endorse anyone. Instead, it has a front-page photo of a woman holding her nose and the headline ‘VOTE’.
8PM: Polls are closing and results are about to start pouring in. I’ve had one hour’s sleep in the last 30 hours, it’s all just too enthralling. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen.
9PM: I walked down to the Rockefeller Center for a live link with ITV News host Julie Etchingham. Hillary was moving ahead in many swing state results. ‘ She’s got this!’ screamed the Clinton-ites on Twitter.
10PM: My eldest son Spencer, 23, a sports journalist, is in town to cover the big Conor McGregor UFC fight. Over dinner at an Italian he asked: ‘Who’s going to win?’
‘Looking like Hillary,’ I replied. ‘But it’s still early.’ Twenty minutes later, he glanced up at a TV screen. ‘Dad, it’s all changing – look.’
I stared as CNN reported that Trump was now surging ahead in many of the places where he’d been behind, including Florida. Other diners were staring too, many of them open-mouthed and horrified.
We raced to Good Morning Britain’s studio. A woman stopped me in the street. ‘Piers, pray for us please.’ She was fighting back tears.
10.39PM: The first few results went as predicted. But now comes a sensational development: Trump’s won Ohio. Big swing state, big moment. The two candidates are ensconced in separate hotels just a few hundred yards away from us. It feels like we’re at the very epicentre of history. An incredible thrill.
10.53PM: Wowza. Trump’s won Florida too. People in the rooftop bar where we’re filming from began audibly gasping in shock. ‘What the f*** is happening?’ shouted one Clinton supporter.
11.14PM: Trump’s taken North Carolina! I now know exactly what’s happening… he’s going to win. Jerry Springer, TV legend and former Democrat mayor of Cincinnati, was one of our GMB pundits for the night and sat ashen-faced, holding his head in his hands.
‘I don’t believe what I am seeing,’ he sighed. ‘This is terrifying.’ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
1.35AM: Trump’s storming it. He’s won more swing states – Utah, Iowa, and now Pennsylvania. This means he’s only six electoral college votes behind the magic 270 threshold and he’s ahead in most of the remaining, undeclared states. New York and California voted Hillary, but that, as I thought, has turned out to be utterly misleading.
2AM: ‘It’s happening!’ I emailed Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
‘A truly historic moment for this country!’ she replied. ‘We appreciate your support and friendship through this incredible journey!’
2.30AM: Trump’s won ANOTHER key swing state, Wisconsin. I turned to Jerry. ‘That’s it, right? He’s won?’ He nodded, forlornly. The Associated Press news wire flashed that Trump was the new President-Elect. GMB was in the middle of a pre-recorded news report. ‘Get us out of it!’ I shouted. ‘We have to announce this before everyone else.’ Our director scrambled us back live on air. ‘We have breaking news,’ I said. ‘Donald Trump is going to be
the 45th President of the United States.’ We were the first British TV network to report the news. A proud moment. 2.40AM: Bradley Walsh texted: ‘You called it mate, and someone is going to make a fortune supplying cement for that wall across Mexico!’ 2.50AM: Trump appeared on stage in front of his jubilant supporters. He was softly spoken, gracious and keen to start the unifying process. ‘I want to be a president for ALL Americans,’ he said. 3AM: ‘Your ability to continually tweet from deep inside Trump’s bowels is rather impressive,’ Gary Lineker tweeted me. I replied: ‘That’s PRESIDENT Trump to you.’ 9AM: ‘Having Donald Trump as President is like having Piers Mor- gan as Prime Minister,’ someone tweeted, with the charming hashtag of #EveryCountryHasAnIdiot.
Coincidentally, a betting firm has revealed odds on Britain’s next PM. Theresa May and Lord Sugar are both 10-11, Jeremy Corbyn is 2-1 and I’m fourth favourite at 3-1.
Stranger things have happened… 9.20AM: ‘Please put a good word in for Blighty with President Trump’, messaged Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson. ‘Of course!’ I replied.
But there’s no need. Trump’s a huge fan of Britain and considers himself partly British because his mother was born and raised in Scotland. He told me in March: ‘She loved the Queen. Whenever the Queen came on television she’d stop and watch her.’
‘Do you feel you have British blood?’ I asked him. ‘I do! I love the UK, I love the people, just one of my favourite places in the world. If I become President, I know we’re going to have a fantastic relationship.’ 11.40AM: Hillary has finally emerged from what must have been the worst night of her political life. ‘We must accept this result,’ she said. ‘Donald Trump is going to be our President… we owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.’
It must have killed her to say that. She was supposed to be, as Obama said, the ‘most qualified person ever to run for President’, yet she lost to a man who has never held any kind of political office. Not that Trump is a political naive. As he once told me: ‘I’ve dealt with politicians all of my life.’ 12.20PM: Obama has come out with the understatement of the millennium: ‘It’s no secret the President-- Elect and I have some pretty significant differences. But we are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country.’
A stunning U-turn from a man who two days ago described Trump as a small-brained, star-f***ing, Ku Klux Klan-tolerating ‘loser’ born with a silver spoon in his mouth. 3PM: I’m inundated with texts and emails from people who now appear to see me as some kind of gateway to global superpower. It makes me laugh, given the same people would have all been roundly ridiculing me if Trump had lost, notwithstanding the fact I always said I wouldn’t personally vote for him. ‘Been chatting with Simon [Cowell] tonight,’ texted Amanda Holden. ‘We fancy a tour of the White House! Let us know!!’ 4PM: I emailed Trump’s son, Donald Jr, to congratulate him. ‘Piers, thank you,’ he replied. ‘I believe he can do this very well and I also feel it’s time for a change on both sides in DC. There is still a lot of work to do. Also, thank you for your statements of support throughout. I know it’s not easy to come out and say that Trump is anything but Satan.’
It wasn’t, but I found a lot of the hysterical demonising of Trump ridiculously over-the-top. He’s not the monster many say, just as Hillary isn’t the angel many think. 7PM: Took Spencer to Madison Square Garden for a New York basketball showdown between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. It’s fair to say most New Yorkers are wandering around like dead-eyed, incredulous zombies.
We sat in the VIP suite having dinner next to Chris Rock, movie star, comedian and Oscars host. ‘What do you feel about the result?’ I asked.
‘Depressing,’ he replied. ‘ I’ve known him a long time. He’s entertaining but he’s got a mean streak.’
A barman offered his opinion: ‘I think Trump’s either going to be the greatest President we’ve ever had… or the world will end.’ 9PM: All the pollsters got it hopelessly wrong, just as they did with the last UK Election and with the EU referendum. Here’s a stunning fact: a £5 accumulator bet on Leicester City winning the Premier League, Brexit and President Trump would pay out £12.5million today! 10PM: My actor friend Richard Schiff, who played brilliant firebrand White House communications director Toby Ziegler in The West Wing, campaigned hard for Hillary and is distraught. ‘This is the worst moment in our history,’ he told me. ‘Our very foundation is shaking and buckling. Women’s health rights will reverse to the dark ages. Racist attacks will escalate in number and intensity. The threat of world war will hover over us and nuclear war is on the table.’
I don’t share his apocalyptic fears. From what I know of him, I believe Trump the President will be a very different animal to Trump the Candidate.
Trump pulled no punches and I know why. During the election of 2012, he was scathing to me about Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaigning style. ‘ To become President, you have to fight the fire with fire. The Democrats are being very tough on him and the Republicans are pulling back. They don’t want to throw all their punches. I think you have to throw all your punches because those punches are going to be thrown at you.’
He also told me what kind of President he wanted to see: ‘Somebody has to be able to grab the bull by the horns and pull everybody together.’ I suspect Trump will be a far more unifying leader than many fear.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10
11AM: Trump went to the White House today to meet Obama and begin the transition process. It was, astonishingly, the first time they had ever met, and it happened in the Oval Office.
When I won Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice show in 2008, his final words to me as he announced the result were: ‘Piers, you’re a vicious guy. I’ve seen it. You’re tough. You’re smart. You’re probably brilliant. I’m not sure. You’re certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody… you’re my Celebrity Apprentice.’
Well, Donald, you’re a vicious guy. I’ve seen it. You’re tough. You’re smart. You’re probably brilliant. I’m not sure. You’re certainly not diplomatic. But you did an amazing job. And you beat the hell out of everybody… you’re the President of the United States.
I wish you every success, for your sake, America’s, and the world’s.