How the US presidential election campaign disrupted the British conversation

The 2020 American presidential election has disrupted the world’s news media and arguably national conversations universally. Recurring headlines of Donald Trump’s latest unsubstantiated claim or inflammatory comment and the retaliation from Democratic politicians has positioned itself front and centre in the UK’s news for months, coming to a head in recent weeks. With little else to turn attention to as the nation settles into a second lockdown due to COVID-19 the gaze has dropped to the chaos across the pond.

With social media saturated and round the clock coverage of predictions, projections and analysis many of the stories that would otherwise be of public interest have been lost in the cycle. The exposure of the alleged falsified documents created by Martin Bashir to land the infamous Panorama interview in an alternate circumstance may have been a talking point for days, instead swamped by images of boarded up streets against the backdrop of expected civil unrest in Washington. The biggest English libel trial of the 21st century, Johnny Depp vs The Sun tabloid and its encompassing themes around the #MeToo movement, domestic violence, media legitimacy and trust has hardly captured the mainstream press’ attention. It’s difficult to say whether the obsession with America’s politics is as a result of escapism from months of pandemic discussion, which seems to be a likely conclusion as a quarter of Brits don’t feel that the choice of candidate will have any real difference on trade deals as observed by YouGov.

The seed of the voter fraud was planted by Trump in early October who tweeted that the election was ‘rigged’, stirring unrest and doubt and setting the tone for his attitude towards democracy (the chances of voter fraud stand at less than 0.0009% as calculated by a 2017 study). The main strategy adopted by the 45th President seemingly putting his opponent’s integrity into question, threatening a result not in his favour with legal action. Calling the oppositions authenticity into question has further polarised voters in an already divisive atmosphere, whereas Joe Biden’s strategy? Not being Donald Trump. Protest voting isn’t unfamiliar to UK voters either though – boroughs across South West London saw a 32% increase in spoiled ballots in the 2019 General Election, and many across the nation said to be voting against Labour party leader at the time Jeremy Corbyn, rather than for the conservative party itself.

The calculated attention seeking, dropping the bait of outrage for the condemned ‘fake news’ press to bite, has earned Trump hours of free airtime in the run up to election day on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether the extent of this coverage was as a result of the unusual circumstances the world has been forced into and a thirst for distraction or a projection of the dissatisfaction of a nation’s own government is unclear. It is growing apparent however that it has no signs of slowing as the US likely braces for a lengthy battle played out in the supreme court over the election result, with its closest ally offering a close listening ear.