Watching Trump Win from his Hotel Down the Block from the White House
WASHINGTON — At the beginning of the night, the Benjamin Bar and Lounge in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel, just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, served as a boozy oasis for Trump supporters in a liberal city giddy for an imminent Clinton restoration. By the early morning hours, when the bright atrium lights came on and waiters walked the lobby ringing last-call bells, Donald Trump had clearly become the president-elect and the impromptu watch party had transformed into the biggest bash in town.
At around 7:30 PM, a crowd filled with men in business suits, red Make America Great Again hats, white pocket kerchiefs and Trump football jerseys drank martinis and champagne with women wearing stilettos, pearls and form-fitting dresses. They gulped cocktails, including the $100 the Benjamin (“rye, potato, winter wheat vodka, shaken, aw oysters, caviar”) at round tables, lounged on blue tufted couches and hovered over a white marble bar where all heads tilted back to see giant flat screens tuned to Fox News, CNN and ABC. Only the audio of Fox News blasted into the lobby. At around 8pm, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly called Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee for Mr. Trump and Washington DC for Hillary Clinton.
“Fuck DC!” Sung Kim, 43, screamed at the television over a cheese plate and tumbler glasses.
A few feet away, Tanya Reams, a corporate attorney from Virginia, wore a red Trump shirt under her blazer. She stood next to her husband Gary, a libertarian who ran against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine for Lieutenant Governor in 2001 on the issue of legalizing medical marijuana. (“We called it Reams Refer-Endum campaign,” Mr. Reams said.)
The couple said they wanted to live in a country run by Mr. Trump and so wanted to watch his victory from a Trump property.
“I’m hoping Trump wins,” Ms. Reams said, looking up to admire the industrial steel girders and airy space above her. She said she had spent the morning handing out sample Republican ballots in her Virginia voting district, where she saw Carly Fiorina, her preferred candidate during the Republican primaries. She showed a picture on her phone of her posing with Ms. Fiorina and said that while Trump was not perfect, he was an alternative to the “corruption” that she thought the Clintons represented. As eager she was for a Trump victory, she wasn’t sure how long she would stick around. “We don’t stay out super late,” she said.
Not far away, Destiny Edwards, 28, cried out “Oh no,” when Ms. Kelly announced on Fox that Mrs. Clinton had a lead in North Carolina. With blond cantilevered curls pouring out of her red Make America Great Again ball cap, Ms. Edwards, a spokeswoman for Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, said she was “too afraid to wear my hat on the metro” coming to the hotel. But on the hard black marble floors she wore it with pride as Trump supporters roared with Trump-friendly numbers flashing across the screen.
Over at the bar, Mr. Kim shouted “Call it! Call it!”
“It’s a more friendly crowd,” Ms. Edwards said. When asked if she thought Mr. Trump would win, she said “I ….. I think we are going to have a Trexit. I think we are going to be pleasantly surprised.” And if not? “As a congressional staffer, I really hope he listens to his staff. It would be ironic if the most presidential moment Trump has is the one when he is giving his concession speech.”
She pointed at a potential interloper, a young woman wearing a Hillary sticker on her red Make America Great Again hat. But that woman, Destie Provenzano, explained that “the liberals got me” by putting the sticker on her hat earlier in the day.
Ms. Provenzano, who worked nearby, said she supported “giant meteor 2016” instead of the two candidates. She was wearing pearls and drinking a glass of white wine with Noah Kline, a 25-year-old software engineer who she had just met. Mr. Kline, who resides in the district and voted for Mr. Trump earlier in the day, said he came to the hotel because “it’s the epicenter of our political process.” Looking around at the dripping crystal chandeliers, the supporters cheering Mr. Trump’s success in state after state, the glass-encased Briani suit shop, and the glass roof nine floors above him, he said, “it’s beautiful. You can’t deny it.”
As the night went on, Mickael Damelincourt, the hotel’s managing director warned reporters in his thick French accent that talking to or filming the guests would result in their expulsion. Waiters opened bottles of champagne with knives, and the favorable results for Mr. Trump emboldened the crowd.
When it became clear Mr. Trump would win, supporters grew anxious for the race to be called. One woman screamed “Oh shut up” when Fox commentators sounded dissenting notes about how Mr. Trump had used disturbing language in his campaign. They drank Trump red wine by a coffee table book titled “Inside the White House” and applauded as David Burke, wearing his chef whites, took a break from running BLT Prime on the mezzanine to jubilantly hug guests.
As midnight came and went, they chanted “Hail, Trump” and “USA” and “Lock her Up.” One man laughed at the muted screen showing CNN and shouted “Anderson Cooper I can taste your tears through the screen.” Richard B. Spencer, a leader of the so-called alt-right movement, called himself “euphoric” and, wine glass in hand, held forth about “European American identity” and “white America” and deemed his movement “superior in every way” to the opponents they, along with Mr. Trump, “an alt-right hero,” had vanquished.
Mr. Kim was especially delighted. A few weeks ago, the banker from Arlington, Virginia had sat for several hours in the bar when the lobby was almost empty. He had ordered Trump sparkling wine and then became delighted when Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter and surrogate, dropped in, followed by Mr. Trump himself.
But even compared to that memorable night, he said, this was unbeatable.
“Where else would you want to watch Trump win,” Mr. Kim said, interrupting himself to again scream “Call it!” As his friend said the hotel was “an oasis in a liberal desert,” Mr. Kim argued that everyone was too worried about Mr. Trump acting on his words. “He’s all rhetoric, all talk,” Mr. Kim said, pausing to sip his cocktail. “This is all a game for me. This is reality TV at its finest.”
As the bar closed after 2 AM, a group of Trump supporters walked out into the real world. They walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate in front of the White House, screaming “Drain the Swamp” along the way. After a shouting and shoving matches with teenagers lamenting Mr. Trump’s election, they regrouped in the middle of Lafayette Square, hugging and cheering. “We did it, we made America great again,” one woman, Laura Curtis, said after embracing her friends and waving a Trump sign. Then she turned back to the protestors and shouted, “File the assault charges. We made America great besides you.”
