"Donald Trump has done better in the elections so far than many observers expected," Juncker says. "One must keep in mind that the good economic results leading up to the pandemic have given many Americans jobs. They had that in mind when they went to the polls. I thought, however, that Mr Biden would clearly win."
The United States of America has always been a divided country, Juncker believes. He likes to think back to the year 2000, when the Republican Bush battled Democrat Al Gore and a month-long series of legal battles led to the highly controversial 5–4 Supreme Court decision that ended the vote count and made Bush president. "It's quite similar today".
Voter turnout, however, is very positive this year. "Mentally and politically US voters are more involved and more worried about the future of their country." Coronavirus and the Black Lives Matters protests would have direct repercussions on the election.
Juncker has met with Donald Trump several times at the White House, and many other presidents before him, and Ries asks why he believes the president's style is so attractive to many potential voters.
"His style is very "shirt-sleeved", straightforward. Many Americans like that, but Europeans prefer soft diplomacy. I personally think one should express themselves diplomatically to get to results. I've dealt with Trump a lot, especially when it came to trade relations between the United States and Europe."
"I think he says what a lot of people are thinking, and he says it in a tone-of-voice that people can connect with. I'd say we Europeans prefer more cultivated language. But look at his popularity, it's been rather stable these past years."
With regards to his competitor, Juncker concludes: "Mr Biden has a different biography and mindset. He, loves listens to and knows Europe, whereas Trump just talks. As Europeans we must learn to bundle and unify our energy to really step up to the United States. We must become more credible as an international partner."
Could Trumpism makes it way across the pond? "Well, it's easy to apply. I can do it too. But I express myself in a more friendly way. The risk for this behaviour is big, but it hasn't grown significantly. But similar styles of speech and behaviour can be found here - look at Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, for example. This is a bad development."
The former Luxembourg PM shared his thoughts on Trump's controversial announcement that he had won the election, days before all votes were in. "There are countries where government coalitions are formed before the final election results are out, that's also a special type of democracy," Juncker says sarcastically. "Announcing a triumph early is like jumping out of a plane before it lands; the person jumping out will fall and have life-long injuries due to that move."
Letting the plane land, then, may be a better move for the president. But, sighs Juncker: "Trump is Trump".
