SPIEGEL correspondent Marc Pitzke returns to Germany – disappointment with the USA under Trump

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»For me personally, I can only say that I no longer feel comfortable in this country. And that's also because of Trump, who has really turned everything around, turned the whole fabric of this country around."

Marc Pitzke has lived in New York since 1993 and has worked as a SPIEGEL correspondent since 2003.

Now he is going back to Germany with his husband to be closer to his family.

Today he hardly recognizes the country to which he once emigrated.

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»My time in the USA had several clear turning points, where my life and life in the USA itself changed significantly. That was 9/11 in 2001. That was the election of Barack Obama as the first black president in 2008.

John Roberts, US Chief Justice:

"Congratulations, Mr. President."

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

"And that was the election of Donald Trump in 2016 as the first openly racist president."

Donald Trump, then candidate for the Republican presidential nomination:

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a complete ban on Muslims entering the USA.”

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»My first own apartment in New York. Up here on the third floor, towards the back. In the second week it was immediately broken in. Through the fire escape at the back, all the electronics were gone.”

Chapter 1: Arrival

»The 1990s in New York were much dirtier back then. It was much more dangerous. It was just a lot rougher. Somehow there was still the feeling that you could do whatever you wanted. It was different as a gay man. You met such a large community that existed here, which I had never experienced before. The city was just a really great adventure. I think people were much more carefree back then. At least that's how I felt. You really haven't thought that much about politics yet. It didn't matter whether someone was a Republican or a Democrat. They were really all equally friendly. Politics played no role at all at that level. And for me that was something where I felt comfortable, where I immediately felt at home.«

Chapter 2: Terror and War

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»September 11th was a real turning point. I do believe that politics simply became toxic in the period after 9/11.”

»Every time there's weather like that here, you think about it. It was exactly like today. Crystal clear sky, same temperature, beautiful day and then it was over. I was out with my dog ​​in the morning after breakfast and suddenly I saw people all looking in one direction, south. And I looked behind and then I saw one tower already burning. And then I went home, turned on the TV and saw the second plane crash into the second tower. Of course we knew it wasn't an accident. It's been 25 years now and still a few things have stuck with me as memories. The smell and the stench, the acrid smell in the nose of death. I saw people fall or fall out of the towers. I saw people running across the street in panic with suitcases behind them, with wheeled suitcases that came from some hotel. The next day I had white snow on my flower boxes. This was the dust from the towers, from the things in the towers, and from the people in the doors. And it didn’t really go away at all.”

"Bush came here a few days later, then stood on the pile of rubble with the megaphone and vowed revenge."

George W. Bush, then US President:

"And the people who tore down those towers will soon hear from all of us."

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»He just plunged the USA into a war or a series of wars that lasted 20 years. The whole society was turned inside out. It was all about patriotism, nationalism, and the destruction of ideological enemies. The whole society has really become such a war society, also politically. Suddenly it was all dead serious, because I think especially in New York: everyone knew someone or knew someone who knew someone who was in these towers. Every sensible decision is influenced by this. And it really planted the seeds for many of the developments that came later in America.

Chapter 3: Hope

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»I think we all made a big mistake when Obama was elected. Everyone thought it was a new era for America, that racism was over.

Barack Obama, then election winner:

»Change has arrived in America.«

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»America has elected a black president. The country is now reconciled and exactly the opposite has happened.«

"Obama in the White House, that was of course something that had never happened before and it was the first time that the black community here in Harlem, but not just here, but in the entire country, felt recognized, felt seen, that they finally actually came into power and didn't always have to just watch others have power."

»The Obama years were such a false idyll. We all thought that we could put this whole post-9/11 period, this period of doggedness and false patriotism behind us. And Obama did exactly the opposite. Not by his deeds and his actions, but simply by his presence and his existence. Because with Obama, the racist underpinnings of America have really united. And behind it was not only political, but also social and societal thinking. That they say this country cannot be run by a black man. And this is how the Tea Party develops. The Tea Party developed into Trump and the MAGA movement and then everything tipped back in the other direction and we still have the salad today.

Chapter 4: Disappointment

»My first memory of Donald Trump is the day with the escalator. In June 2015, he came down the escalator here and declared his candidacy for president. And that's where it all started. Some say: the great, golden, new America. Others say: the downfall of America. He then gave this speech that you can still hear today.”

Donald Trump, then candidate for the Republican presidential nomination:

»When Mexico sends its people, they don't send their best. They bring us drugs, they bring us crime. They are rapists. And I suppose some are good people.”

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»And that was a scandal back then, but a scandal where people thought: Well, he won't get far. If he talks like that, he won't get very far. And exactly the opposite was the case. That's exactly what he had to say to get this far. And we just didn’t know that at the time.”

»Election night 2016 was a long night. I didn't believe it until the end. And then at some point around five in the morning I was on the subway home. And at that time, which was a Wednesday morning, there were mostly construction workers and Latinos sitting with me. Simple people. But hardly any white people. And I sat there and thought: Man, this really sucks. These were the people he had attacked in his first campaign speech. And that's when it really became clear to me that the America I thought I was living in was now over. Nobody realized how bad it would get.”

»Everything that comes into his head in the middle of the night and everything that the right-wing extremist advisors present to him, everything actually becomes the truth. He really turned everything around in this country, turned the entire fabric of this country around. The whole morality, the ethics, the concepts of law and order, good and evil, right and wrong. I thought January 6th, 2021 would be the end of it. But the fact that January 6, 2021 had no consequences for Trump and for the people who took part in it, all of whom he pardoned, 1,500 people - that was the moment when you realized that there was so much wrong here that it would be difficult for the country to get out of it. I believe that things will get worse before they get better and of course that's something I don't want to wait for. It’s too late for me now.”

Chapter 5: Farewell

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»In my personal everyday life, I notice that I can less and less separate the role of a journalist from my role as a private person, because Trump's politics of course also affects me privately. I’m married to a black man.”

Darren Anthony, husband of Marc Pitzke:

»Blacks and people of color have always lived in a fascist regime. We are currently falling back into that time. That's why I don't think I should be here right now. New York is a bubble, I'm safe here. But my life doesn't just take place in New York, but also outside of it. I don't want to live in a bubble, I want to experience life. There is more to life than New York. At the moment I think everything is going down the drain. And I would rather watch it from a distance and not be here.”

Marc Pitzke, SPIEGEL correspondent:

»Here is our wedding during Corona at home in the living room. And most people were there via Zoom, via computers.

»I'm married to a man, and that alone is suddenly becoming a problem. Now, in the second term, we are of course realizing that there are forces in the Republican Party, and very strong forces, that want to reverse this Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as the so-called stiff phrase goes. Personally, I can only say that I no longer feel comfortable in this country. And that's also because of Trump, largely because of Trump. But also to the Americans. You can't blame everything on Trump. He was elected by 77 million people. So, the Americans chose their own lot. And the question is: do you still want to take part? Or is there something better, how you can spend your life and what you can do in your life? And I believe for me, and for both of us - this is a decision we made together - the better is on the other side.