How the Dutch Trump Wins Even if He Loses

On the day of Donald Trump’s election, I happened to be in Amsterdam. That night, while people in the U.S. were still going to the polls, I found myself sitting in front of a room full of nervous-looking Europeans at Paradiso, which is normally a music venue, taking part in a public panel discussion about what was happening across the ocean. One of the other panelists was Ruth Oldenziel, a Dutch professor at Eindhoven University and a highly regarded America watcher. Although I am American, I have no doubt that Oldenziel knows more about the inner workings of the U.S. political system than I do, so it was with some relief that I heard her declaim, regarding Hillary Clinton and the building fear of a Trump upset, ​“Don’t worry — she’s got this.”