Biden rebuilds Blue Wall as Trump cries foul play

Credit: Vasco Gargalo @vascogargalo

11	Indiana	9	South Carolina	6	Mississippi	3	Montana
7	Oklahoma	9	Alabama	4	Idaho	1	Maine-2
8	Kentucky	6	Utah	18	Ohio	3	Alaska
11	Tennessee	8	Louisiana	29	Florida	15	North Carolina
5	West Virginia	2	Nebraska-state	6	Iowa
6	Arkansas	10	Missouri	38	Texas
3	South Dakota	6	Kansas	1	Nebraska-1
3	North Dakota	3	Wyoming	1	Nebraska-3

Democratic Joe BIDEN [306] [232] Donald TRUMP Republican

FINAL RESULT
NOTE: highlighted states/districts have changed hands compared to 2016

3	Vermont	9	Colorado	1	Nebraska-2	20	Pennsylvania
11	Massachusetts	5	New Mexico	4	Rhode Island	6	Nevada
10	Maryland	4	New Hampshire	10	Minnesota	11	Arizona
3	Delaware	20	Illinois	4	Hawaii	16	Georgia
3	Washington DC	55	California	2	Maine
29	New York	7	Oregon	1	Maine-1
14	New Jersey	12	Washington	16	Michigan
7	Connecticut	13	Virginia	10	Wisconsin

DESPERATE Donald Trump ordered in the lawyers in an attempt to cling to power despite Joe Biden finally reaching the required 270 Electoral College votes in the Presidential election.

At 16.25 GMT (11.25 ET) yesterday, more than 92 exhausting hours after its polls closed, Scranton-born Mr Biden's home state of Pennsylvania was projected for him by NBC and other networks. 

This was enough to push Mr Biden over the top to 273 votes against the 214 for Mr Trump - but, in this extraordinary election, it seems as if that alone will not be enough to secure the presidency. 

Instead, it now feels inevitable that this contest will be concluded in the courts.

Holed up in the White House in Washington DC, Mr Trump filed lawsuits earlier this week in an attempt to stop and investigate the counts in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

The incumbent President has suggested there have been multiple instances of electoral fraud in those states but has failed yet to provide any evidence to substantiate his claims.

Unsurprisingly, so far, Mr Trump has not got anywhere in his bellicose litigation with judges baffled by the cases brought before them.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden felt confident enough to make his first address to the United States as President-elect last night at 1am GMT (8pm ET) in Wilmington, Delaware.

"Let's give each other a chance," Biden said. "It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. Stop treating our opponents as enemies.

"I will work as hard for those who didn't vote for me as for those who did."

Nevertheless, Mr Trump remains adamant, for now, that his defeat has come as a result of illegitimate means.

His latest unhinged rant on Twitter, written all in capital letters, reads: "The observers were not allowed into the counting rooms. I won the election, got 71 million legal votes.

"Bad things happened which our observers were not allowed to see. Millions of mail-in ballots were sent to people who never asked for them!" 

Even a basic analysis of the election results rather debunks Mr Trump's pathetic howls of an injustice, though - and Republican officials have confirmed they have been able to observe the counts.

After all, any genuine attempts at widespread fraud by the Democrats presumably did not exactly go as planned. 

For a start, Mr Trump himself did not actually have a particularly bad election - he outperformed the polls and won the perennial swing states of Ohio and Florida on election night itself. 

The New Yorker media mogul and failed businessman received more than 70 million votes, the most ever by a sitting US President and over seven million more votes than he received in 2016.

Additionally, in the down-ballot races, the Republicans made some wholly unexpected gains in the House of Representatives - and, while the Democrats still retained their majority in the lower chamber, they do not appear likely to match that feat in the Senate. 

Mr Biden may have rebuilt the Blue Wall in the Mid West with victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania but this was certainly not a Blue Wave election. 

Under the terms of American politics, this means Mr Biden will be forced to negotiate and make deals with his political opponents in Congress. 

This was something with which recent Democrat President Barack Obama struggled at times but Mr Biden has already signalled his intention to end what he referred to as a "grim era of demonisation" in political discourse. 

Hopefully, on that front, Mr Biden's 36-year tenure in the upper house, and his strong professional relationship with sometimes obstinate Senate majority leader - Republican Mitch McConnell - will serve him well. 

Following yet another divisive election campaign, American politics could well do with a bipartisan effort to heal the open wounds which threaten still to rip apart the country.

And, in line with this, Mr Trump and his supporters will soon simply have to accept he has become the first one-term President since George HW Bush in 1992, and only the second since Jimmy Carter in 1980. 

Rather than fade into obscurity, though, it would be a surprise if, even outside of the office of the presidency, Mr Trump did not curate some sort of mythical legacy for his supporters to lap up.

He will undoubtedly remain active on his Twitter account, which has 88.8 million followers - and, recently, Donald Trump Jr. has been extremely vocal in support of his father on his own social media profile. 

Mr Trump Jr favours his father's aggressive style and, by readily spreading various disparate conspiracy theories, operates from exactly the same playbook as the outgoing President by intentionally confusing fact with fiction.

President Trump may have been defeated by Mr Biden in this election but Trumpism has not been defeated - and, for now, the fabric of American society remains torn asunder. 

Mr Biden's presidency will be judged on how well he repairs it, if indeed he can at all.

 CONGRESS

Democrats [222] House [213] Republicans

Democrat gains (-12)

GA-07 NC-02 NC-06

CA-21 CA-25 CA-39 CA-48 FL-26 FL-27 IA-01 IA-02 MI-03 MN-07 NM-02 NY-11 NY-22 OK-05 SC-01 UT-04

Republican gains (+13)

218 required for a majority. MI-03 was a Republican gain from Libertarian
 
Democrats [50] Senate [50] Republicans

Democrat gains   (+3)

AZ CO GA GA(s)

AL

Republican gains (-3)

In the case of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat) casts the deciding vote
NOTE: GA(s) = Georgia special election. Democrats total includes two indepedents in ME and VT

US Midterms produce a mixed picture

US MIDTERM ELECTIONS

DEMOCRATS	(+39)	234	HOUSE	201	(-39)	REPUBLICANS
	(-2)	47	SENATE	53	(+2)
	(+7)	23	GOVERNOR	27	(-6)

DEMOCRATS put a dent in the power of President Donald Trump in the Midterm elections after flipping the House of Representatives and gaining several Governors seats.

But, on a mixed night overall, Republicans easily retained control on the Senate - and in fact made gains in Florida, Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota to strengthen their grip on the upper chamber.

The result fell largely within the expectations of most of the pundits and followed the decision by President Trump to pursue an unusually high profile campaign.

Voter turnout was well up on the miserable 36.4% recorded in the last Midterms in 2014 under Barack Obama as Trump supporters and detractors alike delivered their verdict on his first two years in the White House.

Indeed, Americans remain bitterly divided along partisan lines after another brutal election period which featured a sex abuse scandal, several mail bombs, concerns over a migrant caravan, and a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The sex abuse scandal related to Brett Kavanaugh, who was Mr Trump's nomination for the vacant Supreme Court position.

Prior to this nomination, Palo Alto University Professor of Psychology Christine Blasey Ford contacted a Washington Post tip line with allegations that Mr Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s while the two of them were in high school.

Meanwhile, two other women also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

Mr Kavanaugh categorically denied all the allegations - and, on 27 September, he and Ms Ford testified to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The hearing caused a stir but ultimately mattered little. On 6 October, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Mr Kavanaugh's nomination by a 50-48 margin, and he was sworn in later that day.

Bizarrely, the whole affair appeared to boost support for Mr Trump's Grand Old Party as what became characterised by the President as a witch hunt further energised the Republican base.

But, while events surrounding Mr Kavanaugh somehow seemed to work in Mr Trump's favour, the New Yorker adopted a decidedly unpresidential approach to dealing with the fallout from a series of mail bombs delivered to prominent Democrats and other liberals.

In all, 15 pipe bombs were mailed to the likes of former President Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton between 22 and 29 October.

Other people who were sent packages included California congresswoman Maxine Waters, Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, former Attorney General Eric Holder, two former intelligence chiefs, billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, and actor Robert De Niro.

Meanwhile, a 15th package, addressed to CNN's world headquarters, was found at an Atlanta post office.

Suspect Cesar Sayoc Jr was arrested in Florida on 26 October. He faces five federal charges and he has been held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Naturally, Mr Trump condemned the attacks in an official statement.

Incredibly, though, he later complained the mail bombs had robbed the Republicans of some crucial momentum in the run-up to polling day.

Sadly, it was also not the last of the violence before the election. On 27 October, a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing at least 11 people.

The suspected perpertrator - Robert Gregory Bowers - was reported to have been heavily involved in "extermist friendly" websites such as Gab and had promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories online through social media.

Bowers's Gab profile featured a cover picture was a photo with the number 1488, used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists to evoke David Lane's Fourteen Words and the Nazi slogan Heil Hitler.

Moreover, Bowers had also published posts supporting the white genocide theory.

Now, of course, Bowers has not acted in a complete vacuum - and it would not be too great a stretch to consider that he had been embolded by a hostile environment created, in part, by some of the language used by Mr Trump throughout his presidency.

Unsurprisingly, that was no different during the election build up as he ordered more than 5,000 troops to guard the southern border from what he described as "an invasion" of migrants.

Instead, though, it was healthcare - and not immigration - which was reported to be the voters' most important issue in the exit polls following Mr Trump's vow "to repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.

Naturally, there was plenty of desire among Republicans to repeal Obamacare - but its replacement has been subject to much consternation in Congress, and it has therefore not been forthcoming.

Having now lost their majority in the House of Representatives, matters are going to be even more difficult for Mr Trump and the Grand Old Party in the second half of his four-year term.

But it seems highly unlikely that the loss of the House will have any effect on Mr Trump's modus operandi.

Already, in the wake of the election, he has fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and warned the Democrats that he would adopt a "warlike posture" if they investigated him.
 
Mr Trump had previously pilloried Mr Sessions for his involvement in the Russia inquiry which is investigating potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Moscow.

Nevertheless, the President extended an olive branch to Democrats, proposing both parties work together on joint legislative priorities such as infrastructure, trade and health.

It will not be easy - but it is not clear exactly how much it matters to Mr Trump in any case for the reality is that the President is permanently in campaign mode.

Even on the date of his inauguration - 20 January 2017 - he was looking ahead to picking his next fight by launching his re-election bid straightaway.

Basically then, we can simply expect more of the same from Mr Trump for the next two years - and that is plenty of rhetoric and hot air, but little in the way of action.

STATE-BY-STATE RESULTS

State			HOUSE DEMOCRATS		HOUSE REPUBLICANS			SENATE	GOVENOR
🔴 ALABAMA	(AL)		🔵	1 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴	6 (-)		🔵🔴	🔴
🔴 ALASKA	(AK)			0 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 ARIZONA	(AZ)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵	5 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴🔴	4 (-1)		🔵🔴	🔴
🔴 ARKANSAS	(AR)			0 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴	4 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 CALIFORNIA	(CA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵	45 (+6)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴	8 (-6)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 COLORADO	(CO)		🔵🔵🔵🔵	4 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-1)		🔵🔴	🔵
🔵 CONNECTICUT	(CT)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵	5 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 DELAWARE	(DE)		🔵	1 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 FLORIDA	(FL)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵	13 (+2)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴	14 (-2)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 GEORGIA	(GA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵	4 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴	9 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 HAWAII	(HI)		🔵🔵	2 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 IDAHO	(ID)			0 (-)	🔴🔴	2 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 ILLINOIS	(IL)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵	13 (+2)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-2)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 INDIANA	(IN)		🔵🔵	2 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴	7 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 IOWA	(IA)		🔵🔵🔵	3 (+2)	🔴	1 (-2)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 KANSAS	(KS)		🔵	1 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-1)		🔴🔴	🔵
🔴 KENTUCKY	(KY)		🔵	1 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 LOUISIANA	(LA)		🔵	1 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-)		🔴🔴	🔵
🔵🔴 MAINE	(ME)		🔵🔵	2(+1)		0 (-1)		🔵🔴	🔵
🔵 MARYLAND	(MD)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵	7 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔵🔵	🔴
🔵 MASSACHUSETTS	(MA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵	9 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔴
🔴 MICHIGAN	(MI)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵	7 (+2)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴	7 (-2)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 MINNESOTA	(MN)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵	5 (-)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 MISSISSIPPI	(MS)		🔵	1 (-)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 MISSOURI	(MO)		🔵🔵	2 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴	6 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 MONTANA	(MT)			0 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔵🔴	🔵
🔴 NEBRASKA	(NE)			0 (-)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 NEVADA	(NV)		🔵🔵🔵	3 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 NEW HAMPSHIRE	(NH)		🔵🔵	2 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔴
🔵 NEW JERSEY	(NJ)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵	11 (+4)	🔴	1 (-4)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 NEW MEXICO	(NM)		🔵🔵	2 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 NEW YORK	(NY)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵  🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵	22 (+4)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-4)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 NORTH CAROLINA	(NC)		🔵🔵🔵	3 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	10 (-)		🔴🔴	🔵
🔴 NORTH DAKOTA	(ND)			0 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 OHIO	(OH)		🔵🔵🔵🔵	4 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴	12 (-)		🔵🔴	🔴
🔴 OKLAHOMA	(OK)		🔵	1 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴🔴	4 (-1)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 OREGON	(OR)		🔵🔵🔵🔵	4 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 PENNSYLVANIA	(PA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵	9 (+3)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴	9 (-3)		🔵🔴	🔵
🔵 RHODE ISLAND	(RI)		🔵🔵	2 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 SOUTH CAROLINA	(SC)		🔵🔵	2 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-1)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 SOUTH DAKOTA	(SD)			0 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 TENNESSEE	(TN)		🔵🔵	2 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴🔴	7 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 TEXAS	(TX)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵	13 (+2)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴  🔴🔴🔴	23 (-2)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔴 UTAH	(UT)		🔵	1 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-1)		🔴🔴	🔴
🔵 VERMONT	(VT)		🔵	1 (-)		0 (-)		🔵🔵	🔴
🔵 VIRGINIA	(VA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵	7 (+3)	🔴🔴🔴🔴	4 (-3)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔵 WASHINGTON	(WA)		🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵	7 (+1)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-1)		🔵🔵	🔵
🔴 WEST VIRGINIA	(WV)			0 (-)	🔴🔴🔴	3 (-)		🔵🔴	🔴
🔴 WISCONSIN	(WI)		🔵🔵🔵	3 (-)	🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴	5 (-)		🔵🔴	🔵
🔴 WYOMING	(WY)			0 (-)	🔴	1 (-)		🔴🔴	🔴

US election 2016: Triumphant Trump beats complacent Clinton

Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Hillary CLINTON Democrat 60,029,365 (47.7%)	232	California (55), Colorado (9), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (20), Maine (3), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (11), Minnesota (10), Nevada (6), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (14), New Mexico (5), New York (29), Oregon (7), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Virginia (13), Washington (12) + DC (3)
Donald TRUMP Republican 59,769,452 (47.5%)	306	Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arizona (11), Arkansas (6), Florida (29), Georgia (16), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Iowa (6), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (8), Maine (1), Michigan (16), Mississippi (6), Missouri (10), Montana (3), Nebraska (5), North Carolina (15), North Dakota (3), Ohio (18), Oklahoma (7), Pennsylvania (20), South Carolina (9), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Texas (38), Utah (6), West Virginia (5), Wisconsin (10), Wyoming (3)

MAVERICK Donald Trump pulled off possibly the most sensational win in American electoral history yesterday after defeating Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States.

With Arizona still counting, and Michigan and New Hampshire classed as virtual dead heats, the final result in the Electoral College is yet to be confirmed. 

However, if the current positions in each of those states holds, Mr Trump will eventually prevail 306 to 232, as above.

By contrast, in the popular vote, it is highly likely that Mrs Clinton will be confirmed as the winner, making it the second presidential election out of the last five in which the winner of the most votes has failed to gain the keys to the White House.

For the record, George W Bush beat Al Gore in 2000 despite losing the popular vote - something which my preview blog mentioned. 

In fact, the Democrats have won the popular vote in six of the last seven elections, missing out only in 2004 when incumbent Mr Bush defeated John Kerry. 

But all of these facts will be of little comfort to Mrs Clinton. The hopes of the 69-year-old becoming the first ever female US President now appear to be dashed forever. 

The election night itself made its customarily quiet start as states such as Maryland and Massachusetts for the Democrats, and Tennessee and Texas for the Republicans, were allocated to their respective columns.

Just after 3am GMT, with no swing states yet called, Mr Trump held a 140-109 lead in the Electoral College. But then came the first blow for Mrs Clinton. 

Ohio - a state which has backed the winner of every presidential election since 1960 - lived up to its bellwether reputation by being called for Mr Trump.

And, startlingly, the 70-year-old billionaire took the Buckeye state by nearly a nine-percent margin, a 12-point turnaround from four years ago when Barack Obama won it for the Democrats.

Better news followed for Mrs Clinton as she secured the electoral votes from Colorado and then, narrowly, from Virginia. However, early reports from Michigan and Wisconsin hinted at yet more trouble for her in the Mid West.

At 4am GMT, the Pacific coast states declared and the massive haul of 55 electoral votes from California put Mrs Clinton into the lead in the Electoral College.

But, as soon as the cheers over the California result were dying down at Clinton HQ in New York, North Carolina was declared for Mr Trump. 

Thereafter, it became one-way traffic in terms of the most important results. Mr Trump took the perennial swing state of Florida just after 4.30am GMT, and followed it up by securing neighbouring Georgia just before 5am GMT. 

However, the last knockout blows for Mrs Clinton were still yet to come.

Shortly after 7am GMT, Mr Trump would became the first ever Republican candidate to win an electoral vote in the north eastern state of Maine, which splits its vote by district. More crucially still, he then became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988.

Within minutes of that, it became clear Mr Trump had, in fact, repeated this feat in Wisconsin - and those 10 electoral votes were enough to put the Republican over the magical mark of 270 officially. 

Notably, Mrs Clinton had not visited the Badger state even once during the general election campaign. 

True, Wisconsin had been so reliably Democrat for the last 28 years that it might have seemed a waste of energy and resources - and, yes, this point relies a lot on hindsight. 

Nevertheless, such complacency, looking back, now seems astonishing. After all, the Mid West has threatened to drift away from the Democrats for years. 

In the 2012 election, Mr Obama arguably only secured the support of Michigan after he promised a bailout to the world famous but now much suffering automobile industry in Detroit.

Unfortunately, for such areas, the decline in manufacturing has gone on for so long now that there is a sense of permanency about it. 

Small-town America - including many places in the rust belt - can be a hopeless, desolate place for their mainly white working class communities.

And it should therefore come as no surprise that this is where the roars against the establishment and the political elite have been at their loudest.

Some commentators have called it a whitelash but such analysis is far too simplistic and the complaints of these people - who just happen to be white, working class - are as much about economics as race.

Indeed, analysis of the white vote will not on its own explain the election result as a whole. 

For a start, the Clinton campaign also struggled to enthuse enough black or Hispanic voters with turnout for the Democrats well down on the last two elections.

Certainly, though, it was in the Mid West where this election was lost by Mrs Clinton - in Michigan and Wisconsin especially, where she had also earlier lost both Democratic primaries to another political outsider Bernie Sanders. 

Of course, it is impossible to know at this stage if Mr Sanders would instead have beaten Mr Trump. Surely, though, a Sanders candidacy would have given those angry anti-establishment voters in the Mid West something more to think about.

For a start, he may have paid those people some attention and listened to their concerns so that they did not simply lash out and desperately cross their ballot against Mr Trump's name in the vague hope that something somehow might change.

After all, even many Republican voters have admitted Mr Trump was, at best, a rather dysfunctional candidate for them.

The New Yorker, nonetheless, was still good enough to win - and, with Republicans having also retained control of both the House and the Senate, it would be fair to say the world became an even more uncertain place this week.

It could be a long four years with Mr Trump as President - and, following an election which changed the shape of the political map in America, it might well be eight.