The large vote for Donald Trump shows the level of support for the president, but he was also harmed by his flaws

And it happened the year Brexit confounded pundits too.

President Trump then beat the critics again on Tuesday, when he polled far more highly than the pollsters predicted.

Across the US his vote was higher than expected (he was forecast to be 8% behind of Joe Biden, as of last night was only 2% behind) and his vote was higher in swing states such as Florida and Pennslyvania, which he had been expected to lose.

Politicians in the establishment and commentators in the media just don’t get it.

They don’t understand why scores of millions of working people in Britain and the United States respect strong leadership, patriotism, sovereignty, law and order, reward for hard work, traditional values and why they want terror to be hounded (not downplayed or excused).

Mr Trump has been a natural media performer since his 30s, and huge numbers of people warm to him (as large numbers of people do not). He has had a glittering business career and a gilded life, and in America that is admired, not envied.

Yet he has fatal personal flaws, and routinely behaves in ways that are unconventional, it not shockingly bad.

Early yesterday, as it was clear the future of his presidency was at risk, he said that he had won, and suffered a fraud. He had not won, nor did a single reputable figure in the Republican Party, in government or in the US states, that carry out their own counts, suggest seriously there was such a fraud.

There seem to be no examples of a past president saying such inflammatory things before the counts are completed.

What a pity that when there is so much goodwill towards Mr Trump and his political goals, that he reacted this way.

Also when the free world needs American leadership and when people in friendly countries share Mr Trump’s aims on matters ranging from Brexit to Nato to China to tackling Islamic extremism.

If Mr Trump has indeed lost it is probably because too many people in America who might have been supporters tired of his obvious downsides.

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