Nausea. Is it the weariness or the shock? Perhaps both. Donald Trump will be the 47th US President and we all have to live with it.

Hold your loved ones close. It isn’t anxiety talking but a sober statement of fact to say the world has just become a more unstable place and we on these small chilly islands are more lonely within it.

Damn the despair. We have to get used to it, fast. And then we have to respond.

First, a brief assessment of the implications. Trump’s dislike of Nato, unsupportive stance on Ukraine and weak opposition to Russian aggression, will surely embolden Vladimir Putin. Trump says he will end the Ukraine war, but no one thinks he will favour Kiev – we can only guess at the level of despondency there.

Read more by Rebecca McQuillan

The President-elect continues to undermine Nato, casually inviting Russia to attack any Nato state that spends less than two per cent of GDP on security, saying the US wouldn’t intervene. It isn’t easily dismissed as campaign rhetoric; his attacks on Nato have been consistent for years. He is weakening it as a defensive pact. The Baltic States must be nervous.

For American democracy, Donald Trump is dangerous, a practised liar and populist with authoritarian instincts. His win will embolden similar leaders across Europe.

Meanwhile, his threat to introduce tariffs on all imports of 10-20 per cent would hit European economies hard and could result in a damaging international trade war. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a think tank, predicts that Trump’s tariffs would halve the growth........

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