With all but the final inauguration ceremony now out of the way it is clear the big political story internationally at the start of 2017 will be the Presidency of Donald J Trump. Considered unthinkable a year ago it is about to become a reality.

Many people have said to me that he will lack democratic legitimacy because he was easily beaten in the popular vote by Hilary Clinton. I am not convinced. The fact of the matter is that is any election what matters is the actual election system in use. In the case of the American Presidential Election what matters is securing most votes in the electoral college not winning most votes overall. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton knew the rules and campaigned accordingly. IF it was the case that the Presidency was decided on the total of the popular vote across the whole of the USA then no doubt they would both have campaigned differently.

It will be interesting to see how much of his election campaign rhetoric survives the transmission into the White House. It seems pretty certain it is going to mean a very different outlook then we have seen under President Obama.