DONALD Trump first talked about running for president back in 1987.

He had just published his book, the Art of the Deal, a half- autobiography, half-business guide, and, instead of advertising it in the traditional way, went to the New Hampshire, the the state where all presidential campaigns begin, and made a couple of speeches.

“I believe that if I did run for president, I’d win,” he told The New York Times. He didn’t then, but mentioned it again in 2000, 2004, and 2008. Each time, making a splash before walking away. It was almost a hobby, But it was in 2011 where he sowed the seeds of his 2016 victory, by questioning Barack Obama’s legitimacy.

“I have a birth certificate. People have birth certificates,” Trump told a press conference in March. “He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one but there is something on that birth certificate – maybe religion, maybe it says he’s a Muslim, I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or, he may not have one.”

It was, according to biographer Gwenda Blair, Trump seeing if there was “latent hostility toward a black president”.

“And he immediately got a very, very strong feedback that it was quite deep, quite widespread. He got a lot of attention for that,” she told NPR.

A month later, and Obama took the mickey out of Trump at the Correspondents dinner in Washington.

“Donald Trump is here tonight,” Obama said. “Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter – like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

That was one of many jokes at Trump’s expense. The businessman was furious. According to The New York Times it was this roasting that left Trump determined to gain stature in the world of American politics.

Trump’s campaign shouldn’t have worked. From his bizarre opening on an escalator in Trump Tower, to the gaffes, crises and controversies that would have sunk any other campaign.

He started off accusing Mexicans of being rapists and criminals, and promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. He threatened to ban all Muslims from entering the US.

He attacked the leadership of his own party.

During one of the early debates he spoke about the size of his penis.

He constantly fired campaign staff.

He criticised the elderly parents of an American soldier killed saving his comrades in Iraq.

He said reporter Megyn Kelly must be on her period because she asked him tough questions.

He mocked Serge Kovaleski, a journalist with arthrogryposis, a condition that affects the movement of joints and is noticeable in his right arm and hand.

He mixed with the alt-right, with wild conspiracy theorists.

He said his opponent should be in jail, and called on the Russians to hack her emails.

Then there was his past: the leaked audio recording of him talking about sexually assaulting women and getting away with it because he was famous. The sexual assault allegations; the racism – during the 80s Trump was accused of refusing to rent any of his properties to black people.

There are the supposed ties to the Mafia, the four bankruptices in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. The alleged marital rape.

And yet, on November 8, American voters turned out to vote for Trump.

This Manhattan billionaire who lives in a Fifth Avenue penthouse, became the champion of America’s blue collar white class, in what was a fairly massive getitrightupye to the establishment.

Clinton may have won three million more votes than Trump, but the American electoral college that decides how that country gets it president put Trump in charge.

Barring any act of God, or anyone else, Trump will today become leader of the free world.