The Daily Mail described Cameron's defence of Trump's "pussy grabbing" comments as "bizarre" because Cameron argued they demonstrated the centrality of women to the male psyche.

The criticism has taken a toll. "Being prepared to publicly associate oneself with Donald Trump involves a social cost," Cameron says. "It is almost like there has been a reversal in the country and the thought police have been sent out to identify those who belong to the mutiny."

Girlfriend problem

Trump tension runs in the family. Cameron's 18-year-old son, Dougal, is an enthusiastic Trump supporter too. On Sunday he got together with seven other guys and eight girls at a friend's house.

Dougal found himself in an argument with his best friend's girlfriend about Trump, whose notorious treatment of women seemed to have little impact on the election.

"She told him he is spending too much time with me because he is starting to like Trump," Dougal says.

In the US, support for Trump was concentrated among white men who hadn't been to university, and evangelical Christians. In Australia, where hostility to Clinton doesn't run as deep, his support is more narrow. A June poll by the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think-tank, found 77 per cent of Australians preferred Clinton as president. Only 11 per cent backed Trump.

In Victoria, 16-year-old student Edward Bourke operated a pro-Trump Facebook page. The aspiring conservative politician, who describes Trump as "like a rock in a storm", hung out during the campaign on Twitter and Facebook with fellow pro-Republicans.


He got used to abuse, and asked The Australian Financial Review not to reveal his high school to his online detractors. "They have threatened to kill me, rape me, blow me up," he says. "Clearly, these people aren't of sound mind. These people aren't worth listening to."

The few Coalition MPs publicly backing Trump are magnets for online attacks too. After declaring "What a wonderful morning" the day after the election, Senator Cory Bernardi was called an idiot, a "tossa" and an "utter disgrace to humanity and decency" on Twitter.

Laughed at

On the morning of the vote, Debbie Robinson was at her local pool in Perth for a training session when she overheard two fellow swimmers discussing the election.

Both men, who worked in finance, were confident of a Hillary Clinton victory and were pleased because they thought a Trump win would hurt the financial markets. (US shares rallied the day after the election.)

Richardson, who was a Senate candidate for the right-wing Australian Liberty Alliance, piped up in favour of Trump. "I hope Clinton doesn't win," she told them.

"They basically laughed and said 'that will never happen'," she said.

On Wednesday night Robinson had a celebratory meal at a Perth pub with her political group, all enthusiastic Trump supporters.


Trump party

Cameron enlisted two well-known political provocateurs to co-host his pro-Trump election party: former Labor leader Mark Latham and Financial Review columnist Rowan Dean. Former Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop turned up too.

They met in a club around the corner from an official function run at Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel by the US State Department and the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University, where a voluntary poll showed some 80 per cent of attendees favoured Clinton.

As the morning wore on, the atmosphere at the Intercontinental became subdued, then concerned. At the Rugby Club, the mood turned from cautious to jubilant.

Cameron was critical of the experts' failure to accurately predict the election outcome. "There are 30 professional academics at the United States Studies Centre," he says. "Out of 30 of those bastards, not a single one picked Donald Trump."

Correction: Perth nurse Debbie Robinson was incorrectly identified as Debbie Richardson in the first version of this article.