When Donald Trump and his wife swept down the escalators of Trump Tower with an ambitious announcement, nobody took them seriously. He did not really want to run for the White House, Mr Trump announced with a theatric flourish of purported modesty, but the state of the country left him no option.

“Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them,” he declared.

Eighteen months and a million light years later, that day at his eponymous skyscraper in New York, seems so strange; the boisterous, barnstorming host of The Apprentice, a multi-billionaire keen to show off his mansion’s gaudy, gold fittings, is America’s President-elect, carried to victory on a wave of impassioned, anti-establishment anger, the depth of which, his which his rival, Hillary Hillary, repeatedly underestimated.

So much has been written about the remarkable upset that Mr Trump’s victory represented, that one of the most pertinent aspects of the win is often overlooked - this was less about Donald Trump than it was about an electorate that in large swathes of the country felt disconnected and overlooked.

The 70-year-old celebrity television host, may have been a brilliant, if unlikely platform to give voice to that frustration, but that was all he was. He victory had less to do with his fame or policies, than an ability to claim the ultimate insider was somehow a vote against the elites who had run the country and prospered at the expense of others.

A number of his supporters may have been attracted by his bigoted and frequently racist rhetoric against Muslims and Mexicans, his vow to build a wall. White supremacists have certainly been celebrating since his win.

But the majority appear to have been drawn to him out out desperation, and in a rejection of mainstream politics.

An insight came during the first primary campaign in Iowa in January. On a freezing night in Davenport, the Adler Theatre was packed with people who have come out - many through curiousity - to see a man they only know from television and the recent debates.

Eric Bowen, 53, a plumber, said he has changed his registration from independent to Republican after seeing Mr Trump on television. Eight years ago he voted in the general election for Barack Obama, but he had never before taken part in an Iowa caucus to choose a nominee. That week, he was backing Trump. “We need a businessman,” he said. “I think a businessman can get things done.”

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Two weeks later, at a university stadium in Plymouth, New Hampshire, a couple carrying a placard listened at Mr Trump talked about water-boarding terror suspects, how he had beaten Ted Cruz in the most recent debate, but most importantly about helping those who had fallen by the way side.

Toby and Wendy Shaw said they were tired listening to politicians promising to change things. “People are fed up with the lies,” said Mr Shaw. “How many years have we had these politicians? It’s time for someone with a backbone to stand up and do what needs to be done.”

Similar scenes played out across the breadth of the country, from cities such as Weirton in West Virginia, still struggling to find a raison d’etre since the decline of the steel industry, hastened by the introduction of Nafta, which saw 16,000 industrial jobs reduced to fewer than a 1,000.

Not so far away, in Grundy, Virginia, a town, which by percentage of its population may have voted more overwhelmingly for Mr Trump than anywhere else, people bemoaned the end of the mining industry, something the tycoon, who had never dirtied his hands with a blue collar job in his life, said he would revive.

Mr Trump's victory surprised most political observers (AP)

And so it went on: the privileged playboy who five times secured a deferment for the draft for Vietnam, said he was the champion of veterans, but not those such as Senator John McCain who had the audacity to be taken prisoner by the enemy.

On issue after issue, while Mr Trump’s rival appeared far better prepared and experienced, millions of voters rejected the establishment politician in choice of the untried wild card, with a model as his wife and his own jet.

Most of Mr Trump’s supporters appeared as aware of the many inconsistencies he presented, as his opponents and the media.

If you asked them why he produced his Trump brand ties in China rather than the US, they would say it was probably because American manufacturing had been destroyed. But it was not something they pushed at too hard.

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Likewise, if you raised the issue of his alleged sexual assaults of women - something he repeatedly denied - or the emergence of a video in which he appeared to brag about the issue, they dismissed it as old news at worst, and probably concocted.

The point was, his voters were not unaware of the ugly, toxic aspects of his campaign. Some said they were attracted by his willingness to speak his mind and his belief that he was not beholden to be “politically correct”.

Rather, they had calculated that despite the flaws, the advantages that he offered them as a candidate, were greater than the drawbacks.

And that, very simply put, was that he was not a politician, but rather a maverick who just might be able to shake things up. His lack of political experience was seen as positive, his confidence to break with Republican orthodoxy on issues such as free trade, taken as proof that he was not beholden to establishment elites in Washington.

They decided that they had had nothing to lose by opting for this unlikely candidate. And they felt it as keenly as the many millions who felt utter despair and anguish when he won.