REUTERS Donald Trump could win the US election next November 8

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This question is entirely rhetorical because the BBC and its crew of analysts and right-on comedians have told us already: America will be engulfed by a tidal wave of sexism, racism and xenophobia; the dollar will collapse and with it the global economy; by the end of his first week Trump will be so drunk with power that he’ll make a clumsy pass at some White House intern, miss and accidentally press the red button which triggers a nuclear war… Call me an optimistic fool but I don’t believe any of this nonsense. Not only do I think that a Donald Trump presidency would be far less disastrous than a Hillary Clinton one but I’d even suggest – albeit cautiously – that the world might become a better, safer, more prosperous place.

GETTY The world could be safer if Donald Trump wins against Hillary Cliton

Trump is a radical who might actually press the reset button

Let me stress that Donald Trump is by no means my dream candidate for the post of the next leader of the free world. I perfectly well accept that he is a vulgar, rude, bullying, ignorant, sexist chancer who entered the presidential race on a whim and may end up getting the job only by default. But Donald Trump has at least two massive qualities in his favour. The first is that he is not Hillary, a corrupt, ailing serial fibber with a dubious track record (from the Whitewater financial scandal to Benghazi, where her negligence may have resulted in the murder of the US ambassador) and a snooty contempt for the law demonstrated most by the FBI investigation into her hidden emails. And the second is that he is not a paid up member of the Washington DC establishment. Trump, not unlike Nigel Farage, is the voice of the ordinary bloke or woman who has had just about enough of the remote, spoilt, anti-democratic political elite.

Yes, America is a very different place from Britain but there are definitely echoes in the US presidential campaign of the tensions which led so many of us to vote for Brexit. While America’s rich have got richer, living standards for its working folk have remained stagnant for decades. This is at least in part because of a cosy stitch-up between the governing elite – lawyers, corporations, politicians and the overmighty US central bank the Federal Reserve – which has entrenched its own power by making it almost impossible for those lower down to climb the ladder. Adding to these financial pressures are the frustrations caused by mass illegal immigration and also by the liberal elite’s obsession with political correctness, which has led to a woefully bad state education system, an increase in Islamist terrorism and a burning sense of injustice, especially among blue-collar Americans that they can’t speak their minds and that their country is no longer their own.

GETTY Mrs Clinton is a corrupt, ailing serial fibber with a dubious track record

Trump’s proposed solutions – build a wall on the Mexican border to stop immigration, ban Muslims(!), protect American jobs with tariff barriers on imports, hammer the Federal Reserve, stop wasting gazillions of dollars pretending to “combat” climate change – may be impetuous and in some cases extreme. But the point is here at last is a politician bold enough to address the real and pressing problems that most of his contemporaries have preferred to brush under the carpet. While Obama has fiddled during his eight years as president the world has burned: the Middle East crisis has worsened; terrorism has proliferated; Russia and China have flexed their muscles; the eurozone has stagnated; the refugee problem has got out of control; and almost nothing has been done to address the underlying economic problems that led to the 2008 crash. If Hillary gets in, it will be more of the same. Trump on the other hand is a radical who might actually press the reset button.

US Elections 2016 in pictures Tue, November 8, 2016 The top photos following the campaign journey of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the US Elections 2016 Play slideshow Getty 1 of 57 US Elections 2016 in pictures

Take Russia: for the Washington establishment it’s the world’s biggest geopolitical threat with Putin being painted as the new Stalin. But Trump just isn’t interested in prolonging the Cold War, let alone provoking a Third World War. He sees Putin as a flawed man with whom he can nonetheless do business. This will appal those who just want to focus on Putin’s human rights record but may come as a relief to those who would prefer to have Russia as an awkward ally rather than as a belligerent, chippy basket case on Europe’s doorstep.

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GETTY Trump is the voice of the everyday folk in America