FIRST, a confession. I did not wake up on Wednesday morning exclaiming goody, goody Mr Trump has won the American presidency.

In fact, like many of my fellow citizens I was appalled. But being a positive sort of fellow I sat down and worked out a few reasons for why it wasn’t so bad after all. So here goes.

To start with I suppose we should be relieved that North Korea hasn’t yet launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States and its Nato allies (i.e. us) – yet.

Second, I no longer lie awake at night worrying whether Hillary can beat Trump in the race for the White House.

Third ... I can’t think of a third.

However, there might not be many more positives to be found in the election of Donald Trump but there are a number of intriguing questions it raises that suggest things might not be quite as bleak as they seem right now.

Spoiler alert – you might just detect the sound of a few straws being clutched

First, there is no denying the fact that the world is currently in a bit of a mess – Syria, Iraq and Ukraine to name just three.

But it’s not an arbitrary three – all more or less depend on the state of relations between the United States and Russia.

Whatever other successes Obama might have achieved, fostering good relations between the world’s two main superpowers has not been one of them.

Presidents Putin and Obama have never been top of each other’s respective Christmas card lists.

On the other hand there seems to be something akin to a love-in between Messrs Putin and Trump.

So the question has to be asked could the Donald (why the “the” – I never quite understood that) achieve the sort of breakthrough in American/Russian relations that has long eluded Obama?

Maybe, just maybe, the world will be a slightly safer place with Mr Trump in the White House, or maybe not.

Closer to home there’s dear old Brexit.

President Obama told us that if we voted to leave the EU then when it came to negotiating any new trade deal with the US we’d be at the back of the queue.

During the campaign Mr Trump went out of his way to say oh no you won’t.

Let’s hope this is one promise that he does keep. But the omens are not too promising.

First because Mr Trump is not that interested in trade deals of any sort. He says he wants to pull up the American free trade drawbridge. And second, even if a few nations do slip through it might not be us.

Poor old Mrs May was left in 11th place in the line to speak to the President-elect – one queue that we were at the back of.

Finally, in terms of hope, there’s the amazing transformation that we witnessed between Mr Trump on November 8 and November 9.

For the past year and a half (and it felt a lot longer than that) our TV screens have been dominated by a bullying, misogynistic, homophobic, racist ignoramus (though he wasn’t as nice as that) Then, in his victory speech we saw a completely different man, or at least thought we did.

Here was a victorious candidate demonstrating magnanimity and decency – complimenting his opponent in tones that were unrecognisable from all that had gone before and promising to work for all Americans.

All of which begs the question, which one is the real Donald Trump?

The optimistic answer is the latter and that all the offensive posturing of the election campaign was an act, designed to attract the support of American voters who felt that they had been left behind.

The pessimistic one is that the brief show of dignity on November 9 was the act, put on for the benefit of the cameras and his international audience.

The truth of the matter is that both Trumps are the real Trump, a complex man with many selves.

I can live with that as long as he continues to be the dignified Donald throughout his time in the White House and saves the deranged Donald for when he’s back in front of the cameras on the set of the new series of The Apprentice, featuring for the first time an ex-President of the United States.

  • Ivor Gaber is Professor of Journalism at the University of Sussex and a former Westminster political journalist.