Donald Trump is facing his day of reckoning, former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr says.
As counting gets underway in the US after one of the country's most bitter election campaigns, Mr Carr said the billionaire Republican had insulted so many people that they would surely have taken their revenge at the ballot box.
Mr Trump had been a "laughably and ludicrously dopey" political salesman who had belittled and abused women, Latinos and other minority groups during the campaign.
"Trump has worsened the divisions in American society and that's a terrible legacy," Mr Carr told reporters at a US consulate election party event in Sydney on Wednesday.
"And today is his reckoning for voters he has gone out to attack."
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Mr Carr, a former NSW Premier, was among a crowd of about 200 people gathered at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sydney's CBD to watch the election results roll in from the US.
Consulate staff handed out Trump and Clinton badges to guests who nibbled on popcorn, pretzels and sipped US beer while watching live TV feeds of the vote count.
Mr Carr said he believed the bitter election campaign had weakened the superpower's global leadership position.
"I think America is in the throes of a political nervous breakdown and if Hillary gets elected, as we all hope, I think she's in for civil war in congress," he said.
"America remains weak and it's almost beyond power of a president to rectify."
But if Ms Clinton does become president, Mr Carr believes she will be in for a short stay in the White House.
"I think there's a chance she is a one-term president because of the divisions and the Republican party's capacity to fight back," he said.
"She doesn't have a lot of good will. Only one in three voters trust her.
"So it's a pretty sad and sorry start."
