Donald Trump's election victory not such a stunning rebuke of the establishment.

By Eleanor Hall

Donald Trump may have won the US presidential election, but is his victory really the rebuke of the establishment some pundits are hailing it to be?

His win was secured by a convincing margin in the electoral college, but his opponent, Hillary Clinton, earned more votes overall and lost out only narrowly in some of the key battleground states.

Professor Simon Jackman from the University of Sydney’s US Studies Centre lectured in political science and statistics at Stanford University in California for 10 years.

He said while not necessarily widely expected, Trump’s win was far from a political revolution.

“I think it’s very easy on the one hand to over-read this result,” he said.

“This is a not a revolution in American public opinion, this is a very narrowly contested election where more people will end up voting for the Democratic candidate than for Donald Trump.

“It’s the middle of the country where Trump has won those states that have put him over the top in the electoral college.

“I don’t see that as a result that suggests that America is on its way back to healing its divisions — if anything, I see this result as reinforcing them.”

Professor Jackman said the real shock of the November 8 result was the Republicans’ clean sweep of Washington institutions.

“Trump won the vote in the right places and comes to power with fellow Republicans in the Senate and in the House of Representatives and with great ability to pursue his legislative agenda.

“I think it’s that, is the thing that will be immensely consequential.”

Trump will now need to deliver

Having won an exhaustingly hard-fought presidential campaign, Donald Trump will now need to come up with a plan for office.

Professor Jackman said it is unclear to what extent he will be able to make good on his promises.

“He’s going to have to deliver now on the expectations he created during the campaign.”

“Obamacare is going away in some form or another … Dodd-Frank financial regulation that was put in place in the wake of the global financial crisis will be going away.”

“I think the conciliatory tone notwithstanding, there is tremendous uncertainty as to just how much of the proposals that were put on the table, some of them quite spectacularly out there, will see their way into policy.”

One of the hurdles Donald Trump will face is the division within the Republican party.

According to Professor Jackman, Republicans who disavowed Trump before the election are now left in an awkward position.

“Remember this is hardly kumbaya among the Republicans, between Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress — many of them disowned him and distanced himself from him,” he said.

“On the other hand though, he’s got an incredibly strong bargaining position — he owes them nothing.”

Forming an administration

Donald Trump is now faced with the immense task of forming his administration before being sworn into office on January 20.

Appointments will need to be made across the board, including important foreign policy roles on the National Security Council in the White House, the Department of Defence and the State Department.

Professor Jackman said this means appointing some who previously tried to distance themselves from him.

“So many of the Republican foreign policy hands signed a declaration disowning Trump, saying that they’d never work with him,” he said.

“I suspect they’re going to end up walking that back.”

So can Trump deliver on the enormous promises he has made over the past 18 months?

Professor Jackman thinks not.

“I really don’t [think so], because I think the problems surmounting America at the moment, in particular the big issue is this economic inequality,” he said.

“There is very little that I think even an American president can do about that.”

This post originally appeared on ABC News.