QUENTIN LETTS: Susanna Reid wore the very face of thunder

Broadcasters on both sides of the Atlantic accepted Donald Trump’s victory with as much grace as cats swallowing paraffin to remove a fur ball.

As it became clear that the former president was romping to victory their tone soured from initial confidence in a Democrat win to one of pouting petulance. We had more moues than a dairy farmyard.

ITV’s Susanna Reid, normally such a shiny sausage, wore the very face of thunder. Her co-presenter Ed Balls got into a spat with Hollywood Trump supporter Rob Schneider, who returned fire with gusto.

Mr Schneider said he had heard some anti-Trump off-mike banter between the Good Morning Britain duo. ‘For goodness’ sake, Rob, move on,’ said an embarrassed Balls. Mr Schneider: ‘You guys move on! He has a mandate.’

Over at Channel 4 it was the ‘Meltdown Maitlis Show’. Election-night coverage there was being fronted by Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Emily Maitlis but little Krishnan was soon on his own after a distraught Maitlis had to be shown to a padded cell and given soothing medicaments.

Guru-Murthy was forced to tell his co-presenter to 'stop swearing'.

In earlier exchanges, when a Harris win was still on the cards, Maitlis had tossed her mane from side to side and become decidedly dismissive of former prime minister Boris Johnson, who defended Mr Trump and called him a friend. Maitlis’s eyes boinged out on springs at that.

‘When did you last speak to Donald Trump?’ asked Guru-Murthy, in the tone of a barrister asking an accomplice when he last saw a murder suspect. When Mr Johnson said he would happily leave his daughter in the same room as Mr Trump, Maitlis and Guru-Murthy gasped.

Sean Spicer, a former Trump White House spokesman, was asked for his views but before he could say much he was interrupted and accused of factual inaccuracies by Maitlis. Mr Spicer stood for no nonsense and told her: ‘You’re lying. It’s you that just lied to the viewers.’

Meanwhile the US election map was turning Republican red and MSNBC commentator Joy Reid snapped that Trump would bring in an ‘extremist, Right-wing, fascist-type government’. The F-word was everywhere. Even nice Tom Bradby on ITV used it.

Even spikier language was used by Cardi B, a celebrity rap musician who had starred at one of Kamala Harris’s closing campaign rallies. When one of her social-media followers enquired if she would be attending Mr Trump’s presidential inauguration, Ms B replied: ‘I swear to God I’m gonna f*** you up, get away from me! I’m sick of you! Burn your f***ing hats motherf***er’.

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This was the same Cardi B who before voting day had reacted crossly to opinion polls that suggested Ms Harris was trailing in certain southern states. ‘This,’ she averred, ‘is why some of y’all states be getting hurricanes.’ The video remark was later deleted but it may be harder to remove the acidic taste it left.

In the land of podcast self-styled grandees, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart went rigid – backs as stiff as broomsticks – as the results swung Mr Trump’s way.

Both men had been full of pro-Kamala confidence on social media earlier, Mr Stewart attacking proper media stars such as Andrew Neil and claiming that they were talking up Mr Trump’s chances simply to create suspense.

So confident was Remainer Rory that he bet a substantial sum on a Harris victory and said he would have made it £100,000 had he been allowed. Bang goes the advance for his next book.

While Messrs Campbell and Stewart resembled Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show, the grief was more restrained, though still palpable, at the BBC.

Co-host John Kay was doing a lot of blinking behind his Harold Lloyd spectacles and after Mr Trump’s victory speech there was a discussion not of the future but of the president’s numerous past faults.

Kay’s co-anchor Sumi Somaskanda looked as if she had swallowed an iffy sardine. Caitriona Perry may have worn a blinding yellow dress but her manner was anything but sunny.

On the notoriously anti-Trump CNN each new Republican advance win was met with flexed jaws and a faint hint of disappointment. Jake Tapper looked fit to kick the nearest waste paper bin. Some claimed to have spotted tears in the eyes of political analyst Van Jones but it was hard to be sure, there was so much smoke rising from his grinding teeth.

And in the la-la world of X, formerly Twitter, electoral sage and sometime television star Carol Vorderman greeted the new Trumpian dawn by ranting about ‘Right-wing hatred’ and predicting economic disaster for Britain.

Only hours earlier the same Mystic Meg had been confidently predicting a Harris landslide and a prison sentence for Mr Trump. You had to be an idiot – or the now impoverished Rory Stewart – to believe her.