Americans in Shropshire: 'USA is not racist, bigoted or ignorant'

While some are cautiously optimistic about the future, others are concerned about the world President Trump will create.

Tennis player Alexandra Stevenson and her mother Samantha are in Shrewsbury, where Alexandra is competing in the Aegon GB Pro-Series tournament at The Shrewsbury Club. While they work together on Alexandra's tennis career they are divided by their voting preferences – Samantha voted for Trump while Alexandra voted for Hillary.

Alexandra chose the female vote in support of the suffragettes while Samantha hoped her support for Trump will bring about the change that she feels her country so desperately needs. Both were agreed on the need for ObamaCare to be scrapped.

Samantha said: "Even though the dollar plummeted everyone in England needs to stay calm. Trump is going to have brilliant people around him. The guy is smart. Look at his children, there is nothing wrong with his kids. We are going to have great trade."

Alexandra added that she felt the situation in America is similar to that in Britain with Brexit. "People do not want to have the establishment any more." Both agreed that Trump would not build the wall between the US and Mexico and would improve immigration. American born Bonnie D Huval, an IT business consultant from West Felton, near Oswestry said: "Friends near Oswestry can tell you that for weeks, when they've asked me whether Trump really could win, I've said it looked to me like he could. Sometimes I've gone so far as to say I thought he would. I wanted to be wrong, and I soft-pedalled it as much as I could because it is so upsetting. But here we are."

Reports of violence against people who are not straight, white and with a born-here accent began to come in within hours of the election result. As Trump promised, it is Brexit times 50."

Sheila Sager from Shrewsbury studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University and has been living in the UK for a number of years. She said: "What we need to remember is that Hillary Clinton got more votes than Donald Trump. The country is not racist, bigoted or ignorant.

"Donald Trump appealed to people who want change and no longer have confidence in politicians."

There is a shrinking middle class all over the western world and politicians no longer have control. They pander to big business. People are fed up. They put their hope in to Obama eight years ago that there would be change. But the media drives the economy of the world. We do not have a media that is fair, free and open. Newspapers and media outlets are all about how much money they can make from advertisers for their owners.

"Young people do not engage with the mainstream media anymore, they engage with social media. Political parties are out of touch. The world has changed but the political machine has not. People are frustrated. They are losing jobs, they can not afford houses or rent.

"People want change. They want their politicians to make that change. For me this is a positive in that people will now expect a change to take place."

Arland Eberly, 51, has been in Shropshire for four years after moving to the county from Wisconsin. The religious minister from the Mennonite Church, which runs the Shepherd Hills Furniture Company in Craven Arms, said: "I am not sure how I feel about the outcome of the election. It was quite a surprise. We followed the election campaign through the British media so we were aware of some of the feelings being generated and of the events that have taken place. We knew what was going on but we didn't get involved in the political system. We did not vote but we did pray about it and have put our trust in the Lord.

"It is not possible to predict what will come of this."

Mother-of-two Patricia Scholes is married to a Shropshire ex-pat and lives near Chicago, Illinois. The family are looking to move back to the county in the near future but she says the election result won't speed up the process despite not going the way she hoped.

"I personally didn't vote for Trump. The campaign trail was about character not policy and full on negative slander," the 30-year-old said.

"I think America has made great strides with the affordable care act and the legalization of same sex marriage. Both are now going to possibly be on the chopping block with Trump as president and having both the senate and House of Representatives with Republican majorities.

"Tensions are high right now. Trump has to really work hard to prove his character is better than the campaign trail portrayed him. I think it'll take time for the dust to settle."