The unexpected election of the businessman also paid off for the Republican party, who clinched majorities in both chambers of Congress for the first time in nine years.
First up in the firing line will be the Obamacare medical legislation, described by Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, as “the single worst piece of legislation among many bad pieces of legislation passed in the first two years of the Obama presidency”.
“The sooner we can go in a different direction the better,” he said.
Flinders University politics and public policy lecturer, Dr Rodrigo Praino, said the Democrats would still be able to block some policies through filibuster, despite being a political minority.
He said while getting rid of Obamacare will be relatively straightforward, many other Trump plans of would be more difficult to sell.
"His relationship with the Republican leadership has been difficult from the beginning,” he said.
"[Trump was] an outsider that essentially hijacked the nomination.”
Dr Praino said the US political system was vastly different to Australia’s as politicians were free to vote against party lines if they chose.
This means the billionaire will have to negotiate individually with every single Congress politician to get his policies passed.
But Dr Praino said this would not stop Mr Trump – rather, he would just get creative and alter his campaign promises as needed.
This includes his pledge to build a wall along the country’s border with Mexico.
Related reading
'Not my president': Street protesters reject Trump's agenda
“He could theoretically find a way to fulfil the campaign promise without actually building a brick and cement wall that we have been imagining for all these months,” he said.
“I think that there will be ways that he will try to implement his policies in ways that are feasible and that may not look like what we think they will look like today.”
Many high-profile Republicans Mr Trump has previously clashed with have already come out in support of him, including Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.
A Trump presidency also threatens legislation such as tighter greenhouse emissions regulations for power plants and relaxing travel restrictions for Cuba.
Mr Trump has also vowed to overturn many pieces of legislation pushed through via executive order from Mr Obama, bypassing Congress entirely.
This includes a proposal to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, and the case of a transgender student suing for the right to use the bathroom of the gender they identify as.
Related reading
Give Trump a chance to lead: Clinton
All that takes is “a stroke of a pen”, Dr Praino said.
The return of a Republican to the White House also resolves the issue of appointing a new Supreme Court justice, to replace the late hardline conservative, Antonin Scalia.
The party had refused to endorse President Obama's choice of the more moderate Merrick Garland, saying they wanted to wait until after the election.
Dr Praino said while this didn't pose an immediate issue, “the problem is that many of the remaining justices are ageing, they are going to be retiring or pass away, which means that there will be other vacancies”.
He said Mr Trump would likely appoint more similar-minded Justices, leaving the bench dominated by conservative influences and making it difficult for certain types of cases to be passed.
“We should expect very harsh decisions in terms of abortion, we should expect decisions against gun control, we should expect decisions maybe even against gay marriage,” he said.
This is likely to be the most long-lasting of DonaMr Trump’s legacies, with Supreme Court justices appointed for life.
He will take over as president on January 20, 2017.
- with Reuters
