Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller visited the USA earlier in 2016 to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions, so we talked with him and Tauranga MP Simon Bridges about their thoughts on the election results.

'It was quite surprising,” says Todd. 'I had thought Hillary would get about 300 electoral votes and Trump about 230, and that was essentially because I thought she would hold the states that had been reliably Democratic for close to 20 years.

'That to me was the biggest surprise, not that Trump did as well as he did, because clearly the gap was closing by the end, but I was surprised he got those mid-western states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.”

'I was surprised,” says Simon, 'like a lot of people I thought that with the uncertainties that went with Trump, because he hasn't been in politics for a long time, the voters would gravitate towards Clinton. We now know all the polls were wrong, but they suggested she had the edge.”

'When you look at some of the stats behind it,” says Todd, 'Trump got less votes than Mitt Romney did in 2012. He did a fantastic job of motivating the Republican base and getting them out to vote.”

Simon felt the worry was overdone.

'He now has the responsibility of office, and some of the wilder things he said on the campaign trail, - it's difficult to see that actually happening. We've seen some of that with a very magnanimous speech of victory where he said kind words about Hillary Clinton and the country coming together.”

Tauranga MP Simon Bridges at the International Transportation Forum.

Todd felt Hillary Clinton was unable to motivate the coalition that had supported Barak Obama in huge numbers in 2012, and that she couldn't mobilise the Democratic base.

Todd and Jami-Lee Ross spent the first week of their trip to the USA with the Republican leadership and the second week with the Democratic leadership.

'Many delegates and supporters of the party at the Republican convention were despairing of the rank and file party members who had supported Trump,” says Todd.

'They just thought he was too flawed a candidate to get a huge Republican turnout. They were concerned that he was going to be so unpopular a candidate that they were going to lose the Senate and potentially the House so it shows how disconnected they were from the reality of what people were feeling on the ground and across America.”

He spoke with some Republican Party people after the election was over, and says that they were quite shocked, never expecting their own candidate to win. While votes were being counted some of the Trump team felt only a miracle would enable their man to get across the line.

From their accounts to Todd, clearly Donald Trump was able to talk to the concerns that resonated with people.

'These are people who have historically not voted for the Republican Party,” says Todd.

'Particularly in those mid-western states, where they are blue colour workers, who really do feel that his anti-establishment, anti-globalisation, anti-the sort of political and economic elites of the country really resonated with them.

'Yes he had flaws as a candidate, but he spoke in an unvarnished and rough way that 59 million people saw as an appeal. '

As to how Todd felt this would impact on NZ's relationship with the US, Todd commented from his personal perspective.

'When you have moments where you feel history is pivoting, there is the initial response to see it through the lens of it being more significant than it ultimately turns out to be.

'I've heard comments where it will fundamentally change America's position in the world, that trading with the rest of the world is going to be harder. I'm actually inherently more optimistic than that. This country has been built off smart people with great ideas and products and services trading with the world. We've been doing it for 200 years, sometimes it's a bit tougher than other times, but we're really good at it."

'I have every confidence that we'll be able to continue to do that as we've always done. Our job as a government is to create the conditions for that to be as successful as possible."

'For New Zealand,” says Simon, 'the relationship with the US is beyond any personality. It's a very long special relationship that has had huge number of components – economic, military, but also cultural. We'll be seeking to work really closely with Donald Trump and his administration just as we did with Barak Obama.”

'With respect to the American relationship,” says Todd, 'it's a very warm relationship. We've had the Secretary of State here this week and the USS Samson is coming next week.

'We have very, very strong ties with America and that's not going to change.”

Todd believes it's important to always listen to the diverse and varied voices in his community.

'You can never hope to please everyone all of the time. I sense when you look at America and the UK, that there was a huge tranche of those who felt that the politicians didn't reflect them,” he says.

'When they looked to London or Westminster or Washington, they didn't see people who were like them. It's important that in a New Zealand context, we reflect on ensuring that we don't find ourselves in that position.”