Credit: Channel 4 / America Decides: US Presidential Election

The Left-wing media described Donald Trump's victory as the "darkest dawn" for America in an outpouring of incredulity.

As the scale of Trump's electoral triumph became clear, Left-leaning commentators began to vent their dismay on TV and social media.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 presenter, apologised for his guest Emily Maitlis's on-air behaviour during election coverage as the inevitability of Kamala Harris's defeat became clear.

He said he would "tell Emily off" as she had "started swearing" during the broadcast.

Writing in the Independent, commentator Ian Dunt declared that the election result was America's "darkest dawn" and left a "taste of despair".

Rory Stewart, The Rest is Politics podcaster, wrote on Twitter that it was "heartbreaking" that Trump was president.

The former Tory MP had proclaimed that Harris would win with ease and claimed to have bet heavily on that result, only to be left deflated during live coverage of the election,

A dejected Stewart said that he "got it totally wrong" but claimed: "I think I was wrong because I'm [an] optimist. I hate the idea of being right pessimistically."

The Guardian newspaper sent out a notification as the result was put beyond doubt, branding Trump's victory as the "first for a convicted criminal".

Credit: Channel 4 / America Decides: US Presidential Election

Countdown star turned political commentator Carol Vorderman said: "God help America" on X, formerly Twitter, as the result became clear.

Meanwhile, Paul Mason, the former economics editor of BBC's Newsnight, claimed in a piece for the anti-Brexit paper The New European that America was "in the grip of the fascist process", while LBC radio host James O'Brien, a former Newsnight presenter, wrote on X: "what fresh hell is this?"

In the US, Jake Tapper, CNN news anchor, was stunned by analysis which showed that Harris had not outperformed Joe Biden in a single county, saying "holy smokes" when presented with a map showing the scale of her defeat.

On MSNBC, Left-wing commentator Joy Reid claimed that Harris' campaign had been "flawless", despite its end result, and cited the number of celebrity endorsements the Democratic candidate had received.

She claimed that Harris had won over the Swifties, fans of Taylor Swift, and said she was shocked at the rejection of the Democrats at the polls.

Other celebrities who had endorsed Harris included Bruce Springsteen and Madonna