When dealmakers were first asked about a possible Donald Trump presidency in surveys earlier this year, they warned he would be disastrous for mergers and acquisitions.

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But now that the real estate developer has been elected president, mergers and acquisitions bankers and lawyers are spinning a rather different story.

“Trump is a life-long dealmaker. Combined with the Republican party platform, that bodes well for the deal environment generally,” said Eric Siegel, a corporate lawyer at Dechert.

Mr Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, is back in vogue among New York’s rainmakers and the new wisdom is that he will be a pragmatist. While Mr Trump may be sceptical of overseas takeovers of US companies, they believe he will favour deals that line up with his campaign goals of boosting domestic capability in infrastructure, energy and defence as well as supporting manufacturing jobs in the US.

“Trump the president may not be as abrasive as Trump the candidate,” said Simon Marchant, head of corporate at Freshfields. “His instincts, one would think, would be to support business and jobs.”