The election of Donald Trump has been called a real-life nightmare by some sections of the American public.
TV genius Ryan Murphy took it to even more terrifying heights Tuesday as the center of his FX anthology series American Horror Story: Cult.
The season premiere opened with real footage of Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, leading up to opposing reactions to news coverage of his eventual victory.
American horror: Sarah Paulson’s characterAlly Mayfair-Richards reacted in horror as Donal Trump was elected president on Tuesday’s episode of American Horror Story: Cult
The character thrilled most at the result was blue-haired Kai Anderson, played by Evan Peters, who is bent on chaos and anarchy.
As Trump was named the election winner, he bragged: ‘The revolution has begun.’
The Hillary supporter, meanwhile, was married lesbian Ally Mayfair-Richards, played by Sarah Paulson, who was so devastated by the result it sparked a series of old phobias to return — particularly a fear of clowns.
She started seeing a series of horrifying clown attacks and furiously threw bottles of rose wine at them to try to stop an assault at a supermarket.
Clown fears: The election of Trump sparked Ally’s phobias, including a fear of clowns, to return
Real footage: The series featured footage of Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigning
The horror stretched to her son, Oz, 10, who witnessed a group of clowns going into a neighbor’s house to attack a couple.
But Ally and her son seemed to be the only ones to see them, with a police officer telling Ally and her wife Ivy, played by Alison Pill, that it was being treated as a murder suicide.
The episode ended with Ally waking in the night and turning in bed to get comfort from her wife — only to scream in terror at the sight of a clown mask staring back.
The beginning: The season premiere of the anthology series opened on Election Night
Supermarket terror: Ally started seeing clowns everywhere including the supermarket
Ally was first seen with a tear in her eye on election night, letting out a painful cry as Trump was introduced on stage officially as president.
‘How the hell could they be so wrong about this!’ she cried of news reports that had wrongly predicted a crushing win for Hillary.
A young couple having sex in a field were then shown getting viciously murdered by Twisty The Clown — which ended up being the plot of a comic Ally and Ivy’s son Oz was reading in secret, sparking the first of Ally’s panic attacks.
Picnic time: A young couple was shown having sex in a field
Gun drawn: A man drew a gun and fired at a menacing clown who interrupted them
No stopping: Twisty The Clown wasn’t stopped by the gunfire and attacked the couple
Comic book: The scene turned out to be from a comic book
The attack was similar to Twisty’s killing of a couple in American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Ally after her panic attack soon went to her therapist to confess that her myriad of phobias, including confined spaces and tiny holes, were coming back.
‘I don’t know how I will get through the next four years, I really don’t,’ she said, saying she keeps reliving the horror of Trump winning, sparking the phobias.
Therapy session: Ally saw her therapist as her phobias returned after the election
‘Since election night everything is so much worse.’
She then spoke of how everything had been better when ‘Barack was elected,’ saying: ‘It was as if the universe righted itself. I loved our president and I was proud of him.’
The doctor prescribed her anti-anxiety medication, telling her: ‘Look, we’re all uneasy of the state of the world, but your reactions have been extreme.’
All uneasy: The therapist told Ally that ‘we’re all uneasy of the state of the world’ following Trump’s election
When he told her that ‘It’s all going to be OK,’ she asked seriously: ‘Is It?’
Her phobias hit overdrive when she went grocery shopping in a store that was otherwise empty apart from a clerk wearing a red Make America Great Again hat who praised Trump as a ‘real one’ in charge.
She then started seeing clowns everywhere in the otherwise-empty store — even having sex in the produce section.
Great again: Ally was greeted at the supermarket by a clerk wearing a red Make America Great Again hat
Not clowning: A clown started chasing Ally in the supermarket
Produce section: Ally was horrified as clowns were having sex in the produce section
She finally threw bottles of rose wine at them before fleeing to her car.
After calling her wife in a panic in the car, she saw a clown in the back — pressing on the gas and crashing into a pole in the parking lot.
Ivy later told her that an investigation proved nothing had happened — and that footage showed she had just been running around throwing wine bottles.
In the back: A clown surprised Ally behind her while she was in her car
Freaking out: Ally ran through the market and threw bottles of wine at the menacing clowns
‘I’m telling you I was terrorized,’ Ally insisted. ‘They knew my fears. They wanted to murder me.’
‘I’m not the only one who is having a hard time coming to grips with the state of our country,’ Ally complained later, with Ivy insisting: ‘I expected more from our marriage.
‘I want my partner back, the woman I fell in love with. Isn’t this more important than some stupid election?’, Ivy said.
Two moms: Ally and her wife Ivy saw their relationship strained as the phobias returned
Ally promised to be more present, especially with the restaurant they ran together — but the clowns kept appearing, ruining a later date they had together.
The first time their paths crossed with Kai came when he bizarrely poured coffee over them in the street, telling Ally: ‘Enjoy your latte, bitch. Have a nice day.’
But they become even more entwined when Winter Anderson, played by Billie Lourd, became their new nanny for Oz.
First meeting: Kai Anderson, played by Peter Evans, tossed a drink at Ally and Ivy
Nice day: The blue-haired bad guy told the women to have a nice day
She won them over by revealing that she had quit college to work on Hillary’s campaign for a year, and had earlier been shown upset on election night, telling a friend on the phone:
‘What if I get pregnant now, where will I get an abortion?’, Winter wondered.
‘You’re kind of scaring me now, Winter,’ the friend said. ‘You cannot self-harm again. Don’t go down that road.’
Nanny interview: Winter Anderson interviewed to take care of Ally and Ivy’s son Oz
But it became clear she was close to Kai when he burst into her room, his face covered in orange snack food dust to resemble Trump’s complexion, with her angrily telling him: ‘You’re such an asshole — you come in here to rub it in?’
They were shown locking little fingers, supposedly in a secret pact, doing the same again later amid a series of twisted questions and answers together.
‘I’m just so scared now,’ Winter said of Trump’s election win, with Kai smiling maniacally as he replied: ‘Everyone is.’
Touching fingers: Kai and Winter locked little fingers during a question and answer session
So scared: Winter admitted that she was afraid after Trump’s election and Kai manically responded that everyone was
She was seen with Oz while the mothers went on a date, watching as he drew a picture of the clown from his comic, holding a large knife.
She then showed him a series of twisted videos on the dark web so he could see a real dead body, before he then looked out the window and saw a group of clowns get out of the van.
Winter took him outside, where they then saw that the clowns had broken into the neighbor’s house, where the woman was shown bound and tied by the killer clowns.
Killer clown: Oz drew pictures of Twisty after reading his comic book
Bad nanny: Winter showed Oz pictures of dead people on the dark web
But Winter later denied seeing any of it, telling Ivy and Ally it was Oz’s twisted imagination from his clown comic — and the cop at the scene also telling them of the killings: ‘You’re going to be fine. There was nobody else involved. It looks like a murder-suicide.’
Kai, meanwhile, had been seen alone in a room on election night, saying quietly as the result was announced: ‘The revolution has begun.’
Standing, he screamed ‘f**k you world!’ before jumping around to chants of ‘USA’ and humping the TV.
Neighbor’s house: Oz saw clowns enter his neighbor’s house
Deadly attack: The clowns killed the neighbor and attacked his wife
Kai was later seen in a suit at a city council meeting over whether or not to approve overtime pay for extended security at a Jewish community center.
‘Above all, humans love fear,’ he insisted in his politically-charged speech. ‘How do I know we love fear more than our children? Because we are willing to ruin their lives over some irrational fear of losing them.’
But he took it too far when he insisted: ‘We don’t need to protect the Jewish Center — we need to let them blow it up!’
Orange face: Kai covered his face in orange snack dust to resemble Trump
He then excitedly referred to ‘the chosen few who are not afraid’ who ‘will return at the head of the evolutionary table to shepherd the weak into the chosen promised land of truth and freedom.’
A baffled councilman asked: ‘You want to just let chaos reign in our community so everyone will get so scared they’ll give us unlimited power to protect them?’
‘Haven’t you been watching what’s going on in the world?’ Kai asked, calmly. ‘I’m just telling you what’s happening man.’
Chosen few: He later wore a suit to argue against overtime pay for extended security at a Jewish community center
He was then humiliated by the councilman who dismissed him as a ‘4Chan guy’ who ‘feels empowered’ now that ‘Papa Bear Trump is telling you it’s OK’.
‘This is a blip,’ the councilman insisted. ‘You are afraid. We are not.’
After walking out, Kai turned to warn: ‘There is nothing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man.’
Not afraid: The councilman told Kai that the election was a ‘blip’
Kai was later seen urinating in a condom and throwing it at a group of Hispanic workers while making racist slurs, leading them to attack him — seemingly all caught on a hidden cell phone.
The councilman who challenged Kai turned out to be Ally’s neighbor who watched election results with her and was later attacked by the killer clowns.
American Horror Story: Cult returns next week on FX.
Picking fight: Kai filled up a condom with urine and tossed it at a group of Hispanic workers
Pillow talk: Ally turned around in bed at the end of the episode and was confronted by a clown