The last four years have been "terrible" for US-born Bill Brock.
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That's why the Kiama resident and friends "celebrated hard" the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president on Thursday.
"It's been embarrassing to be an American," Mr Brock, who has lived in Australia for the past 29 years, told the Mercury.
"I'm glad I'm not there. I think America's standing in the whole world has gone down.
"[Donald] Trump did a lot of damage in my opinion. I was very happy to see Biden win."
Mr Brock, a former Illawarra Business Chamber committee member, was confident Biden could unite the divide in the US.
"My sister still lives in North Carolina. It's not great there at the moment. I'm sure Biden will go a long way towards uniting the country once again," he said.
Mr Brock said he shared the shock of his fellow Americans in relation to the actions of former president Trump.
"He is a lunatic. The riots on the Capitol Hill building were shocking," he said.
"I've been shocked with everything that happened leading up to the election and since. It was no surprise to see Trump dig in until the end. He has no class.
"I just don't know how he still got 74 million votes, it astounds me. I think the majority of votes were from uneducated white people and billionaires."
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