Welcome to Trump’s America, The i Paper’s World Insight series presenting the sharpest, deepest thinking on an era-defining shift in history and politics, investigating how Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here.
Juanny Romero says there used to be no better place to do business than Las Vegas – the bustling resort city famous for its hotels, casinos and glittering entertainment.
In Vegas, says the business owner, no matter a person’s political persuasion – be it Republican red or Democratic blue – the shade that unites everyone is green, namely the colour of the US dollar.
Tourists go to party hard, living out the slogan, “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas,” and briefly forget who they are. Essential to that are the workers, many of them immigrants, who provide the services – bartenders, maids, cooks and cleaners – that enable the city to eat, dance, gamble and sleep it all off, in resorts such as Caesars Palace and the Bellagio.
This arrangement worked well, says the former New Yorker – whose Mothership Coffee Roasters now has seven cafés – until Donald Trump was elected for a second term. The US President enacted tariffs and an immigration crackdown that created what critics termed a “Trump slump”, with visitors sharply down.
