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 Donald Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here.
• America can’t afford to retire• The US is becoming impossible to live in• I told Trump over dinner he didn’t have my loyalty – it sealed my fate• This is how the world will look after Trump• I’ve seen what ICE has done to Minnesota. Farage wants to import that to the UK• The men who want to stop women voting• Trump isn’t damaging America. He’s reinventing it’
American politics is in one of the most volatile periods in modern history, and the warning signs are visible to anyone who has worked near the centre of power. I served in two administrations, under Barack Obama and later Joe Biden, in political strategy, outreach and eventually as White House press secretary – giving me a rare view of how US politics operates from the inside.
I witnessed a system under strain, facing pressures it was never designed to withstand and struggling to keep pace with a country that has grown more diverse, polarised and sceptical of its institutions. I was in the room where these tensions were felt most acutely.
