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
The queue outside Ralph Lauren snakes on to Main Street before lunchtime. Across the road, every table at Sant Ambroeus is already occupied, despite its lobster rolls nudging $60 (£45). A Bentley slows behind a line of Range Rovers while, overhead, a helicopter cuts across the clear blue sky on its way to one of the nearby private landing pads.
On the surface, it looks like any other summer day in the Hamptons, 80 miles from New York City. Designer bags, impossible restaurant reservations and multimillion-dollar homes hidden behind perfectly trimmed hedges. But in 2026, the scene feels harder to ignore.
