The former BBC journalist has spent four years considering the misfits, misinformation and manipulation that are now central to US politics. In his new book, The Coming Storm, he weaves a terrifying narrative

Gabriel Gatehouse only got back from Florida a few minutes ago. His wheeled suitcase is still in the hallway of his London home. He was out there covering the US election for Channel 4 News and has had very little sleep, he says, but you’d never guess it from his twinkle-eyed sprightliness. His original plan was to try to get into Donald Trump’s election party at Mar-a-Lago, he tells me as he makes us each an espresso, but his contact told him to forget it; it was full, “and you don’t blag your way in when the guy’s survived two assassination attempts”.

So instead, Gatehouse headed to Little Havana in Miami, which has a sizeable Cuban American population. No Republican nominee has won Miami-Dade county since 1988, but “the swing to Trump was very visible”, he says. “People were just having a big old Cuban party, really, in celebration.” These were ordinary citizens, he says, not “the slightly sinister, Maga, nod-and-a-wink at ‘alt-right’, white supremacy, dictatorship” crowd. But he didn’t spot any upset Democrat voters. “I saw nothing but joy and happiness, and [the election] hadn’t been called for Trump at that point, but they could kind of sense it, they could feel the momentum, and they were right.”