My (along with our FAQ's) standard survey recommendation is the Oxford History of the United States. It's not complete and the authors occasionally divert into particular frameworks they're interested in, but if you spend the time going through the full series you'll basically end up with knowledge equivalent to an honors level intro course.

Once you do that, you'll have enough of a background to start getting more in depth to things you may be reporting on day-to-day, like politics. Feel free to come back with requests for book recommendations - which are also in our FAQ - on specific subjects, but I'll give one right now since it's such a common request.

Trump's historical context is intertwined with populism, something that gets tossed out in a throwaway line but is barely understood by the vast majority of those doing so. A deeper dive into American Populism begins with a couple of the classics: Hofstadter's The Age of Reform and Goodwyn's Democratic Process. They're a good place to start because they've formed the basis of most more modern critiques, like McMath's American Populism and Kazin's The Populist Persuasion. It's a very complex field, and there's far more to that movement than just populism, but if you start down this route you'll be in a position to not just talk a bit more authoritatively but start noticing things that others don't.

Good luck, and if you need more areas, let us know.