Haberman and Swan say Trump’s second term is a more imperial presidency

Published by Simon & Schuster on June 23, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump examines the first year of Trump’s second presidency and casts it as a term “liberated from every constraint” that shaped his first.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan argue that Trump’s second term reflects a “fundamentally different conception of the U.S. presidency.”

The book draws on hundreds of interviews and deeply embedded sources inside the administration. Trump returned to office more experienced, but with a sharper edge after indictments, convictions, assassination attempts and four years out of power left him “more powerful, more vengeful, and more willing to gamble.”

Trump ignored court orders and asserted powers once checked by Congress, while the Justice Department became an instrument of retribution against his enemies. The Situation Room, the Justice Department and the Oval Office remain central places where decisions are made, and they are increasingly used for personal defense and political counterattack. One episode centers on White House aides holding damage-control meetings in the Situation Room over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Haberman and Swan say the White House is “much more invested” in Trump than it was in his first term. On CBS Mornings, they said the second term reflects a different presidency altogether. On MS NOW’s Morning Joe, they said Trump has used lessons from his first administration and his years out of office to wield power more aggressively.

The book focuses on two themes: Trump’s greater willingness to use power in his second term and his intensified drive to project that power globally after four years away from office. The book’s public events began June 25, with appearances scheduled in New York, Washington, Boston and California.