Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump

Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan
71 pages2-hour read
Nonfiction
Book
Adult
Published in 2026

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Character List

Meet the key characters, with insights into their roles, motivations, and relationships—spoiler-free.

Major Characters

The 45th and 47th President of the United States. Returning to the White House after four years out of power, he operates with an unrestrained, imperial approach to governance. Having survived criminal indictments and assassination attempts, he relies on a tight circle of absolute loyalists and demands strict fealty over institutional expertise. He views the presidency as an instrument for personal retribution, financial gain, and spectacular shows of executive dominance.

Key Relationships

Employer of Stephen Miller

Leader of Marco Rubio

Political Leader of JD Vance

Employer of Susie Wiles

Appointing Authority of Elon Musk

Friend of Steve Witkoff

Successor to Joe Biden

Diplomatic Counterpart to Vladimir Putin

Antagonist of Volodymyr Zelensky

The Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor. He is a fiercely ideological architect of the administration's most aggressive domestic programs, including mass deportations and military deployments in American cities. He operates a parallel legal structure within the administration to bypass traditional government lawyers, proving relentless in his pursuit of hardline immigration and cultural objectives.

Key Relationships

Advisor to Donald Trump

Colleague of Susie Wiles

Political Ally of Charlie Kirk

Serving dual roles as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. Originally a traditional Republican with democratic ideals, he has reinvented himself as a strict loyalist executing the administration's transactional foreign policy. He aggressively focuses on the Western Hemisphere and shows a willingness to use military leverage to install compliant leaders abroad.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

Rival of JD Vance

Colleague of Elon Musk

Diplomatic Contact of Nayib Bukele

The Vice President of the United States. He represents the intellectual, anti-interventionist wing of the populist movement. Despite holding high office, he frequently struggles to balance his domestic focus on affordability with an administration heavily drawn toward foreign conflicts, cultural provocations, and punitive actions.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

Rival of Marco Rubio

Ideological Ally of Tucker Carlson

Friend of Charlie Kirk

The White House Chief of Staff. A veteran political operative, she provides a rare source of stability and organization in an otherwise chaotic executive branch. She focuses on maintaining order and managing the warring ideological factions within the administration rather than pushing her own policy agenda.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

Colleague of Stephen Miller

Manager of Elon Musk

A billionaire tech CEO granted immense, unchecked power as a "special government employee." He attempts to run the federal bureaucracy like a tech startup, demanding immediate mass firings and disabling payment systems. His lack of governmental knowledge quickly sparks severe national security crises and fierce blowback from the cabinet.

Key Relationships

Appointee of Donald Trump

Antagonist of Marco Rubio

Managed by Susie Wiles

Supporting Characters

A New York real-estate developer and close personal friend of the president. Appointed as a special envoy to the Middle East, he brings a transactional, deal-making approach to sensitive international conflicts. His family is also heavily entwined in cryptocurrency ventures alongside the president's family.

Key Relationships

Friend of Donald Trump

Diplomatic Contact of Vladimir Putin

A former White House chief strategist and media executive. Though he holds no formal position in the second administration, he acts as an influential ideological voice for the nationalist-populist movement, frequently interpreting and reacting to the administration's policy shifts from the outside.

Key Relationships

Former Advisor to Donald Trump

The Secretary of the Treasury. An experienced financial executive, he attempts to reconcile the administration's disruptive nationalist policies with the practical realities of managing the global financial system. He frequently finds himself doing damage control during severe market panics triggered by sudden presidential edicts.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

Colleague of Howard Lutnick

The 46th President of the United States. His tenure and eventual electoral defeat serve as the primary contrast for the incoming administration, which defines its mandate largely as a complete repudiation of his policies and decorum.

Key Relationships

Predecessor to Donald Trump

The President of El Salvador. An authoritarian leader with a highly personalist governing style focused on aggressive public security, he serves as an ideological model and willing partner for the administration's unorthodox border policies.

Key Relationships

Diplomatic Counterpart to Marco Rubio

Ideological Ally of Donald Trump

A prominent conservative commentator and broadcaster. Operating independently through digital platforms, he wields massive influence over the populist base. He frequently lobbies the White House directly to prevent foreign military entanglements.

Key Relationships

Informal Advisor to Donald Trump

Ideological Ally of JD Vance

The Speaker of the House of Representatives. He illustrates the total capitulation of the congressional branch to the executive branch, routinely suppressing conservative fiscal concerns to force through massive omnibus bills dictated by the Oval Office.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

The young founder of Turning Point USA. He is an exceptionally effective mobilizer of young conservative voters and serves as a key bridge between grassroots activism and formal administration personnel decisions. His presence highlights the integration of youth organizing into formal government structures.

Key Relationships

Friend of JD Vance

Political Ally of Stephen Miller

A special assistant and executive assistant to the president. Valued above all for her unquestioning loyalty, she represents the highly personalized, insular nature of the second term's staffing choices.

Key Relationships

Assistant to Donald Trump

The White House Press Secretary. She transforms the briefing room into an arena for aggressive partisan combat, utilizing the platform to intentionally provoke opponents and feed viral social media narratives rather than disseminate factual policy information.

Key Relationships

Spokesperson for Donald Trump

A far-right political activist and internet personality. Though holding no government position, she wields immense informal power, able to bypass official vetting processes and trigger high-level staff purges based purely on claims of disloyalty.

Key Relationships

Informal Advisor to Donald Trump

The Secretary of Commerce. A highly successful Wall Street executive, he serves as a primary enforcer of the administration's aggressive economic nationalism and massive tariff deployments, while also facilitating fundraising for the president's legacy projects.

Key Relationships

Subordinate to Donald Trump

Colleague of Scott Bessent

The Prime Minister of Israel. He actively encourages the administration's hawkish impulses, persistently pressuring the White House to commit American forces to regional conflicts and leveraging his direct access to bypass bureaucratic hesitation.

Key Relationships

Diplomatic Counterpart to Donald Trump

The President of Russia. He represents the ultimate test of the administration's transactional foreign policy, content to stall negotiations and string along informal envoys while maintaining his own strategic military objectives.

Key Relationships

Diplomatic Counterpart to Donald Trump

Diplomatic Contact of Steve Witkoff

The President of Ukraine. He desperately seeks continued military and financial support but finds himself treated with open hostility, viewed by the administration as an ungrateful supplicant standing in the way of a swift, transactional peace deal.

Key Relationships

Target of Donald Trump

Target of JD Vance