Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump

Stephen Miller, as deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, is the primary architect of President Trump’s most radical domestic policies. Haberman and Swan portray him as a true believer whose ideological zeal and mastery of executive power have allowed him to translate Trump’s impulses into a systematic agenda of mass deportation, bureaucratic dismantlement, and cultural warfare. Miller’s influence is most pronounced in his aggressive immigration crackdown, where he pressured ICE to meet daily arrest quotas and explored extreme measures like suspending habeas corpus to bypass judicial review. A notable motif within Miller’s approach to politics, the authors suggest, is a willingness to bypass the traditional constraints of laws and processes in order to achieve his political vision. Whether trying to suspend habeas corpus or encouraging oil executives to bring projects into operation during Trump’s term, the authors paint a picture of Miller as someone willing to skirt traditional processes in order to achieve his goals. After the assassination of his friend Charlie Kirk, Miller’s mission expanded. He promised to use the government’s full force to destroy what he called a “vast domestic terror movement” on the Left (302). While Trump is often distracted by spectacle and personal grievances, Miller is relentlessly focused, representing the methodical and uncompromising ideological core of the second Trump presidency.

As secretary of state and national security advisor, Marco Rubio represents the Republican establishment’s complete assimilation into the MAGA movement. The authors chart his transformation from a 2016 primary rival into one of Trump’s most effective lieutenants, implementing the America First foreign policy. Rubio’s significance lies in his ability to translate Trump’s chaotic, transactional instincts into coherent policy. He spearheaded a covert operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in order to install a more compliant official at the head of the same government, rather than to wholly enact regime change. This act shows how the traditional Republican animosity toward the Venezuelan government was blended with Trump’s vision, with the dramatic removal of Maduro being followed by cooperation with a more pliable version of the same government structure. The regime change that was enacted, the authors suggest, was surface level at best. Understanding that proximity to Trump was essential for influence, Rubio shed his former political independence to become a loyal executor of the president’s will. While privately skeptical of Trump’s more hawkish decisions, such as the war with Iran, he has defended them publicly with full conviction. His pragmatism and loyalty have made him a central figure of the administration, despite Trump stoking a potential 2028 rivalry between him and Vice President Vance.

Vice President JD Vance is portrayed as the intellectual heir to the MAGA movement and Trump’s potential successor. A former opponent of Trump, once “comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler” (17), Vance is now presented as a fierce loyalist. Vance has spent his term navigating Trump’s volatile orbit, often privately pessimistic about the administration’s direction but publicly cautious to maintain his political future. Vance’s primary role has been to represent the party’s more consistent anti-interventionist wing. He vocally opposed a regime-change war with Iran and challenged the influence of foreign leaders, most notably in an explosive confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vance is a figure of internal conflict, caught between his populist desire to focus on the domestic affordability crisis and the political necessity of loyalty to a president drawn to foreign wars and cultural grievances. This tension defines his struggle to balance his own principles with his ambition within the administration.

Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, is the quiet, stabilizing force in the Trump administration. A veteran political operative, she’s depicted as a shrewd and effective manager who brings a rare degree of order to Trump’s chaotic world. Unlike many of her predecessors, she earned Trump’s complete trust and has maintained her influence without engaging in public drama. In this respect, the authors present her as one of the key differentials across the two Trump presidencies, with her political acumen and calmness a key difference to the chaos and disorder of the first Trump term.

Wiles’s main function is to act as a gatekeeper and buffer for the president, managing the warring factions within the administration. She has navigated conflicts between ideologues like Stephen Miller and pragmatists in the cabinet and was instrumental in reining in the disruptive power of Elon Musk’s government efficiency project. Wiles shows a different kind of power within the administration, one less ideological than Miller or ambitious than Vance but arguably more essential to the day-to-day functioning of the presidency.

Elon Musk’s brief, explosive tenure in the administration is a case study in the clash between tech-world arrogance and the realities of government. Granted unprecedented authority to lead DOGE, a pseudo-agency tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy, Musk attempted to re-engineer the state, armed only with a deep ignorance of governmental processes. As per the authors’ reporting and the reactions of the cabinet members, he struggled to achieve his lofty ambitions. His crusade to eliminate waste is depicted as haphazard and destructive, disrupting critical functions and leading to violent clashes with cabinet secretaries who resented his intrusions. Rivals reportedly celebrated his humiliating capitulations to the president. 

Musk’s spectacular flameout, culminating in a shouting match and physical altercation that led to his removal, illustrates the limits of imposing a disruptive, CEO-driven model on the federal government and Trump’s ultimate unwillingness to delegate true authority to an unaccountable outsider. At the same time, his comment about Trump’s association with Jeffrey Epstein after being removed from the government, commenting that Trump “is in the Epstein files” (221), shows the extent to which Musk, like Trump, is willing to engage with politics in a nontraditional manner. In this sense, his acrimonious departure is used by the authors to illustrate the consequences of Trump’s unconventional approach to politics, demonstrating what can happen when similar approaches are turned back on Trump himself.

Steve Witkoff, a New York real-estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, embodies the administration’s preference for personal relationships over traditional diplomacy. Appointed as a special envoy, Witkoff has been tasked with handling intractable global conflicts, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Lacking foreign-policy experience, he approaches these crises as if they were real-estate disputes, focusing on building personal rapport with figures like Vladimir Putin. 

The authors portray Witkoff as a well-meaning but naive amateur whose deal-making instincts yield mixed results. His secret back-channel to Russia secured a prisoner’s release but failed to end the war, while his personal connections were more successful in securing a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. Witkoff’s role highlights a central theme: the dismantling of institutional expertise in favor of a personalized system where loyalty and friendship are valued above experience.

Steve Bannon is an American political strategist, media executive, and former investment banker who became one of the most influential ideological figures associated with Trump’s political movement. After a career in investment banking and entertainment, Bannon became executive chairman of Breitbart News, which he transformed into an important platform for nationalist and populist politics. He joined Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and subsequently served as White House chief strategist during the first Trump administration. Although his formal tenure was brief, Bannon remained an important intellectual influence on the broader MAGA movement. He later became a prominent advocate of nationalist politics through his podcast and political organizing.

Bannon doesn’t hold a formal position in the second Trump administration, but he remains an important figure in Regime Change because he provides an outside perspective on Trump’s political transformation. He is particularly significant as an interpreter of what he regards as the increasingly unconstrained character of Trump’s second presidency. Following Trump’s return to office, Bannon characterized the new administration as a more complete expression of Trump’s instincts and political power than the first term had been. The book uses Bannon’s observations to illuminate the transformation of Trump from a president constrained by competing factions and institutional resistance into one surrounded by unusually loyal political allies.

Scott Bessent is an American investor and financial executive who became the 79th US secretary of the Treasury Department under Trump. Born in South Carolina, Bessent studied political science at Yale University before entering the investment-management industry. He spent much of his career working in global finance and became closely associated with George Soros, eventually serving as chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management. Bessent became closely involved with Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign and subsequently emerged as one of the administration’s principal economic policymakers. Trump nominated him to lead the Treasury Department, and Bessent was sworn in as secretary on January 28, 2025. His responsibilities include federal finances, economic policy, financial regulation, sanctions, and the international financial system.

In Regime Change, Bessent represents the administration’s attempt to reconcile Trump’s political instincts with the practical requirements of managing the world’s largest economy. He belongs to the group of senior officials whose expertise and institutional responsibilities sometimes place them in tension with Trump’s preferences. His presence illustrates the unusual mixture of experienced professionals and intensely loyal political figures surrounding the president during his second term.

Joe Biden is an American politician who served as the 46th president from 2021 to 2025. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942, Biden grew up in Delaware and was elected to the US Senate from that state in 1972 at the age of 29. From 2009 to 2017, he served as vice president under Barack Obama, and he won the presidency in 2020. Biden is significant to Regime Change primarily as the president who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, a defeat that still irks Trump. Trump returned to office convinced that his first presidency had been undermined by investigations, political opponents, and institutions associated with the Washington establishment. Biden’s presidency therefore forms part of the political history against which Trump’s second administration has defined itself. 

Biden’s age and political decline also form part of the background to the 2024 election. His decision to seek reelection despite widespread concerns about his age, followed by his withdrawal from the race in July 2024 and replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris, profoundly affected the campaign that ultimately returned Trump to power. Although Biden isn’t an active participant in the second administration, his presidency remains important to the book because Trump’s political program is presented partly as a repudiation of the Biden years. The contrast between the two administrations helps explain Trump’s emphasis on executive authority, immigration, energy policy, foreign affairs, and political retribution.

Nayib Bukele is the president of El Salvador and one of the most prominent foreign leaders associated with the political style that appeals to Trump during his second administration. Born in San Salvador in 1981, Bukele entered politics through the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front before breaking with the party and eventually winning the presidency as an outsider in 2019. He subsequently developed a highly personalist governing style centered on public security, anti-gang measures, and an aggressive social-media presence. His government became internationally controversial because of mass arrests and allegations of human-rights abuses, while supporters credited his policies with dramatically reducing El Salvador’s homicide rate.

In Regime Change, Bukele represents a foreign leader whose political methods and willingness to cooperate with Trump provided an important model for the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. El Salvador became a destination for people deported from the US under controversial arrangements, making Bukele relevant to one of the defining policies of Trump’s second term. Bukele’s importance extends beyond immigration. He illustrates the administration’s preference for transactional relationships with foreign leaders and its willingness to work closely with governments that emphasize executive power over conventional liberal-democratic restraints. His relationship with Trump therefore fits the broader pattern examined by Haberman and Swan of a presidency increasingly comfortable with personal relationships, direct bargaining, and strongman-style political leadership.

Tucker Carlson is an American conservative commentator, broadcaster, and political personality. Born in San Francisco, California, in 1969, Carlson became widely known through Fox News, where Tucker Carlson Tonight became one of the network’s most influential programs. Fox News dismissed him in 2023, after which he established an independent media operation distributed through digital platforms. His broadcasts have made him one of the most influential voices on the populist Right and an important critic of the Republican establishment. Carlson developed a complicated relationship with Trump. He strongly supported Trump’s populist political project but has also criticized particular administration policies, especially when he believes they contradict an anti-interventionist foreign policy. His enormous audience gives him influence outside the formal Republican Party structure.

In Regime Change, Carlson is significant as part of the informal political network surrounding Trump. Haberman and Swan identify him among the influential figures whom Trump values and consults, particularly because Trump watches television personalities closely and pays attention to their assessments of political events. Carlson is especially relevant to the book’s discussion of foreign policy. His skepticism toward American military intervention and his criticism of establishment foreign-policy thinking place him within an important current of the modern MAGA movement. This became particularly significant as Trump considered military action against Iran. Carlson therefore represents a broader category of power examined by the authors: individuals without formal government positions who nevertheless possess direct access to the president and the ability to shape the political environment around him.

Mike Johnson is a Republican politician from Louisiana who has served as speaker of the US House of Representatives since October 2023. He was elected to Congress in 2016 and rose through Republican leadership, eventually becoming speaker following the removal of Kevin McCarthy. Johnson is significant to Regime Change because he represents the Republican-controlled Congress’s relationship with Trump. His speakership coincided with the beginning of Trump’s second administration, when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and therefore had the capacity to constrain or facilitate presidential action. Johnson’s political survival depended heavily upon maintaining Trump’s support while managing a narrow and internally divided House majority.

His importance in the book lies in what his speakership reveals about the changing balance of power in Washington. Haberman and Swan portray a Republican congressional leadership unusually deferential to Trump. Johnson’s position illustrates how Trump’s control over the Republican electorate and his personal influence over Republican lawmakers have reduced Congress’s willingness to act as an independent check on the presidency. His speakership is consequently part of the institutional background to the book’s central argument about the expansion of presidential power.

Charlie Kirk was an American conservative activist and political organizer who founded Turning Point USA in 2012 at the age of 18. Born in Illinois in 1993, Kirk built Turning Point into one of the most influential organizations on the American Right, particularly among young conservatives. Through campus organizing, social media, podcasts, conferences, and political campaigning, he became a prominent advocate of Trump-aligned populism and a highly effective mobilizer of younger Republican voters. Kirk became increasingly close to Trump during the 2024 campaign and the transition to the second administration. He helped evaluate prospective administration personnel and participated in discussions concerning potential appointments. 

Kirk’s role in Regime Change is therefore connected to the transformation of the Republican Party and the growing importance of informal MAGA networks. Haberman and Swan place him among the younger political figures who had Trump’s attention and could influence the composition and direction of his administration. He represented a generation of activists whose political careers had been built around Trump rather than the traditional Republican establishment. Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University in September 2025, at the age of 31. His death subsequently became a major political event for the Trump movement. Within the context of Regime Change, his importance is therefore both political and generational. He embodies the movement’s ability to create new conservative institutions outside traditional Republican structures and demonstrates the extent to which Trump’s political coalition has become a broader social movement.

Natalie Harp is a political aide who has become one of Trump’s closest personal assistants during his second presidency. Born in California, Harp became publicly known after describing how experimental medical treatment had helped her survive cancer. Trump subsequently invited her into his political orbit, and she spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention. She later worked for One America News Network before becoming increasingly involved with Trump personally during his political activities after leaving office. Harp became an unusually visible presence around Trump during the 2024 campaign. In January 2025, she entered the White House as a special assistant and executive assistant to the president.

Harp has an unusually prominent role in Regime Change because Haberman and Swan use her relationship with Trump to illustrate the intensely personal nature of his second presidency. She isn’t a cabinet secretary or major policymaker, but her physical proximity to Trump gives her access that many senior officials lack. The authors describe Trump speaking of Harp as exceptionally loyal and unlikely to abandon him.

Karoline Leavitt is a Republican political operative and communications strategist who became the youngest person ever to serve as White House press secretary. Born in New Hampshire in 1997, she graduated from Saint Anselm College and began her political career working in Republican communications. Leavitt joined Trump’s 2024 campaign as national press secretary and became an important member of his communications operation. After Trump won the election, he selected her to become White House press secretary. She assumed the position in January 2025 and became a highly visible defender of the administration.

In Regime Change, Leavitt represents the transformation of the White House press operation into an increasingly direct extension of Trump’s political communications strategy. Rather than treating the press briefing primarily as an institutional mechanism for providing information, the administration has used it as a venue for confronting hostile journalists, promoting Trump’s political arguments, and reinforcing his preferred narratives.

Laura Loomer is an American far-right political activist, internet personality, and conspiracy theorist who has maintained an unusually close relationship with Trump despite never holding government office. Born in Arizona in 1993, Loomer became prominent through activist journalism, confrontational political demonstrations, and social-media campaigns. She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Florida in both 2020 and 2024, establishing herself as a highly visible figure within the most combative wing of the MAGA movement. 

Loomer’s importance to Regime Change is considerably greater than her formal position would suggest. She has had direct access to Trump and became involved in personnel questions surrounding the incoming administration. She has been particularly aggressive in criticizing Republican officials whom she regarded as insufficiently loyal to Trump. Her influence demonstrates how individuals outside government can reach the president directly and attempt to shape decisions concerning senior officials. The book uses Loomer as an example of Trump’s reliance on personal loyalty and informal advisers.

Howard Lutnick is an American businessman who became the 41st secretary of commerce under Trump. Lutnick became deeply involved in Trump’s political world during the 2024 presidential campaign, serving as co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team. Trump subsequently selected him to lead the Commerce Department. His appointment placed a highly successful Wall Street executive at the center of the administration’s economic program.

In Regime Change, Lutnick is important because he represents the administration’s effort to combine Trump’s political instincts with aggressive economic nationalism. As commerce secretary, he became involved in tariffs, trade negotiations, industrial policy, technology policy, and economic relations with other countries. These have been central components of Trump’s attempt to reshape the American economy through executive action. His presence in the administration is particularly important for understanding Trump’s tariff strategy. Commerce has become one of the central agencies through which the president attempts to exercise direct control over international trade, making Lutnick an important participant in one of the defining economic projects of the second presidency.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the longtime Israeli political leader who has served multiple terms as prime minister of Israel and became a central foreign figure in Trump’s second presidency. His political career has been defined by national security, opposition to Iran’s nuclear program, and a close but sometimes complicated relationship with successive American presidents. Netanyahu occupies a particularly important place in Regime Change because of his role in Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iran. The book describes Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade Trump that Iran posed a grave threat and that military action could produce fundamental political change in Tehran. 

Haberman and Swan portray Netanyahu as an important influence on the president during the period in which Trump moved toward war. Their reporting indicates that Netanyahu’s presentation helped shape the subsequent internal debate within the administration. Netanyahu therefore occupies a role extending beyond that of a conventional foreign leader. He becomes part of the book’s account of how Trump makes major foreign-policy decisions, particularly when confronted by leaders who appeal directly to his instincts and desire for decisive action. His relationship with Trump also illustrates the importance of personal relationships in the second administration's foreign policy.

Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia and one of the most consequential foreign leaders in the political world described by Regime Change. He became president of Russia in 2000 and has remained Russia’s dominant political figure for more than two decades, serving as president or prime minister throughout the period. Under his leadership Russia has become increasingly authoritarian and has pursued an increasingly confrontational relationship with the US and Europe.

Putin’s importance to Trump’s second presidency derives primarily from the war in Ukraine and Trump’s determination to reshape the American approach to Russia. Trump repeatedly argued that he could negotiate directly with Putin and end the war more effectively than the Biden administration. This approach produced tension between Trump’s desire for a negotiated settlement and the continuing reality of Russian military operations. In Regime Change, Putin represents one of the central tests of Trump’s transactional foreign policy. The president’s personal confidence in his ability to negotiate with foreign leaders has repeatedly influenced his approach to Ukraine and Russia. Putin, meanwhile, has remained the leader of a state pursuing its own strategic objectives and has shown little willingness to accept terms that don’t serve Russian interests. Putin’s role also forms part of the book’s wider examination of Trump’s relationships with powerful foreign leaders. Haberman and Swan contrast traditional diplomatic structures with Trump’s preference for direct leader-to-leader bargaining. The resulting relationship with Putin illustrates both the possibilities and limitations of that approach.