Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump

In Trump’s second term, the White House’s official communications strategy was radically transformed under the leadership of Communications Director Steven Cheung. Adopting the tone of an online troll, Cheung’s office deliberately used abusive and offensive language, with Cheung publicly telling a journalist to “shut the fuck up” and using abusing language toward congressmen (285). Described by Trump as his “Luca Brasi,” Cheung was personally encouraged by the president to “never change” his aggressive campaign style.

Cheung and his digital head, Kaelan Dorr, who staffed his team with young right-wing culture warriors rather than government professionals, aimed to create viral content that served a dual purpose: deterring illegal immigration and provoking the political Left into defending criminals. The administration’s social-media channels posted a stream of inflammatory content, including a video of shackled migrants titled, “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight” (286), and an animated meme in the style of Japan’s Studio Ghibli depicting a weeping deportee. To further bait their opponents, they set videos of ICE raids to the music of liberal artists like Olivia Rodrigo, knowing the ensuing outrage would amplify their message.

This strategy of taunting and provocation was adopted by other high-profile officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino. The approach was so pervasive that it influenced political opponents like California Governor Newsom to use similar rhetoric. While the White House succeeded in generating massive online engagement and deterring some migrants, pollsters consistently found that the harsh tactics were a “double-edged sword” (291), alienating the important swing voters who had helped Trump win the 2024 election.

On September 10, Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was assassinated by a lone gunman while speaking at an event in Utah. Kirk’s friends in the administration, including Vice President Vance and Donald Trump Jr., were devastated, experiencing a brief, “horrible window of false hope” after receiving incorrect information that he had survived (294). Trump, unnerved by the attack, came to believe that Kirk was targeted because assassins couldn’t get to the president. The investigation was initially fumbled when the FBI, under Director Kash Patel, arrested the wrong man, prompting a furious Pam Bondi to privately demand that Patel be fired.

The actual killer was identified as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old whose stated motive was opposition to Kirk’s “hatred.” While grieving, Vance became consumed by online conspiracy theories, searching for evidence of a broader plot. Stephen Miller, however, saw the tragedy as a political opportunity. Citing recent protests at his own home, Miller leveraged Kirk’s murder to advance his long-held goal of dismantling the institutional Left. He declared the Democratic Party a “domestic extremist organization” and vowed to use the government’s full power to “uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks” in Kirk’s name (301-02).

With Trump’s approval to “go wild,” the administration launched a broad crackdown. On September 25, Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, which directed the government to counter domestic terrorism. The memorandum focused exclusively on left-wing groups, and it officially designated Miller as the White House official to oversee the initiative, granting him immense authority to coordinate the targeting of the president’s political opposition.

By late September, Trump was enraged by the lack of progress in his campaign for retribution against his political enemies. He directed his anger at Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for failing to indict former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. He also targeted FBI Director Kash Patel, derisively calling him “Flashy Kash” for his perceived inaction. After US Attorney Erik Siebert resigned, insisting that there was insufficient evidence to charge Comey, Trump nominated his aide Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer with no criminal-law experience, to the position.

On September 20, Trump accidentally made public a Truth Social post demanding that Bondi move forward with the indictments. Despite Blanche’s private warnings that the cases were weak and that Halligan’s appointment was legally questionable, the administration pressed forward. On September 25, Halligan’s office secured an indictment against Comey, followed by an indictment of James on October 9 and of John Bolton a week later. Trump’s goal, he told an advisor, was not necessarily a conviction but to make his enemies’ lives “miserable.”

The victory was short-lived. Just before Thanksgiving, a judge dismissed both the Comey and James indictments. The judge ruled that Halligan’s appointment was invalid and that she had misrepresented the law to the grand jury. Subsequent attempts to indict James were rejected by grand juries. As predicted by Blanche, the rushed pursuit of vengeance collapsed under legal scrutiny, leaving Trump’s retribution agenda stalled at the end of the year.