Regime Change

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump is a work of narrative nonfiction by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, covering the first year of Donald Trump's second presidency, from the November 2024 election through March 2026. Based on over a thousand interviews, the book chronicles how Trump's four years out of power, his criminal indictments, his felony conviction, and two assassination attempts paradoxically made him more powerful upon his return to the White House.

The book opens at a New Year's Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago on December 31, 2025, where a covert military operation to seize Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is days from launching. The authors argue that had Trump won reelection in 2020, he would have faced the pandemic, inflation, and the Afghanistan withdrawal, likely emerging deeply unpopular. Instead, his refusal to accept his loss enlarged his brand and gave him four years to assemble loyalists who studied the levers of federal power. Key enforcers Stephen Miller and budget director Russell Vought spent the interregnum preparing aggressive policies on mass deportation and expanded executive authority.

The narrative begins with Trump's post-election transition. He met President Joe Biden, displaying warmth that proved temporary. At Mar-a-Lago, he forced Big Tech CEOs to make pilgrimages of submission and selected his cabinet guided by loyalty and attitudes toward the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Marco Rubio became secretary of state, Pete Hegseth defense secretary, and the Justice Department was filled with personal lawyers, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, shattering its post-Watergate independence. Miller carved out extraordinary authority as deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, overseeing more than 100 executive orders. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the first woman in the role, brought stability. On Inauguration Day, Trump granted blanket clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in connection with January 6, including those who attacked police officers.

Elon Musk, who spent over $300 million to help elect Trump, served as a "special government employee" running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a cost-cutting pseudo-agency operating from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. His team accessed government databases, fired staff without cabinet secretaries' knowledge, and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting off food aid to camps holding Islamic State fighters. After a March cabinet confrontation and an April altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Musk's tenure effectively ended; Trump privately called him a useful "heat shield" for absorbing bad press.

On foreign policy, Trump promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours but made no progress. He sidelined his appointed envoy and secretly tasked his friend Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor, with negotiating with Russia through a back channel. In a February call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump echoed Russia's grievances about NATO expansion. A February 28 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky devolved into a televised confrontation; Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky for ingratitude, and Trump told Zelensky he was "gambling with World War Three." The Ukrainian delegation was escorted out without a deal.

Trump launched a trade war on April 2, "Liberation Day," imposing sweeping tariffs calculated through a formula devised the night before. The S&P 500 lost over $2 trillion in a single day. After a historic bond sell-off, Trump paused most tariffs for 90 days, admitting the decision was made "from the heart." A May deal with China reduced tariffs but exposed American dependence on Chinese rare earth minerals.

Retribution against perceived enemies forms a major thread. The administration targeted law firms with executive orders, forcing Paul Weiss to negotiate a $40 million pro bono settlement. Trump sued ABC News and CBS; Disney settled for $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees, and Paramount settled for $16 million as its pending merger required Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Harvard University refused demands for government oversight of hiring and admissions, prompting the administration to freeze $2.6 billion in federal grants. Indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were both dismissed when a judge ruled the prosecutor's appointment was invalid.

Immigration enforcement became increasingly militarized. Miller invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime statute last used during World War II, to deport migrants to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a notorious mega-prison. When a Salvadoran national named Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported despite a court order, the administration defied a Supreme Court directive to facilitate his return. Staff Secretary Will Scharf wrote a confidential memo warning against suspending habeas corpus, the fundamental legal right to challenge government detention, but Miller publicly confirmed the administration was "actively looking at" suspension.

In the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House in February and lobbied for American strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Trump spontaneously announced a plan to "take over" Gaza, stunning his own advisors. After failed negotiations with Iran, Israel launched strikes on June 12, and Trump joined on June 21 with "Operation Midnight Hammer," targeting Iran's nuclear site at Fordo. The 12-day war ended with a ceasefire, and Iran's nuclear program was significantly set back. Vance, who feared the war spiraling out of control, was rebuked by Trump for suggesting softer language.

On July 4, Trump's signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed after intense arm-twisting. The bill cut $1 trillion from Medicaid, raised the debt limit by $5 trillion, and cleared the Senate 51-50 with Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. Musk attacked the bill as a "disgusting abomination" and later posted that Trump was "in the Epstein files," completing his break with the president.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, at a university event on September 10 sent shockwaves through the administration. Miller used the tragedy to launch a crackdown on left-wing organizations, and Trump signed a presidential memorandum designating domestic terrorism a national priority, focusing exclusively on the Left.

Trump's family enriched itself on an unprecedented scale. World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company co-founded by the Trump and Witkoff families, received a $2 billion investment from a United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund; The New York Times estimated the family gained over $1 billion during the first year. In December, a court-ordered release of Jeffrey Epstein files revealed Trump referenced more than 38,000 times, with flight records contradicting his public claim of never flying on Epstein's jet.

On January 3, 2026, a Delta Force extraction team, an elite U.S. special operations unit, seized Maduro from a military installation in Caracas. Separately, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, reemerged to broker a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with Trump berating Netanyahu by phone for approximately 20 minutes to keep him committed. Trump created a "Board of Peace" to rebuild Gaza, installing himself as chairman.

The final months brought compounding crises: a boat-bombing campaign against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis, and the longest government shutdown in history. Internal polling showed 55 percent disapproval, with voters judging Trump a failure on affordability. Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after a year of mismanagement of the deportation agenda and embarked on a naming spree, adding his name to the Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute of Peace while planning a 250-foot triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial.

The book culminates with Trump launching "Operation Epic Fury," a full-scale war against Iran, on February 28, 2026. In a final Situation Room meeting, every advisor deferred to Trump, with Vance calling it a bad idea but pledging support. CIA Director John Ratcliffe called Netanyahu's regime-change scenario "farcical," but Trump ordered the attack. The authors interview Trump on March 16, day 17 of the war, with 13 American service members killed and the Strait of Hormuz largely closed. Trump shows them TikTok engagement numbers and renderings of White House renovations. He reads aloud from a document comparing him favorably to Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Stalin, and articulates the book's central irony: Losing the 2020 election made his second presidency far more powerful than a consecutive term could ever have been. The authors conclude that Trump is the first modern president to govern as though the international system does not exist; by the spring of 2026, no one believes the old order is coming back.