Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump audiobook cover - Drawing on more than a thousand interviews, this account follows Donald Trump’s return to power and shows how loyalty, grievance, spectacle, military force, and private enrichment transformed the presidency during the opening year of his second administration.
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Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump

Drawing on more than a thousand interviews, this account follows Donald Trump’s return to power and shows how loyalty, grievance, spectacle, military force, and private enrichment transformed the presidency during the opening year of his second administration.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

★ 4.5 / 5(408 ratings)
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Regime Change
Return to Power & Loyalty+
Bureaucratic Disruption+
Economic & Institutional Retribution+
Immigration & Domestic Enforcement+
Pushback & Limits of Control+
Foreign Policy, War & Profit+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 10
According to the authors, what was the ultimate effect of Donald Trump losing the 2020 election on his subsequent return to power?
  • A. It forced him to moderate his policies to appeal to swing voters.
  • B. It strengthened him by allowing his allies to study where his first administration had been blocked.
  • C. It made him more reliant on traditional Republican establishment figures.
  • D. It caused him to abandon executive orders in favor of legislative action.
Question 2 of 10
What was the defining criterion for selecting cabinet members and Justice Department leadership in Trump's new administration?
  • A. Extensive bureaucratic experience and policy expertise.
  • B. Bipartisan appeal and strong congressional relationships.
  • C. Personal allegiance and loyalty, often prioritizing those who had previously represented him.
  • D. A commitment to institutional independence and historical boundaries.
Question 3 of 10
How does the book describe the ultimate trajectory of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?
  • A. It successfully replaces the entire civil service with private tech contractors.
  • B. It causes mass disruption before Trump distances himself and restores authority to cabinet heads.
  • C. It operates quietly behind the scenes to avoid public scrutiny and media attention.
  • D. It takes over the Justice Department's budget, leading to Stephen Miller's resignation.
Question 4 of 10
How did the administration handle negotiations and relations with Ukraine during Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the Oval Office?
  • A. The administration offered a firm security guarantee in exchange for military bases.
  • B. A planned agreement collapsed into chaos on television as JD Vance accused Zelensky of ingratitude.
  • C. Steve Witkoff successfully brokered a peace treaty between Zelensky and Putin during the meeting.
  • D. Trump publicly apologized for delaying military aid and promised unconditional support.
Question 5 of 10
What underlying strategy did the administration use to exact retribution against independent institutions like law firms, universities, and media companies?
  • A. Identifying a point of dependency, threatening the institution, and making resistance costlier than submission.
  • B. Passing new constitutional amendments to limit their First Amendment rights.
  • C. Arresting their top executives using the Insurrection Act.
  • D. Creating state-owned alternatives to drive them out of business through competition.
Question 6 of 10
What legal mechanism did Trump invoke to send alleged gang members to El Salvador’s CECOT prison without ordinary hearings?
  • A. The Patriot Act
  • B. The Insurrection Act
  • C. The Alien Enemies Act
  • D. The National Emergencies Act
Question 7 of 10
What caused a rare rebellion within Trump's MAGA coalition regarding the Epstein files?
  • A. Trump pardoned several high-profile individuals implicated in the files.
  • B. The Attorney General claimed no hidden client list existed, which supporters interpreted as a cover-up.
  • C. JD Vance leaked the files to the press against Trump's direct orders.
  • D. Congressional Democrats successfully blocked the release of the files.
Question 8 of 10
Following the covert military seizure of Nicolás Maduro, who did Trump's team work with to prioritize stability, migration control, and oil in Venezuela?
  • A. The Venezuelan democratic opposition leaders
  • B. United Nations peacekeepers
  • C. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez
  • D. The Brazilian military
Question 9 of 10
What was the outcome of the administration's decision to launch "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran?
  • A. A swift, bloodless regime change that successfully installed a pro-Western government.
  • B. A catastrophic domestic rebellion that forced Trump to resign within a month.
  • C. The successful destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities with full NATO and UN backing.
  • D. American casualties, a largely closed Strait of Hormuz, rising oil prices, and little support from allies.
Question 10 of 10
According to the book's epilogue, what defines the presidency resulting from Trump’s political comeback?
  • A. An era of unprecedented bipartisan cooperation and legislative achievements.
  • B. A presidency characterized by loyal personnel, weakened institutional resistance, broad immunity, and disregard for international rules.
  • C. A government paralyzed by bureaucratic infighting and continuous Supreme Court defeats.
  • D. An administration strictly adhering to traditional executive limits and institutional norms.

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump — Full Chapter Overview

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump Summary & Overview

Regime Change is an extensively reported account of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan depict an administration shaped by lessons Trump drew from his first term: distrust institutional expertise, eliminate internal resistance, reward personal loyalty, dominate public attention, and use presidential authority before opponents can organize.

The book moves through the administration’s personnel choices, mass-deportation campaign, assault on the federal bureaucracy, tariff shock, retribution against perceived enemies, pressure on universities and media organizations, military operations in Venezuela and Iran, and the Trump family’s expanding business interests. Its central argument is that Trump returned stronger because defeat, prosecution, political exile, and assassination attempts deepened his bond with supporters while giving loyal advisers four years to study federal power. Based on more than a thousand interviews and an Oval Office interview with Trump, the result is both a political chronicle and a study of how institutions yield when officials, corporations, lawmakers, and cultural leaders anticipate punishment.

Who Should Listen to Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump?

  • Listeners seeking an inside account of the second Trump administration and its principal decision-makers.
  • Readers interested in presidential power, democratic institutions, immigration, foreign policy, and political media.
  • Journalism and history audiences who value deeply sourced reconstructions of consequential private meetings.

About the Author: Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

Maggie Haberman is a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist known for her reporting on Donald Trump and American politics. Jonathan Swan is a New York Times political reporter who previously worked for Axios and has covered Trump’s campaigns and administrations extensively. Their book draws on decades of combined reporting, more than a thousand interviews, documentary research, and direct conversations with Trump and his advisers.

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