A bombshell new book from veteran *New York Times* journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan pulls back the curtain on the first year of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, revealing a president far more emboldened, unconstrained, and determined to reshape the office of the presidency than he was during his first tenure. The book, titled *Regime Change*, centers on a core thesis that Trump himself embraces: his unexpected 2020 election loss was ultimately a blessing that cleared the way for a far more powerful second term, free of the obstacles that plagued his first four years in office.
One early anecdote that sums up the shift in Trump’s approach dates to last summer, when the president showed off newly installed towering flagpoles on the North and South Lawns of the White House to reporters. Trump told the assembled press that he had wanted to complete similar renovations during his first term, but held back out of fear of negative media coverage. Back then, he said, “I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter.”
Unlike a hypothetical 2017–2025 consecutive tenure, Trump’s second term that began in 2025 has not faced the same headwinds that would have derailed an early second term. Trump still continues to push his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election, but he acknowledges that a second term starting in 2021 would have been bogged down by intraparty pushback from within his own administration, the ongoing fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the runaway inflation that followed the public health crisis, and a Democratically controlled Congress that would have blocked his policy agenda. None of these barriers exist in his current term, clearing space for him to discard longstanding presidential norms, dismantle long-standing institutional checks on executive power, and push the legal and conventional limits of presidential authority far further than he ever could in his first term.
Beyond the broader shift in Trump’s approach to the presidency, the book lays out a series of revealing new details about internal dynamics and policy priorities within the current administration. One of the most closely watched topics is the jockeying for position ahead of the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, as Trump openly weighs potential successors in Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The authors recount that Trump has repeatedly asked his aides to weigh in on which of the two men would be a stronger successor to carry on his political legacy. Some major Republican donors have thrown their support behind Rubio, and multiple senior aides have noted that Rubio shares closer personal chemistry with Trump than Vance does. At the same time, Trump has openly expressed admiration for Vance’s sharp intellect and performance during high-stakes television interviews, particularly when Vance has faced tough questioning. He also complimented Rubio’s background as the son of Cuban immigrants, a detail he leaned into in a characteristic quip after redecorating the Oval Office with lavish gold accents: when asked what would happen if the next president undid his redesign, Trump retorted, “Cubans love gold.” Despite their competition for the 2028 nomination, the book notes that Rubio and Vance maintain a close friendship. When Vance faced widespread backlash for controversial comments about “childless cat ladies” during the 2024 campaign, Rubio immediately reached out via text and offered to join him on the campaign trail to show public solidarity.
As the two potential candidates position themselves for 2028, Trump shows no signs of stepping aside to let them claim the national spotlight. The president often references that he has two and a half years remaining in his current term, extending all the way to Inauguration Day 2029, making clear he does not intend to let other 2028 hopefuls overshadow him. In a telling moment during a Oval Office meeting with Vance and top congressional Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, Trump showed off branded “Trump 2028” baseball caps. When Jeffries gestured to Vance and asked how the vice president felt about the president planning to hold the spotlight through 2028, Trump brushed off the concern, saying “Ah, he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” adding “We’re giving him a little more training.” Vance simply replied, “No comment.”
The book also reveals widespread internal panic within the West Wing over the Trump administration’s handling of the release of previously sealed investigative files connected to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles convened an emergency crisis response meeting in the White House Situation Room to address the fallout, and the book claims Vice President Vance suggested recruiting pro-Trump conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to conduct an exclusive interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend and accomplice. The revelation has already sparked new security concerns, as it raises questions about whether the reporters obtained access to audio recordings of conversations that took place in the White House’s secure Situation Room, a space designed to prevent unauthorized recording of sensitive discussions.
Other revelations focus on personal and lifestyle changes within the White House itself. The book confirms that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are the first presidential couple to maintain separate sleeping quarters in the White House since Richard and Pat Nixon (Bill and Hillary Clinton briefly slept apart after the Monica Lewinsky scandal became public). Melania occupies the traditional Executive Residence master bedroom, Room 219, while Trump sleeps in the adjacent Room 220, next to the second-floor Yellow Oval Room. Trump has remodeled his personal quarters with gold finishes and other lavish decor, even moving items that Melania had selected for her own first-term decor projects from their original locations. Because the first lady spent little time in Washington during the early months of the second term, she was not present to block the rearrangements.
Among the moved items is a gold-leaf framed mirror originally selected by Melania for the second-floor Queen’s Bedroom, which now sits on the Colonnade outside the Oval Office where it is used for visitor selfies. The book also details a series of clashes between the president and first lady over White House renovations: Melania oversaw a major renovation of the Rose Garden during Trump’s first term, and objected when Trump proposed paving over part of the space to build a patio similar to the one at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump compromised by paving surrounding grassy areas rather than the rose beds, but Melania lost a larger battle: the entire East Wing was demolished to make way for a new $400 million ballroom Trump has pushed to build.
On foreign policy, the book reveals that Trump has held a long-standing personal fixation on Venezuela, despite his public comments about more ambitious territorial goals like annexing Greenland and admitting Canada as the 51st U.S. state. Privately, the book says Trump has discussed the possibility of annexing Venezuela as a U.S. state, where he would be allowed to appoint the state governor. Initially, Trump allowed special envoy Ric Grenell to lead negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but Grenell was eventually sidelined after Rubio argued that Maduro would simply drag out negotiations for years to wait out Trump’s term ending in 2029. After U.S. military forces entered Venezuela and ousted Maduro, Rubio held an overnight call with Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez, urging her to take control of the government to stabilize the country, prevent mass migration, and halt widespread violence. Rodríguez remains the head of Venezuela’s government following Maduro’s ouster. Trump told the authors in a March 2026 interview that his “love affair” with Venezuela dates back to his years owning the Miss Universe pageant, where he was impressed by the many Venezuelan contestants. The same fondness does not extend to Ukraine: Trump said he does not like the country, aside from its women, who have repeatedly won the Miss Universe title.
The book closes with a revealing anecdote that underscores Trump’s view of his own place in history. Trump told the reporters that a historian introduced to him by legendary golfer Gary Player had called him the most powerful world leader in all of human history, surpassing iconic figures including Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror, and Napoleon. Trump himself publicly shared the anecdote on social media, but could not recall the historian’s name during his interview with Haberman and Swan. A senior White House staffer later clarified the identity of the man Player introduced: it was not a prominent historian, but Player’s long-time personal caddy.