Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, both White House Correspondents for The New York Times have collaborated on an astoundingly insightful and spotlight perspective of the first year of the Second Trump Administration. This latest book for Haberman is yet another example of her journalistic skill and of her contacts within The Beltway and the Trump inner circle. Her reporting is enhanced with the collaboration of Swan making REGIME CHANGE a must read for those interested in a deep dive into Trump and his cadre of sycophants in the second term.

Don’t look for sensationalism in these pages as that is not the style of either journalist. Rather you will discover an in depth look at Trump’s knee jerk decision making process and how he has surrounded himself with cabinet members and staff who have little individual decision making power. Unlike the first Trump administration, there are no advisors either able or willing to challenge his gut decisions. Thus the book title, REGIME CHANGE, refers to a second term with no guard rails in place in the Oval Office the Situation Room and elsewhere.The authors detail an administration focused on retribution, personal enrichment and the enhancement of his personal legacy. The book’s final chapter title is telling: PLUNDER.

Haberman and Swan have uncovered the decision making process on every major deliberation. They place the reader in the room and the reporting resonates with shocking truthfulness about immigration, Ice, Iran, Ukraine, Cabinet Officers, and military strikes.

It is somewhat unusual for a work of non-fiction to include an Epilogue but REGIME CHANGE includes one to give the reader a glimpse of an interview with the authors giving Trump the chance to respond to the book, that he had not read. The meeting dissolved into a typical Trump screed. They illegally indicted me, they impeached me, they did everything-they shot me, I guess you could say: But I won the election in a landslide, nobody else could have done it, he added. And there’s only one thing you can say about me that anybody believes, and you know what that is. Essentially I won every-f______ing time, he said.

And of course when the interview was over, one final Trump salvo for Haberman. I’m tired of winning and winning and winning and just getting bad f_______ing press. It’s about time you tell the truth. Okay?

There will be another Haberman-Swan collaboration for sure.

See gordonsgoodreads for our view of Haberman’s previous Trump book, CONFIDENCE MAN, THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP AND THE BREAKING OF AMERICA.