Jonathan Swan, the New York Times reporter and co-author of the newly released book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” is promoting the volume with a series of high-profile media appearances that detail how Trump’s second term differs fundamentally from his first. The book, published June 23, 2026, by Simon & Schuster, has already generated significant attention for its behind-the-scenes revelations about Trump’s White House.
Swan and his co-author Maggie Haberman conducted more than 1,000 interviews over three years of reporting to produce the 496-page account, which covers the first 14 months of Trump’s second term. “It’s the hardest thing either of us have ever done, full stop,” Swan said in an interview with Vanity Fair, noting that the reporting effort was so demanding that “we didn’t see our families for literally months on end.”
The central theme of Swan’s promotion is how Trump has become “untethered” from the domestic political constraints that governed his first term. During appearances on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” “The View,” and other outlets, Swan has emphasized that Trump’s second-term priorities are radically different from his first. “He wants to be the capital G, Great Man of history,” Swan said, noting that Trump is willing to take geopolitical risks he would have avoided in 2017-2021.
One striking detail Swan highlighted involves Trump’s self-perception. During their Oval Office interview, Trump handed Swan and Haberman a two-page letter he claimed was written by a historian comparing him to figures including Napoleon, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler. The letter’s author, it turned out, was a golf caddy for golfer Gary Player. “Trump was visibly in a state of pleasure to be in their company,” Swan told Vanity Fair, describing Trump’s reaction to the comparison.
Swan has explained in his promotional appearances that Trump’s liberation from domestic political concerns—combined with the absence of special counsel investigations and reduced congressional oversight—has fundamentally altered his decision-making. “He’s untethered from all of those domestic political considerations of the first term,” Swan said on “The Last Word,” pointing to actions including the war with Iran and military operations in Venezuela that Swan believes Trump would have approached differently in his first term.
The book has also drawn attention for its detailed reporting on internal White House dynamics. Swan and Haberman conducted verbatim reporting from Situation Room meetings, including discussions about handling the fallout from the Epstein files. When Vice President JD Vance suggested in a media interview that people might have been secretly recording the meeting, Swan declined to comment on how the authors obtained their information, only noting that “no one has denied the reporting from inside the Situation Room.”
Swan’s promotion of the book reflects what he describes as the most consequential presidency of his lifetime. “When you are covering something that feels as high stakes and important and urgent as what we were covering, it’s not something that you want to sit on,” he explained, noting that he and Haberman decided to publish while Trump’s second term was still underway rather than waiting until its conclusion. The book was completed in record time, with Simon & Schuster publishing it just 17 months into Trump’s second term—a feat Swan called “a kind of miracle of publishing.”
Sources
- Axios — Swan’s explanation of the book’s two main themes and Trump becoming “untethered” in his second term
- Vanity Fair — Extended interview with Swan and Haberman about the reporting process, the golf caddy letter, and Trump’s second-term decision-making
- Wikipedia — Publication date and basic book information
- Simon & Schuster — Book description and release details
