Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the two New York Times reporters behind “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” said the book’s reporting process was so demanding that it “nearly killed” them both, leaving them unable to see their families for months on end.
The book, published in June 2026, is based on more than 1,000 interviews conducted over a three-year period and covers the first 14 months of Trump’s second term. In interviews with The Guardian and Vanity Fair, Haberman and Swan detailed the grueling nature of the work required to penetrate what they called an unusually secretive White House.
“We really nearly killed ourselves during this book,” Haberman said in her Guardian interview. “We are enormously proud of it.” Swan added that the reporting effort was “the hardest thing either of us have ever done, full stop,” and that both journalists broke themselves to complete it.
The challenge stemmed from the Trump administration’s exceptional ability to keep secrets. Unlike the first Trump term, when information flowed more freely, the second term involved a much tighter inner circle. “There is much less information flow,” Haberman explained. “If you are further out in the government, they often don’t know what’s happening.” To obtain detailed, in-the-room reporting—the kind that appears in the book—required what Swan called “a daily relentless effort to talk to as many people as you can who were either in the room, briefed about meetings, have access to paper.”
One example of the reporting difficulty involved the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, which Swan cited as one of the most important documents imaginable. According to the journalists’ reporting, almost no one inside the U.S. government had seen that document until it was publicly announced. “The tiniest inner circle had seen it,” Swan said. “Very senior people in the White House hadn’t seen it. Very senior people in the state department and the Pentagon hadn’t seen it.”
The book reveals significant details about Trump’s second term, including Situation Room discussions about the Epstein scandal fallout and Trump’s decision-making on the Iran war. Haberman and Swan are uncomfortable with comparisons to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who investigated Watergate and contributed to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. However, their book represents what Swan called “a pretty extraordinary effort of real-time reporting,” covering the first 14 months of the administration while it was still unfolding.
The toll on the journalists reflected the broader intensity of covering Trump’s second presidency. Haberman noted that much material didn’t make the final cut due to lack of confirmation, and the focus was on capturing a specific throughline: Trump’s return, his unprecedented use of presidential power, and how a small group prepared for it.
Sources
- The Guardian — Haberman and Swan’s direct quotes about nearly killing themselves, the secretive nature of the administration, and details about reporting challenges
- Vanity Fair — Extended interview with both authors about the grueling reporting process, the 1,000+ interviews, and family separation during writing
- CNN — Confirmation of the 1,000+ interviews over three years and the book’s publication date
