Overview
- Regime Change, published June 23, presents reporting from hundreds of interviews that depicts major decisions in President Trump’s second term being managed by a tight group of five or six loyal aides rather than broad cabinet deliberations.
- The authors say key officials — including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and the director of national intelligence — were excluded from final Iran war planning, a gap that reporters and analysts warn could worsen global oil disruptions and hamper coordinated crisis response.
- Haberman and Swan portray the president as operating on impulsive, gut-driven instincts, citing episodes such as surprise tariffs and a focus on personal projects like landscaping amid a major military campaign to illustrate uneven attention to policy and risk.
- White House officials told Axios they suspect the authors used leaked or recorded Situation Room material for quoted meetings, a charge the reporters have declined to discuss and one that has introduced a live sourcing and possible legal controversy.
- Beyond specific events, the book traces a culture of loyalty and revenge politics that discouraged dissent, and it has already reshaped media coverage and policymaker debate about governance, accountability, and potential probes into leaks or abuses of power.