Book details Trump’s push to test limits of executive power
Will Weissert
Washington: President Donald Trump, who showed off the tall new flagpoles he erected on the North and South Lawns of the White House last summer, suggested he wanted to make similar renovations in his first term but was worried about negative press.
“You were after me,” he told reporters. “I was the hunted. Now I’m the hunter.”
remembered event, Regime ChangeNew book about the first year of Trump’s second term New York Times Reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan outline how Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 is different from his first term.
The book expresses a thesis that Trump himself believes: If he had not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as strong as he is now in his second term; he would not have the courage to trample norms, dismantle established institutions, and test the limits of presidential power.
Trump still falsely claims he won in 2020. But his then-future second term may be marred by the reaction of members of his own administration, the coronavirus pandemic and the runaway inflation it has caused, as well as a hostile Congress controlled by Democrats. This time he did not encounter these problems.
Here are five takeaways from the book.
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Vance or Rubio in 2028? Trump will come to the fore in the election
The authors describe Trump quizzing aides about whether his vice president, J.D. Vance, or Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be better.
Some donors supported Rubio, and some aides thought the secretary and the president had better personal chemistry than Trump and Vance. However, according to the book, Trump also said during television interviews that he was impressed by Vance’s intelligence and abilities, especially his tough interviews.
It is said that Trump was also impressed by the background of Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. The book describes how after Trump redecorated the Oval Office with gold ornaments, someone asked the president about the possibility of the next president undoing everything he had done. Trump retorted: “Cubans love gold.”
But Haberman and Swan write that Rubio and Vance were also friends. One example they gave is when Rubio texted Vance after the 2024 Republican vice presidential candidate’s comments about “childless cat ladies” became a scandal. Rubio offered to campaign for Vance to show his support.
With these two men jockeying for position before 2028, it’s possible Trump won’t cede the spotlight to them anytime soon.
The president often talks about the two and a half years left in his term; it’s a timeline that carries him through to Inauguration Day in 2029; That suggests he’s unlikely to let Republicans overshadow him in the presidential race.
One example of this occurred during an Oval Office meeting with Trump, Vance and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. As Haberman and Swan narrated, the president pointed to “Trump 2028” baseball caps, prompting Jeffries to point at Vance and ask, “What does he think about that?” It made him ask. Trump responded, “Oh, he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” adding, “We’re giving him some more training.”
Vance, speaking on his own behalf, offered “no comment.”
2. Panic in the White House over the release of the Epstein files
Haberman and Swan detail the deep level of alarm over the administration’s handling of the release of files from the investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. These included White House chief of staff Susie Wiles holding a crisis intervention meeting in the Situation Room and Vance suggesting assigning friendly negotiator Tucker Carlson to meet with Epstein’s jailed ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
This revelation raised questions about whether reporters received audio recordings of what was said in a secure area of the White House; This may also be a security concern.
3. Trump redecorated while the First Lady was away
The book details how the president and first lady were the first couple since Richard and Pat Nixon to sleep in separate bedrooms; however, Bill and Hillary Clinton briefly slept apart when his relationship with Monica Lewinsky became public. First Lady Melania Trump sleeps in the traditional master bedroom of the White House executive residence — Room 219 — while the president sleeps in Room 220, next to the second-floor area known as the Yellow Oval.
The book stated that the president decorated his bedroom with gold and other decorations and that he himself carried some objects from the hallway where his wife had chosen the early decor. Since the first lady wasn’t in Washington much at the beginning of her second term, she wasn’t there to stop the president from reshuffling things.
Among the items moved was a gold-leaf-framed mirror that the first lady used in her redesign of the queen’s bedroom on the second floor. But that ended up in the Colonnade outside the Oval Office, which was used to facilitate selfies.
The First Lady also oversaw the Rose Garden’s early renovation and objected to Trump wanting to pave the space for a patio area reminiscent of his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The president relented and the surrounding grass was covered, but not the roses. She lost a larger battle, the authors write, when the East Wing was demolished to make way for the $400 million ballroom her husband was building.
4. Trump has long been obsessed with Venezuela
The president began his second term talking frequently about seizing Greenland and making Canada the 51st state, but specifically focused more on Venezuela; He even suggested that this could become a state where he would be allowed to appoint a governor.
Haberman and Swan wrote that Trump initially allowed special envoy Ric Grenell to negotiate with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but was eventually sidelined when Rubio suggested Maduro would bow to the rule for years in order to wait for Trump to fall from power in 2029.
Rubio told White House officials that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was corrupt but serious and likely could keep Venezuela together. Rubio spoke with Rodriguez the night U.S. forces raided Venezuela and deposed its president. He told him he needed to bring stability to his country and prevent mass migration and violence. Rodriguez remains in charge of Venezuela after Maduro’s ouster.
Trump also told writers in a March 2026 interview that he had a “love affair” with Venezuela that began during the years he had the Miss Universe pageant and the beautiful women representing that country. But that wasn’t enough to improve Trump’s view of Ukraine, which he said he disliked, except for women who won Miss Universe, the book notes.
5. Trump said he talked to a historian. He was Gary Player’s assistant
Haberman and Swan end with the president telling them about a historian introduced to him by golfer Gary Player, who describes the president as the most powerful man the planet has ever known – surpassing even Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror and Napoleon.
Trump, who himself promoted the anecdote on social media on Thursday, could not remember the historian’s name during that interview. But a White House staffer later clarified to the writers who the golf legend was referring to. This was one of Player’s long-time assistants.
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