WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump unveiled tall new flagpoles he had installed on both the North and South Lawns of the White House last summer, he offered reporters a candid reflection on how much things had changed since his first time in office.
“You guys were after me,” he told members of the press. “I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter.”
That moment serves as the centerpiece of a new book called “Regime Change,” written by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. The book chronicles the first year of Trump’s second term and argues that his time out of the White House actually made him a more forceful president upon his return in 2025.
The book’s central argument — one Trump himself embraces — is that losing the 2020 election ultimately strengthened his second term. Had he won then, he might have faced significant resistance from within his own administration, the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the inflation that followed, and a Congress controlled by Democrats. None of those obstacles have stood in his way this time around.
Trump continues to falsely assert that he won the 2020 election.
Among the book’s more intriguing revelations is that Trump has repeatedly asked aides whether Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be the better person to succeed him. Some donors favored Rubio, and certain aides felt that Trump and Rubio had stronger personal chemistry. But Trump also expressed admiration for Vance’s sharpness in television interviews, especially difficult ones.
Trump is described as being impressed by Rubio’s heritage as the son of Cuban immigrants. In one telling anecdote, after Trump filled the Oval Office with gold decorations, someone asked whether a future president might reverse all those changes. Trump’s reply: “Cubans love gold.”
Despite the competition between Rubio and Vance for Trump’s favor, the two men are reportedly friends. One example the authors provide: Rubio sent Vance a text message offering to campaign alongside him after Vance’s remarks about “childless cat ladies” generated controversy. Rubio wanted to show public solidarity.
Even as both men position themselves ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run, Trump shows little sign of stepping aside. He frequently references the two and a half years remaining in his term — a timeline that runs to Inauguration Day 2029 — signaling that he has no intention of letting potential successors steal his spotlight.
That dynamic played out vividly during an Oval Office meeting that included Trump, Vance, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. According to the book, Trump produced “Trump 2028” baseball caps, prompting Jeffries to gesture toward Vance and ask, “How does he feel about that?” Trump replied, “Ah, he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” before adding, “We’re giving him a little more training.” Vance’s response was simply: “No comment.”
The book also reveals the level of alarm inside the White House over the release of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles called a crisis response meeting in the Situation Room. Vance reportedly suggested having friendly interviewer Tucker Carlson conduct a sit-down with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who remains imprisoned. The disclosure of what was discussed in that secure setting has since raised questions about whether audio recordings were made inside a classified area of the White House.
On a more personal note, Haberman and Swan reveal that Trump and first lady Melania Trump sleep in separate bedrooms — making them the first presidential couple to do so since Richard and Pat Nixon. The authors note that Bill and Hillary Clinton briefly slept apart when his affair with Monica Lewinsky became public. Melania sleeps in the Executive Residence’s traditional master bedroom, known as Room 219, while the president occupies Room 220, located next to the Yellow Oval on the second floor.
Trump reportedly decorated his bedroom with gold accents and other personal touches, carrying some items in himself from a hallway where Melania had previously chosen the decor during his first term. Because the first lady was not in Washington frequently at the start of the second term, she was not around to intervene. One item relocated was a gold-leaf-framed mirror from the Queen’s Bedroom redesign — it ended up outside on the Colonnade near the Oval Office, where it is now used for selfies.
Melania had overseen a renovation of the Rose Garden during the first term and resisted Trump’s desire to pave it over and replace it with a patio resembling his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The president ultimately backed down on the roses, though surrounding grass was covered. She lost a bigger fight, however: the East Wing was torn down to make room for a $400 million ballroom Trump is constructing.
While Trump began his second term making public statements about acquiring Greenland and turning Canada into the 51st state, the book says he was privately more focused on Venezuela. He even floated the idea of Venezuela becoming a U.S. state where he could appoint the governor.
Trump initially allowed special envoy Ric Grenell to lead negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But Rubio eventually argued that Maduro was simply running out the clock, hoping to outlast the Trump administration until 2029. Grenell was sidelined as a result.
Rubio told White House officials that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was corrupt but capable of maintaining order. On the night U.S. forces entered Venezuela and removed Maduro from power, Rubio spoke directly with Rodríguez, telling her she needed to stabilize the country and prevent mass migration and violence. Rodríguez has since remained in charge of Venezuela following Maduro’s ouster.
In a March 2026 interview with the authors, Trump described having a “love affair” with Venezuela, tracing it back to his years running the Miss Universe pageant and the country’s frequent representation by beautiful contestants. That affection did not extend to Ukraine, which Trump said he did not like — except for its women, who he noted had won Miss Universe multiple times.
The book closes with Trump recounting a story about a historian — introduced to him by golfer Gary Player — who reportedly told the president he was the most powerful person the world had ever seen, surpassing even Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror, and Napoleon. Trump promoted the story himself on social media but admitted during the interview that he could not remember the historian’s name. A White House staffer later told the authors the truth: the person Gary Player had actually been speaking about was his longtime caddy.
