Americans are still hungry for behind-the-scenes details about President Donald Trump, and a newly released book is proving it.
“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” co-written by political journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has moved more than 300,000 copies in its first week on shelves, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. The pair are both reporters for the New York Times.
Those kinds of opening-week numbers were common for Trump-related titles during his first term in office, but had become increasingly rare during his second. Many in the publishing industry had assumed readers had grown tired of books about Trump and felt there wasn’t much new ground to cover.
The 300,000-copy figure includes preorders, print sales, ebooks, e-audiobooks, and orders that haven’t yet been fulfilled due to high demand, the publisher noted. Simon & Schuster said the book has already gone into its third print run, with 200,000 additional copies on order after it sold out rapidly in bookstores and on Amazon. It currently holds the record for the best first-week performance of any hardcover nonfiction book in 2026.
The book spans the first 14 months of Trump’s second presidency, taking readers inside the West Wing, the White House residence, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and aboard Air Force One during foreign travel.
Trump, who has a long history with Haberman dating back to her coverage of him as a New York City business and society figure, has dismissed the book as “mostly made up.”
The manuscript digs into specifics of Trump’s military decisions, how he has used the Justice Department against political rivals, his private conversations with other influential figures, and the considerable effort he has put into reshaping the look and structure of the White House.
One of the book’s central arguments is one Trump himself apparently believes: that losing the 2020 election ultimately made him more powerful in his second term — giving him the confidence to push past traditional norms, dismantle long-standing institutions, and test the outer limits of presidential authority.
Haberman and Swan have made the rounds on news talk programs promoting the book and sharing reporting highlights, including a conversation with Trump in which he reportedly boasted about being compared to some of history’s most notorious villains.
Sean Manning, vice president and publisher at Simon & Schuster, said the book “has entered the national conversation” and predicted it will stand as “a work of historic importance.”
