Regime Change, subtitled Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, by two White House correspondents for The New York Times — Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — concludes with an encounter with its subject.
When the two authors asked whether there had ever been an American president as powerful has he, Trump responded by reading out a tribute written by a golf caddy he met, an amateur historian, about his status in comparison with the great men of history. He reeled them off. Alexander the Great, the Caesars, William the Conqueror, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun. “Napoleon”, Trump added with relish. “Hitler, Mao, Stalin.” These leaders “maintained power through fear”. The caddy’s conclusion: “If President Trump is the American Eagle, then William the Conqueror was merely a sparrow.”
Trump, gratified, reflected, “It’s very interesting, the power. The election was rigged. If it weren’t, my presidency could never have been as powerful in the second term as it has been in the third.”
That, in fact, is the contention here, that Trump’s second term has been more reckless than the first, when he was still communicating with critics, deferring to experts, when he felt constrained by precedent, by rules, by decorum in respect of enriching his family. He came back into office strengthened by the assassination attempts. With no possibility of another term — for not even Trump thinks that he could stand again — and consequently no fear of the polls, there is nothing holding him back.
Obsession with gold
Worryingly for JD Vance, the presumed heir apparent, the president isn’t fazed by the possibility that when he’s gone, the Republican Party’s edifice will collapse. Yet it would be unfair to bring up Louis XIV as comparison, given that king’s excellent taste and his stellar ministers. Trump does, however, have a Louis XIV taste in gold; gilt is all over the refurbished White House. The competitive deference to the president among his entourage is also imperial: one acolyte lobbied for his face to be included in the carvings immortalising presidents on Mount Rushmore, another wants a $250 bill with his face on — so does Trump.
We read how, when he was comparing his proposed triumphal arch at the Arlington Cemetery with the Arc de Triomphe with his advisers, he got Emmanuel Macron on the phone. Did the Arc de Triomphe give the best view of Paris? he asked. No, said Macron; the third best. Did it have a viewing platform? Trump’s would. As planned, it will, at 250 feet, dwarf the loser Arc de Triomphe.
There are all sorts of moments like this in the book, each more gobsmacking than the last. During the discussion about the imposition of tariffs on the rest of the world, which appalled even his fans including the automotive giants, he found that, whaddya know, he’d forgotten China. Put ten per cent on them, he said off the cuff. Yet it was President Xi who was, it turned out, able to outface the US on tariffs. It was Trump who had to back down.
There’s lots of detail: Trump regularly despatches aides to present MAGA caps to visitors. He drinks Diet Coke incessantly. He and Melania have separate bedrooms.
A doomed voice of sanity
The scariest encounter described here was the discussion in Trump’s inner circle on whether the President should go to all-out war with Iran. JD Vance opposed it, but said he’d support the president; Marco Rubio and Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, ditto. So it went ahead, without opposition. The one person who had lobbied against because it would alienate the MAGA base and allow Israel dangerous influence over US policy was dead: Charlie Kirk, it turns out, was the voice of sanity in arguing for Trump to stick to his promise — no more wars.
By the end, it’s hard to disagree with the subtitle: Trump’s Imperial Court.
For the 250th anniversary of American independence, the country has, it turns out, ended up, not with a king, but something more like a capricious emperor.
Melanie McDonagh is books editor and a columnist at The London Standard
Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan is out now (Simon & Schuster, £28)
