WASHINGTON — Jonathan Swan, a New York Times journalist who has covered Donald Trump across three political campaigns and two terms, says he cannot recall a moment—aside from the COVID-19 pandemic—when the president looked as stuck as he does now over the war with Iran. Swan made the remarks in a recent interview discussing his new book, co-authored with Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.
The book, titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, draws on interviews with more than 1,000 sources. Trump himself sat for an interview for the project. Swan and Haberman describe a president remaking American government and its international relationships in ways they argue have no precedent in Trump's first term.
"It's pretty clear he realizes that this war [with Iran] has not gone well, has not played out the way that Netanyahu pitched him or that Trump himself thought [it] would play out," Swan said. "Trump is someone who is naturally given to hubris, but I think we saw a very extreme version of that with this war."
At the center of the book is Trump's fixation on becoming what Swan describes as a "great man of history" during his second term. During one interview session, Trump showed Swan and Haberman a document that listed him alongside Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan—figures the authors describe as grouped not by moral standing but by raw power projection.
"[The list had] nothing to do with morality, all just about pure power projection. And Trump was relishing being in their company," Swan said. "Maggie and I talked about it afterwards, and it really occurred to us that when you look at it through that lens, his second term makes a lot more sense."
Swan connects that fixation to specific policy decisions, including the war in Iran and what he describes as the administration's push for regime change in Venezuela. He also sees it reflected in the physical environment Trump has created inside the White House. Swan says Trump has gilded nearly every corner of the Oval Office, departing sharply from what Swan calls the historical tradition of modest presidential decor.
"The history of the Oval Office in the White House has been of modesty when it comes to design and decoration, reflecting the fact that America is a republic, not a monarchy," Swan said. "Trump has no use for that history."
Trump responded to the book on Truth Social, calling it "mostly made up, Fake News, largely fiction, as have been most of the things [Haberman] has written about me for so many years."
Swan draws a sharp line between this term and Trump's first. He argues that observers who continue to analyze the current administration through the lens of 2017–2021 are misreading what is actually happening in Washington. One of the clearest differences, Swan says, is the team Trump has assembled around him. In the first term, Swan recalls frequent off-the-record conversations with senior officials, including senior national security figures, who would push back privately against the president's instincts. That dynamic, he says, no longer exists in the same form.
Haberman, a Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Trump chronicler at the Times, has been a central figure in White House reporting across both terms. Her role as co-author gives the book two of the most source-rich reporters in the Trump orbit.
The book arrives as Trump's handling of the Iran conflict draws scrutiny from both parties on Capitol Hill. Swan notes the president has not set a hard public timeline for the campaign, with Trump saying strikes could continue for more than a month as part of his stated goal of regime change in a country of roughly 93 million people.
