Published on 6/26/2026
The Washington Post reported that a new book by New York Times correspondents in the White House documents undisclosed behind-the-scenes scenes of President Donald Trump’s administration, including internal conflicts, a desire for revenge, and fateful decisions taken far from institutional restrictions.
The newspaper explained that reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan revealed an unprecedented picture of the decision-making mechanisms within the Trump administration during the first year of his second term, and presented an account of a president who, according to the authors, sought to expand his powers, pursue his opponents, and reshape state institutions with the least amount of restrictions.
Read also
list of 2 itemsend of list
The Washington Post reviews the highlights of the book, titled “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” noting that it has achieved significant sales since its release and sparked widespread debate in Washington about the details it contains behind the scenes of the White House.
The beginning of Elon Musk’s decline
One of the most prominent facts mentioned in the book is the crisis that broke out between the Trump administration and businessman Elon Musk when the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees asking them, within 48 hours, to submit a list of five achievements they had achieved during the previous week, with a warning that Musk posted on the “X” platform stating that failure to respond would be considered a resignation.
According to the book, senior White House officials were surprised by this move, as they were not aware of it in advance. The authors say that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles expressed extreme anger, while a number of ministers felt dissatisfied, considering that this incident represented the beginning of a decline in Musk’s influence within the administration.
The rise of Witkoff and the marginalization of Kellogg
In the Russian file, the book reveals that Trump sidelined his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and assigned his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to manage a secret communication channel with Moscow. According to the authors, Trump asked Kellogg to refrain from communicating with the Russians because another team was working on an agreement.
The book indicates that Witkov established a channel of communication with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, and conveyed to Trump after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the latter said that he prayed for Trump following the assassination attempt. He also gave him a painting embodying that incident, in reference to the personal relationship that the two parties tried to build.
Jerome Powell’s torture
On the economic front, the book describes the tense relationship between Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. After Trump had thought during his first term of dismissing Powell and then backed down, the authors say that he decided in his second term not to dismiss him, but rather to exert constant pressure on him and “torture” him because of his refusal to lower interest rates. He even expressed in one of the meetings his desire to stop the project to renovate the Federal Reserve headquarters to embarrass Powell.
The authors say that Trump has become less concerned with opinion polls compared to his first term, despite the decline in his popularity as a result of the war with Iran, the controversy over his tariffs, the Jeffrey Epstein file, and the rising costs of living. They confirm that his aides found that he no longer wanted to listen to negative indicators, and that he had begun to rely more on his personal intuition in making decisions.
The book “Regime Change”:
“Trump has become less concerned with opinion polls compared to his first term, despite the decline in his popularity as a result of the war with Iran, the controversy over his tariffs, the Jeffrey Epstein file, and the rising cost of living.”
Admiration for artificial intelligence
The book also discusses Trump’s changing position on artificial intelligence. After, according to the authors, he had little interest in this technology, in 2024 he attended a presentation given by two officials at the “Open AI” company for the “GPT Chat” application.
They say that Trump expressed great admiration for the program’s capabilities after he saw an immediate summary of an official document and its transformation into a poem, which prompted him to become increasingly interested in artificial intelligence.
They add that this interest was later strengthened through a rapprochement with the CEO of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, who, according to administration officials, now has significant influence with the president, at a time when the administration gave the artificial intelligence sector ample space for growth as it is one of its biggest economic bets.
The book concludes with a scene that, according to the authors, reflects Trump’s style of crisis management. They met him in the Oval Office during the 17th day of the war with Iran, and while the war was claiming the lives of Iranians and American soldiers, the president was busy talking about trees that he intends to plant in the White House, before reviewing the viewing numbers of his video clips on the “Tik Tok” application, in a scene that the authors see as expressing the priorities of a president who increasingly relies on his personal impressions more than traditional accounts.
