WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing off towering new flagpoles he had erected on the White House North and South Lawns last summer, President Donald Trump suggested that he wanted to make similar renovations in his first term but was worried about the negative press. “You guys were after me,” he told reporters. “I was the hunted. And now I’m the hunter.” The incident, recalled in “Regime Change,” New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s new book on the first year of Trump’s second term, encapsulates how different Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 has been from his first term. The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power.
Trump still falsely claims to have won in 2020. But a second term coming then might have been marred by pushback from members of his own administration, the coronavirus pandemic and the runaway inflation it caused, as well as an antagonistic Congress controlled by Democrats. He hasn’t faced those issues this time.Here are some takeaways from the book:
