Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
Haberman argues Trump is in a better position than he would have been with two consecutive terms — he avoided post-pandemic inflation and the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Where this was said
At 4:25 · chapter starts 2:55
Haberman pushes back on Miller's skepticism, explaining that 'Regime Change' is not nostalgic re-reporting but an attempt to understand something genuinely new. Unlike the first term — where half the White House viewed Trump as dangerous and was actively leaking — the current administration is staffed by true believers who want Trump's agenda to succeed. The book nearly killed Haberman and Swan to report, she says, because the sources are tight-knit and secrets are kept. The core thesis: Trump has expanded and transformed the U.S. presidency to a degree not seen in our lifetimes, and the title 'Regime Change' reflects the authors' belief that America is experiencing a domestic version of the phenomenon usually reserved for foreign nations.
Losing in 2020 was the best thing that ever happened to Trump's power. He avoided post-pandemic inflation and the Afghanistan withdrawal, became a martyr figure through indictments and assassination attempts, and returned to the White House with an iron grip on his party that a consecutive second term never would have produced.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
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