Maggie Haberman's title--"Regime Change"--is multi-faceted. It's a reference to some of Donald's Tweets in the buildup to the conflict in Iran: "Time for a Regime Change!" It's also a reference to one of the classic books in the "current events publishing" world: "Game Change."
Finally, it's an invitation to think about the word "regime." We might imagine that the change was from Biden to Trump. But--in the Biden years--had the Trump regime really ended? Is it possible that it simply changed? Trump 1.0 was somewhat cautious--at least when you compare him to Trump 2.0. Haberman suggests that America would have been better off enduring two Trump terms back to back; the 2020 Trump would have been unpopular and therefore hamstrung. Instead, Trump 2.0 could profit from American dissatisfaction toward the (deeply dissatisfying) choices of Joe Biden. Trump 2.0 is like Ursula the Sea Witch--*after* she has morphed and assumed the proportions of a warship.
It's a little nauseating to read this book. That said, Trump is fascinating. I'm amazed whenever he refers to someone as "straight out of central casting." So many Americans try to bury their superficial thoughts, but Trump says the quiet part out loud. And with his emphasis on the superficial, he is in fact shrewd. Even the most high-minded among us have implicit bias. We *do* put people into superficial categories--this is a kind of shorthand that just seems to make life easier. It's also intriguing when Trump talks about interior design: "I have gold everywhere because, when people see gold, they think MONEY." Once again, he is not wrong.
Naturally, Trump's thoughts become clouded when he has to confront his own cankles. He isn't young; he falls asleep at afternoon events. The fact of the cankles is enough to generate a press release. Who on Earth demands a press release about his own cankles?
An astounding book.
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