CBS News interviewed New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book, Regime Change, based on over 1,000 interviews. Executive power now flows through a narrower information channel than it did in Trump's first term. High-level national security meetings now include discussion of matters like Epstein that would typically stay outside the Situation Room.
Process shapes outcomes. A president who hears less dissent, relies on a smaller circle, and pulls politically charged matters into top security settings creates cascading risk. Agencies downstream inherit decisions made without friction. Courts face litigation over choices that bypassed normal vetting. Allies lose predictability. The cost compounds when the system stops filtering out noise before it reaches the Oval Office.
Every White House tries to control information. Trump's second term sounds engineered to eliminate friction itself. That reads as efficient until it isn't. When the Situation Room becomes a venue for the boss's obsessions instead of a filter against them, confidence without dissent produces bad calls with total conviction.
Filed to the Politics desk · Jun 26