Super Glue and Hitler Comparisons: Trump Book Revelations
A blockbuster new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan paints an extraordinary portrait of Donald Trump’s second term, revealing scenes that range from the absurd — the president personally gluing gold decorations to the Oval Office fireplace with super glue — to the deeply alarming, including Trump comparing himself to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Published on June 23 by Simon & Schuster, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” is based on more than 1,000 interviews conducted over three years and covers the first 14 months of Trump’s second term.
The Central Thesis: An Imperial Presidency
The book’s subtitle is no accident. Haberman and Swan argue that the United States has not simply experienced a change of presidents or parties, but a fundamental evolution in the kind of government it has. As Swan told Vanity Fair, “This is not just some transition from a Democratic president or Republican president… This is something fundamentally different, and we wanted to capture that in the title — that we were actually covering a form of regime change in our own country.”
Unlike his first term, Trump now operates without the constraints of investigations, a supplicant Republican Congress, collapsed business opposition, and no need to run for reelection. The result, the authors argue, is a president liberated to pursue his most unrestrained instincts.
The Revelations
Super Glue and Gold Cherubs
Perhaps the most visually striking revelation involves White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walking into the Oval Office one morning to find Trump personally redecorating. According to the book, “the president had a tube of super glue in his hand and was trying to adorn the marble fireplace mantel with new golden decorations.” The authors note that “the sight of the president squeezing glue onto gilded appliqués and mounting them on the wall himself surprised no one in his inner circle.” Since returning to the White House, Trump has extensively redecorated with gold accents, including gilded mirrors, gold eagles, and small gold cherubs brought from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Comparing Himself to History’s Most Brutal Dictators
During an interview with Haberman and Swan, Trump produced a two-page document he claimed was written by a “presidential historian.” The document argued that Trump was more powerful than Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin — because their influence was “local” while his is global. Trump read the names aloud and noted those leaders “maintained their power through fear,” then joked: “Who would ever do something like that, right?”
It was later revealed that the author was not a historian but the personal assistant and caddy of golf legend Gary Player. Nevertheless, Trump shared the document on Truth Social, again describing the writer as a “presidential historian.”
Berating Cabinet Members
The book details Trump’s explosive confrontations with his own administration. He reportedly screamed at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a discussion about tariffs, saying: “You used to be a killer, Howard. Now you’re soft. You’re a pussy.” Regarding Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Trump said during a meeting: “I want to break his balls, frankly,” and asked staff to develop plans to halt construction projects of the central bank.
Netanyahu Called a “Con Man”
Behind the scenes, Trump referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “con man” — described by the authors as one of the heaviest insults in Trump’s vocabulary. This revelation adds a fascinating dimension to the US-Israel relationship during a period of joint military operations against Iran.
The Epstein Situation Room Meetings
In one of the more surreal revelations, senior administration officials held meetings in the White House Situation Room — typically reserved for major national security crises — to discuss the political fallout surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. One official described the experience as “surreal,” recalling conversations about “Donald Trump and abused nipples.”
The Reporting Feat
Haberman and Swan described the grueling process of reporting the book to The Guardian. “This book nearly killed both of us and we didn’t see our families for literally months on end,” Haberman said. Swan added that the administration is “very good at keeping secrets,” noting that even the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran — one of the most important documents imaginable — was seen by almost no one outside the tiniest inner circle until it was publicly announced.
Analysis: What This Means
The book arrives at a moment when Trump is deeply unpopular, Iran talks grind on, and America remains deeply fractured. As Mediaite summarized, the revelations paint a picture of a presidency operating without traditional guardrails. Swan described Trump’s mindset as driven by “hubris” — a leader who has survived four indictments, convictions, and two assassination attempts, surrounded by advisors with an “almost mystical view of you as a figure of destiny.”
What’s Next
The White House has not yet responded substantively to the book’s passages. Trump has reportedly been “fuming” about the revelations, and Vice President JD Vance expressed concern in an interview with Megyn Kelly about how the authors obtained information from the Situation Room, suggesting the possibility that meetings were being recorded. As the book hits shelves, the question remains: will these revelations further erode Trump’s political standing, or will they be absorbed into the noise of a presidency that has consistently defied conventional expectations?