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The last time New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan took readers<\/a> inside the White House Situation Room was in April, when they revealed how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a case for striking Iran to President Donald Trump that helped put the U.S. on a path to war. That reporting was drawn from their forthcoming book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, which hits shelves on June 23. On Wednesday, in their first excerpt<\/a> from the book, the pair returned to the Situation Room to chronicle another fraught moment in the Trump presidency: July 2025, when the president and top officials were consumed by the political fallout over the president\u2019s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n The excerpt quickly caused a stir on Wednesday with Trump unloading on \u201claughing stock\u201d<\/a> MS NOW host Joe Scarborough following a Morning Joe discussion about the excerpt. (Scarborough later read<\/a> Trump\u2019s Truth Social broadside on air: \u201cThank you for chiming in, Mr. President.\u201d) There will surely be intrigue in Washington about who spilled to the authors, though a source suggested<\/a> something more extreme to CNN\u2019s Brian Stelter: \u201cThere is a massive leak hunt underway.\u201d It may be an extensive probe given that Haberman and Swan acknowledge conducting 1,000 interviews for the book with \u201ccampaign officials, White House staff members, officials serving in government departments and agencies, former aides, donors, lawmakers, friends and business associates\u201d \u2014\u00a0and yes, Donald Trump. It should be no surprise that Trump, who may vilify<\/a> a journalist one minute and take their calls<\/a> the next, gave the authors an hourlong interview in March.<\/p>\n Even with Trump\u2019s unmatched ability at diverting the news media\u2019s attention, he and his team were apparently paralyzed by the Epstein crisis, especially given how some top Trump officials had once fanned the flames of conspiracy and the MAGA faithful wanted results. Here are three ways they tried spinning their way out of the mess.<\/p>\n As the Journal was preparing to publish a story on Trump\u2019s relationship with Epstein, including news of a \u201cbawdy\u201d birthday letter apparently written by Trump \u2014\u00a0which he denies writing \u2014\u00a0the president called Rupert Murdoch, owner of Journal parent News Corp., along with News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson and Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker. \u201cPractically shouting, the president told Tucker, who is British, that she must \u2018hate America,\u2019\u201d the Times reported. Trump also threatened to file a lawsuit, which later he did. (After a judge dismissed<\/a> Trump\u2019s defamation suit against the paper in April, he filed<\/a> a revised suit last month.) Amazingly the Journal story broke while Trump officials were in the Situation Room and, given a ban on cell phones, \u201ca staff member brought in printed copies of the explosive report,\u201d and the \u201cgroup sat quietly reading\u201d it before chief of staff Susie Wiles prepared a public denial that Trump posted on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a huge problem,\u201d the vice-president told the group, according to the Times, and suggested releasing all the files as soon as they can, especially as Congress would otherwise force their release. In the excerpt, Vance appears as a voice of reason in urging transparency (which may raise suspicions about who talked to the Times reporters). Still, Vance is also described as pitching an off-the-wall idea for the White House to \u201cenlist Tucker Carlson to interview Epstein\u2019s longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison,\u201d a scenario that \u201cmight help the president if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein.\u201d (Trump has long denied any wrongdoing.) At another point, the Trump team also discussed having \u201cJustice Department lawyers question Maxwell and publicly release the transcript\u201d and the prospect of a pardon. Communications director Steven Cheung didn\u2019t think it was a good idea, per the Times: \u201cPardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge P.R. problem.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump tried settling down his MAGA base last summer, he \u201ctold aides he was very unhappy\u201d with supporters like Carlson, the late Charlie Kirk, and Megyn Kelly for urging the government to release information. \u201cKirk had held a Turning Point USA event the previous day that turned into an Epstein grievance fest, with one speaker after another bashing [then\u2013Attorney General Pam] Bondi over her handling of the situation,\u201d the Times reports. \u201cTrump had called Kirk and scolded him.\u201d Vance was said to be particularly concerned about losing the manosphere, the largely male contingent of podcasters and commentators that backed Trump in 2024. According to the Times, officials planned to release a cache of Epstein files on a website, with now\u2013Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche possibly appearing<\/a> \u201con Rogan\u2019s podcast to promote the transparency from the White House.\u201d However, the \u201csearchable website would not go live on their initial timetable,\u201d according to the Times, \u201cthe version of the site they originally conceived would never be released to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n