{"id":2620543,"date":"2026-06-28T13:53:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-2020-election-loss-empowered-second-term-haberman-and-swan\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T13:53:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:53:56","slug":"trumps-2020-election-loss-empowered-second-term-haberman-and-swan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-2020-election-loss-empowered-second-term-haberman-and-swan\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s 2020 election loss empowered second term: Haberman and Swan"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrumps-2020-election-loss-empowered-second-term-haberman-and-swan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2620543&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan discussed their book, *Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump*, on NBC\u2019s *Meet the Press*. They argue that Trump&#8217;s loss in the 2020 presidential election was beneficial for him, allowing him to operate without restrictions and continue consolidating influence within the Republican Party. They highlight that if Trump had won in 2020, he would have been more constrained by the circumstances of the time, such as COVID-19 and economic issues. The authors also discuss Trump&#8217;s views on the future of the Republican Party, noting that he appears disengaged from upcoming elections like 2026 and 2028, with his inner circle wishing he cared more. Trump dismisses their book as &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/these-democrats-are-livid-with-their-own-party-for-denying-crime-problems\/\" title=\"These\u00a0Democrats Are Livid With Their Own Party For Denying Crime Problems\">largely fiction<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;Fake News,&#8221; criticizing Haberman personally. He also claims to have won the 2020 election decisively and dismisses allegations like the Russia hoax, emphasizing his belief in his electoral victory and rejecting concerns about Iran&#8217;s nuclear ambitions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on Sunday said President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4\">Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> loss in the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2020-elections\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"228\">2020 presidential election <\/a>was more beneficial than not and enabled him to have a powerful second term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Haberman and Swan of the <em>New York Times<\/em> appeared on NBC\u2019s <em>Meet the Press<\/em> and discussed their new book, <em>Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump<\/em>, in which the co-authors examine Trump\u2019s first year back in office following his fall to former President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"471\">Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4627874\/trump-nominates-lance-schroyer-ice-director\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Trump nominates former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE director<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4627821\/hezbollah-reject-israel-lebanon-peace-framework\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Hezbollah rejects Israel and Lebanon\u2019s peace framework: \u2018Null and void\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4627665\/iran-drone-assault-bahrain-ship-hit-strait-of-hormuz\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Iran launches drone assault on Bahrain and a ship is hit in Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire frays<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pair argued that Trump losing the 2020 election was a largely advantageous outcome for the president, as he was able to \u201ccontinue grinding out any pockets of resistance to him in the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/republican-party\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"514\">Republican Party<\/a>.\u201d Being out of office and fine-tuning the GOP allowed Trump to enter his second term free of restraints, Haberman and Swan said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf he had won that election, he would have been hobbled,\u201d Swan said of 2020. \u201cCOVID was raging, inflation was raging. Instead, Biden was the one who ate all of those conditions, and now the whole point of this book, the title <em>Regime Change<\/em>, is we\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >watching presidential power expressed<\/a> in a way that we haven\u2019t seen in our lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne of the things that that interim period let him do is continue grinding out any pockets of resistance to him in the Republican Party, and you saw it systematically,\u201d Haberman added. \u201cRemember, one of the first things that he did was start targeting the people who had voted to impeach him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The authors also discuss in their book how Trump views the future of the Republican Party, particularly its chances of success in the 2026 <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/midterm-elections\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"308\">midterm elections<\/a> and the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2028-elections\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"11676\">2028 elections<\/a>, with Haberman and Swan concluding that \u201cTrump could barely be stirred to even think about the midterms\u201d based on their reporting and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/superspreader-slew-of-journalists-who-attended-swanky-d-c-dinner-test-positive-for-covid-19\/\" title=\"Superspreader: Slew Of Journalists Who Attended ...ky D.C. Dinner Test Positive For COVID-19\">presidential coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Swan explained it is not that Trump doesn\u2019t care about the midterm elections but that the people in his inner circle \u201cwish he cared more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was a very revealing comment that Trump made last year when Republicans did extremely poorly in the off-year elections. He said, \u2018People have been saying they can\u2019t win without Trump on the ballot,\u2019 and he said, \u2018That\u2019s a great honor,&#8217;\u201d Swan said. He also noted that the president doesn\u2019t want to be impeached again but that the Supreme Court\u2019s 2024 ruling, granting presidents broad criminal immunity, renders another conviction unlikely if not impossible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump has taken issue with Haberman and Swan\u2019s book, calling it \u201clargely fiction,\u201d as portions of the book are written based on closed-door briefings. He went after Haberman directly, referring to her as \u201cMagot,\u201d but did not mention Swan.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4627007\/trump-communism-biggest-threat-facing-america\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4627007\/trump-communism-biggest-threat-facing-america\/\">TRUMP SAYS COMMUNISM IS THE BIGGEST THREAT FACING AMERICA ON EVE OF 250TH BIRTHDAY<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBased on a very quick and boring briefing concerning the Magot Hagerman book about me, it is mostly made up, Fake News, largely fiction, as have been most of the things she has written about me for so many years,\u201d Trump said in a late-night Truth Social post. \u201cShe is a third rate writer and intellect, who has made a first rate income because of your favorite President, ME.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe was wrong about me on the Elections, although she knew I was going to win, BIG!\u201d he went on. \u201cShe was wrong about me on the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and she was wrong about me on just about everything else. But she continues to spew out garbage, and people continue to buy it. REMEMBER, I WON THE ELECTION, BIG \u2013 ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, THE POPULAR VOTE, 86% of the Counties\u2026And they don\u2019t have the audio tapes that they imply they have. Just another Margot Con Job! And Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon!!!\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haberman and Swan say Trump\u2019s 2020 loss helped him gain power<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4130,"featured_media":2620544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26177714203429.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[80326,33017,32187,81860],"class_list":["post-2620543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-election-aftermath","tag-political-analysis","tag-second-term","tag-trumps-2020-election-loss"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP26177714203429.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620543"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620547,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620543\/revisions\/2620547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2620544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}