The Surprising Return of the Blockbuster Trump Book

A new book called Regime Change, written by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, sold more than 300,000 copies in its first week. That number shocked many people in the publishing industry, because books about politics and current events had been selling poorly for the past few years. The book covers President Donald Trump's second term in office and is nearly 500 pages long. Its huge success has people asking: why are readers suddenly interested in Trump books again?

For years, books about Trump and his presidency were best sellers. Writers like Michael Wolff and Bob Woodward produced popular titles during Trump's first term. But after a while, many readers seemed tired of the constant flow of news and books about Trump. In fact, sales of politics and current events books dropped 19 percent compared to the year before, according to a company called BookScan that tracks book sales.

The publishing industry had started to believe that nobody wanted to read about politics anymore. Some experts even suggested that readers had turned to fantasy and romance novels just to escape the stress of real-world news. So when Regime Change became a massive hit, it caught almost everyone off guard. Most nonfiction books only need to sell fewer than 10,000 copies in a week to make a best-seller list — Regime Change sold more than 30 times that amount.

Part of the reason the book did so well may come down to smart promotion. About two weeks before the book came out, Haberman and Swan shared a piece of it in The New York Times. That excerpt included details about meetings held by Trump's advisers to manage problems tied to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The Epstein story has drawn enormous public curiosity, and that excerpt got many people excited to read the full book.

The book also had less competition than earlier Trump books did. Because publishers had been staying away from political books, Regime Change became one of the first major, deeply reported accounts of Trump's second term. Literary agent Jim Rutman said that even in a slow market, there is usually room for one truly standout book. Another agent, Elyse Cheney, called it a 'category killer' — meaning it was so complete that readers who only wanted one Trump book would choose this one.

But smart marketing and less competition do not fully explain why so many people bought it. Some experts think the timing had a lot to do with it. Trump's popularity has dropped to new lows, and even some Republicans in Congress have begun to push back against him. With midterm elections coming up, people who disagree with Trump can see a chance to vote for change.

That shift in the political mood may have made reading about Trump feel different. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by everything happening right now, readers might feel like they can finally look back at the past year and understand it. One way to think about it: it is less like trying to think clearly during a fight, and more like calmly thinking back on what happened the next day. A similar thing may have happened when Kamala Harris released her memoir, 107 Days, which also sold extremely well after the 2024 presidential campaign ended.

For more than a decade, every time it seemed like the Trump era might be over — whether it was a big scandal or an election loss — it turned out not to be the end at all. That kept readers feeling unsettled, like there was no real ending in sight. Now, with an election approaching and Trump's power possibly shrinking, people may finally feel ready to read about his presidency as if it is a story with a conclusion. And that feeling, some say, is exactly what makes a good book so satisfying.