Inside Trump’s ‘Royal Court’
2/20/20261 hr 12 min
It has been harder to get insight into the dynamics of President Trump’s White House this term compared with the first one, partly because there have been fewer leaks. But after the attack on Venezuela and the administration’s actions in Minneapolis, I’ve found myself wondering: How exactly is Trump making decisions? Who is he listening to? How does this White House work?
Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer cover the Trump administration for The Atlantic and have written a series of big profiles on key figures in this administration. Parker previously won three Pulitzer Prizes for her reporting at The Washington Post.
Mentioned:
“The Wrath of Stephen Miller” by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer
“‘I Run the Country and the World’” by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer
“This Is the Real Reason Susie Wiles Talked to Me 11 Times” by Chris Whipple
“Susie Wiles, JD Vance, and the “Junkyard Dogs”: The White House Chief of Staff on Trump’s Second Term (Part 1 of 2)” by Chris Whipple
Book Recommendations:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Frankly, We Did Win This Election by Michael C. Bender
An Image of My Name Enters America by Lucy Ives
Palimpsest by Gore Vidal
Blood by Douglas Starr
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Aman Sahota and Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDana0:00
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Speaker 10:17
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Ezra Klein· Host0:29
[upbeat music] In Trump's first term, there was a huge amount of daily reporting about how his White House was working. In part, this was because his White House was split between a series of factions, each of which was constantly leaking about the other factions. The result was maybe not a very internally coherent or smoothly working White House, but there was a lot of information about what was happening and why, and when. Trump's second term has been different.