Who Has the Power in Trump's White House?

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

News, Government, Society & Culture

4.3 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The In Trump's first term, there was a huge amount of daily reporting about how his White House was working. In part, this
0:39.0	was because his White House was split between a series of factions, each of which was constantly
0:43.4	leaking about the other factions. The result was maybe not a very internally coherent or
0:50.0	smoothly working White House, but there was a lot of information about what was happening
0:55.2	and why and when.
0:57.8	Trump's second term has been different.
1:00.4	Trump's staff is selected much more for loyalty.
1:03.8	The factional infighting is much less present.
1:07.1	And the White House has been doing much more.
1:09.6	The balance of coverage is about what they are actually doing in the world, as opposed to what they are doing or saying about each other. But particularly recently around Minneapolis, around Venezuela, around a number of major stories, I've wondered, how are decisions being made here? What does the president know?
1:30.7	Who tells him if something is going wrong? Who is wielding power and how? And is it on his
1:37.3	behalf or on their own? So I want to talk to some reporters who cover the Trump White House day in
1:41.9	and day out and can give me a better picture of how it is functioning internally. Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer are staff writers at the Atlantic.
1:49.9	Before that, they were at the Washington Post, where Parker won three Pulitzer Prizes. They have
1:54.7	covered Trump for many years now, and they have also profiled many of the people around him.
2:00.5	And so are kind of uniquely placed to explain
2:03.5	how something that at this point I think is less like a White House
2:06.7	and more like a royal court is actually functioning day-to-day.
2:10.7	How it is functioning for Donald Trump
2:12.0	and how it is functioning for the rest of us.
2:15.4	As always, my email, Ezracl Show at nYatimes.com.
	...

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