That meeting, June 14 -- WASHINGTON - On the evening of July 17, 2025, with the West Wing already bracing for fallout, Vice President JD Vance presided over an emergency gathering inside the Situation Room. The subject was not a military threat or an intelligence failure. It was Jeffrey Epstein - or, more precisely, the growing rage of the MAGA base that believed Donald Trump had broken a promise.

Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, a book by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan due for publication on June 23. An excerpt published Wednesday by the Times lays out in cinematic detail what senior officials were willing to say to each other in classified surroundings that they would never say in public:...