This is the June 23, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“When you do oppose, you get your fucking head kicked in.”
— Political consultant and Trump ally Chris LaCivita, quoted in the new book “Regime Change,” on why Republicans don’t push back on the president
In “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” released today, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan chronicle the turbulent first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency through the eyes of the aides, advisers, allies, and rivals at the center of it.
Based on more than 1,000 interviews, the book takes readers behind closed doors at the White House as a small circle of loyalists works to transform both the federal government and the presidency itself.
Haberman and Swan joined us this morning to discuss their reporting.
Haberman: This was a huge, intensive effort to show readers how this government works, how this administration is functioning, how decisions are made. If you want to understand the small group of people who are running this government — and what it could mean going forward — this is the best effort we can offer right now. It’s a first draft of the history of this really unrecognizable White House.
Swan: There are really only two options: You go along and fall in line, or you get crushed. And they’re open about that.
CHARTS
Source: CBS-YouGov poll of 2,519 adults in the U.S., margin of error: ±2.4 points
ON THIS DATE
Ten years ago today, Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union — the first country ever to do so. Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the Brexit referendum and campaigned to remain, resigned the next morning.
Artist and writer Brian John Spencer works on a political cartoon depicting Nigel Farage as ballots are counted in the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
WHAT THEY SAID
Willie Geist on Iran sanctions relief
“You cannot turn over $10 billion — plus a $300 billion investment fund — and say, as JD Vance has, that we hope Iran will become a normal country. The last 50 years have proven they will not.”