Sean Spicer's new book promises that Trump 2.0 has finally solved the personnel problem that doomed the first term — but Rep. Max Miller's ongoing meltdown is a live-fire reminder that the swamp doesn't drain on a schedule.

The stakes are straightforward for every American who sent Trump back to Washington to break the permanent bureaucracy: if the wrong people still hold power, the administrative state survives. Spicer's Trump 2.0: The Revolution That Will Permanently Transform America, published by Regnery, makes the case that the second term is built on better people. "In Trump 1.0, there were a lot of people bent on advancing their own agenda," Spicer told The Gateway Pundit. "That is a very different dynamic compared to Trump 2.0. There is now much greater familiarity between President Trump and his senior executive staff. We now have a much greater sense of what is at stake, who we need on the team, and who we need to keep off the White House team."

That's the pitch. Here's the counterweight.

While Spicer sells the vision of a staff purged of self-dealing operators, Rep. Max Miller — a Trump White House alum who married at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster — is clinging to his Ohio seat amid abuse allegations from two women and a public call from his own former father-in-law to resign. The New York Post reports that Stephanie Grisham, another ex-Trump press secretary, has sought a restraining order against Miller. Miller's ex-wife Emily Moreno alleged in court documents and police reports that Miller shoved her, dumped scalding water on her leaving burn marks, and put a gun to her head. Miller has denied the claims. Their 2-year-old daughter reportedly suffered a broken collarbone and what a police report describes as "what appeared to be a handprint bruise" on her shoulder.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, Miller's former father-in-law, posted on X: "He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter. If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them."

This is the same Washington ecosystem Spicer claims has been cleaned up.

Trump's response? "It's a very sad thing. I know Max. He's a good person. I'm going to let the families figure that out," he told reporters Monday. That's not swamp drainage — that's swamp accommodation.

Spicer's book does catalogue real policy wins: a closed border, the "big beautiful bill," trade renegotiation, NATO reform, the MAHA wellness movement. He credits the shift to Trump's hard-won experience: "President Trump is approaching his second term with much more confidence. He knows the job; he knows the role; he knows the levers to pull." Trump himself wrote in the foreword: "In everything we do, we are fighting for the law-abiding, hard-working people of our country."

The policy record stands. The personnel question remains open. Miller is now underwater in a district Trump won by 11 points — a Democrat-sponsored poll shows him up just one point on a Bernie Sanders-backed opponent. That's not a personal scandal contained; it's a House seat at risk, and with it, governing margin.

The founders argued in taverns about who could be trusted with power and who couldn't. Spicer's blueprint is a start. But until the party stops protecting bad actors because they're "one of us," the revolution stays half-finished. The administrative state won't dismantle itself — and the swamp won't drain itself either.