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My subject matter was Nadia Schadlow who served as deputy national security adviser for Donald Trump’s first administration. She was interviewed on March 10th, 2026 on The Ezra Klein Show. Nadia Schadlow was asked about the current war between the U.S.-Israel and Iran. Klein asked her to clarify and defend how the U.S. became at war with Iran and how the war aligned with Trump’s foreign policy of “America First”. Nadia as a supporter, she tried her best to put smile on the face of growing public opposition to the war. More or less, the goal of this interview was partially to help listeners understand why the U.S. is at war with Iran. Should we or should we not? 

Part 2: Write ~300 words analyzing your Q&A. 

Literally, write about what you notice about how it’s structured put together. How does it begin the piece the actual first question? What kind of questions are asked? Do you notice any sort of arc to the piece? How long the interview questions distinguished from the responses? How long are the responses compared to the questions? What else do you notice???

The idea is, what can this teach you about writing your own Q&A Keeping in mind that your Q&A has some requirements re: length, etc that might be different from the one you fund. Which is fine! But you ultimately still need to follow your Q&A instructions when you write your own. 

The Ezra Klein interview with Nadia Schadlow gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the politics behind the declared war with Iran that took place under President Donald Trump’s second term in office. The format of the interview is in question and answer style, with Klein asking Schadlow what went wrong when Trump went against his campaign promise of “America First” and engaged in a mass military attack on Iran. Schadlow responds by claiming Trump engaged in a foreign policy that she terms “flexible realism.” This policy, she states, called for action before Iran could develop more nuclear weapons and had the goal of reestablishing deterrence.

Pushing back against Schadlow’s claim, Klein references an article Schadlow wrote in 2018 that claimed Trump was a “conservative realist.” Klein questions how this philosophy lines up with Trump starting a war, which many have deemed aggressive. Klein follows up on this question about the war with Iran multiple times during the interview. One particular line of questioning revolves around what comes after the war. Did the Trump administration have a plan for who will govern Iran? Or did they not think past dropping bombs and start a war that they would not be prepared to follow through with if the regime collapsed? Schadlow refuses to directly answer these questions, stating that having no plan is the plan.

Joe Kent and Hakeem Jeffries both introduce bills that would limit Trump’s war with Iran, which they refer to as a “war of choice.” Kent’s and Jeffries’s argument is that Trump did not get approval from congress to declare war and is setting a precedent that future presidents will follow, taking away congress’s constitutional right to declare war.