# Will Iran Break Trumpism?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/will-iran-break-trumpism
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/will-iran-break-trumpism.md
Podcast: [The Ezra Klein Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595)
Published: 2026-03-27T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-christopher-caldwell.html
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pfx.vpixl.com/6qj4J/pscrb.fm/rss/p/nyt.simplecastaudio.com/3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df/episodes/f872855b-a81e-4fde-a2f0-04d97ab53c41/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df&awEpisodeId=f872855b-a81e-4fde-a2f0-04d97ab53c41&feed=82FI35Px
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/episodes/will-iran-break-trumpism
Duration seconds: 4107

## Resource

Is Trumpism crashing on the shoals of the Iran war? That is what Christopher Caldwell thinks. Caldwell is a prominent thinker on the right. He’s a contributing editor at the conservative publication the Claremont Review of Books,and he’s one of the people who’ve been trying to define, and even craft, a coherent Trumpism. So his recent article in The Spectator, “The End of Trumpism,” sparked a lot of debate on the right. At the core of this debate are some fundamental questions that I think remain unresolved, despite Trump’s decade-long dominance of the Republican Party: What is Trumpism? Is there Trumpism, or is there just Donald Trump? Caldwell is a contributing writer for Times Opinion and the author of “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties.” In this conversation, he explains how he understood Trumpism as a movement of “democratic restoration” — and why he believes the Iran war betrays that. And I ask him why he sees the seams of Trump’s base fraying, despite polling that suggests otherwise. Mentioned: “The end of Trumpism” by Christopher Caldwell The Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell “Is the West Becoming Pagan Again?” by Christopher Caldwell Self-Rule by Robert H. Wiebe “Trump as Alexander the Great” by John B. Judis Book Recommendations: The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas Ball Four by Jim Bouton 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…

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## Transcript

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