Speaker
Ben Rhodes
Appearances over time
6 episodes
Episodes
6
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Under the JCPOA, Iran received an estimated $55 billion after meeting extensive verification conditions; the new deal offers far more with fewer preconditions.
Despite Marco Rubio's claims of decimating Iran's missile program, reporting indicates over 70% of Iran's ballistic missiles and launchers remain intact.
Under the Obama-era JCPOA, Iran received no frozen asset money until after it shipped out its uranium stockpile, ripped out centrifuges, and submitted to inspections — the opposite of what Trump agreed to.
Ben Rhodes noted that the US currently lacks ambassadors in over 100 countries, severely limiting the diplomacy needed to coordinate a global Ebola response.
FDR's 1941 State of the Union introduced the Four Freedoms — speech, worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear — which became the moral foundation of the postwar international order.
FDR's Four Freedoms speech became the basis for the entire postwar international order and its language is embedded in the UN Charter.
Ben Rhodes spent four years writing All We Say: The Battle for American Identity, a History in 15 Speeches.
Lionel Messi scored five goals in Argentina's first two World Cup matches, a stunning display that Ben Rhodes called unbelievable.
Reagan's 1983 Evil Empire speech to the National Association of Evangelicals fused Christian conservatism, anti-communism, and small government ideology into one defining address.
Ben Rhodes noted that Israel is occupying almost 20% of Lebanon, which contradicts claims that a ceasefire is in effect.
Iran has all the leverage, Trump has spent hundreds of billions and achieved nothing, and Netanyahu is escalating in Lebanon to avoid admitting defeat before his election. The deal is JCPOA lite or nothing — and no amount of Truth Social spin changes that math.
Pope Leo XIV released a 42,300-word encyclical on AI — addressing its impact on war, democracy, labor, and human identity. The Pope's core argument: AI must be 'disarmed' not just militarily but economically and cognitively, freed from the race for dominance that is degrading humanity.
Fifteen years ago, unregulated AI transforming warfare and democracy would have triggered global summits and UN frameworks. Today, the US is an arsonist in that conversation, JD Vance is lecturing the world against slowing down, and the only person speaking with moral authority is the Pope.
Trump's acting Navy Secretary confirmed the US paused a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan — citing potential munitions needs from the Iran war. This on top of a $30 billion existing weapons backlog. Ben Rhodes warns this signals to Xi Jinping that 2027-2028 is his window to move.
The DRC Ebola outbreak is a perfect storm: caught late, no vaccine for this strain, active conflict zone, and every US tool for responding — USAID, WHO coordination, diplomatic infrastructure — has been deliberately dismantled. Ben Rhodes, who lived through 2014 Ebola, says there's no credible blueprint for response.
In 2014, the US used USAID, the WHO, and military logistics to build health infrastructure in West Africa and stop an exponential Ebola outbreak. All three tools are gone now. Rhodes calls it not anti-Trump swerving but a literal accounting of what's been destroyed.
Reagan's 1983 Evil Empire speech wasn't really about the Soviet Union — it was a coalition maintenance document. The first two-thirds were red meat for evangelicals on abortion and school prayer. The pivot to communism framed the Soviets as godless — making them the same enemy as secular bureaucrats at home.
Ben Rhodes argues that since Obama, no Democrat has provided a coherent alternative story to Trump's — not just better policy, but a narrative about where the country is going and why it matters. FDR and Reagan both did it in their time. The Four Freedoms were new. The Evil Empire was new. Democrats need something new too.
FDR first listed what became the Four Freedoms at a Hyde Park press conference — almost offhandedly. A reporter suggested 'freedom from want,' he agreed, and it vanished until the stakes were highest. That ending, dictated in the Oval Office the night before his State of the Union, became the moral framework of WWII and the UN Charter.
Tulsi Gabbard was appointed DNI as a signal to anti-interventionist MAGA that Trump would rein in the intelligence community. She then fired officials for honest assessments, covered for Trump's lies about Iran's nuclear threat, and ended up defending a war she built her career opposing. She leaves having achieved nothing.
John Stevenson of West Yorkshire pulled a Renault Clio with his penis while someone lit him on fire — to raise awareness of prostate cancer and school bullying. He had previously pulled a car with his testicles and done a car pull while on fire separately, so he decided to combine both.
The US and Israel apparently planned to spring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest via targeted airstrikes and install him as Iran's post-war leader. This is the man who crushed the 2009 Green Movement and threatened to eradicate Israel — the absolute nadir of regime-change fantasy planning.
Trump installed Bill Pulte — an HVAC entrepreneur and meme stock promoter — as acting Director of National Intelligence, overseeing 18 intelligence agencies with the full power of the NSA. There is no reason to do this other than giving a proven political weapon access to the most powerful surveillance apparatus in history to go after Trump's enemies.
Three months into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The 130 ships per day that transited it during peacetime have been replaced by a trickle of ~70 US-escorted ships over several weeks. Countries are burning through strategic reserves to prop up energy markets, but each passing day moves closer to an economic crash that far exceeds any peace-talk headline.
Trump spent a weekend teasing an imminent Iran ceasefire deal, declaring it '95% done' — then US airstrikes on Iranian boats laid mines by Tuesday morning. The core problem: Trump won't give Iran money upfront to open the Strait, but Iran has all the leverage and won't move first.
Analysis
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- Society & Culture 7%
- Business 7%
- History 4%
- Health & Fitness 2%
- Technology 2%
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