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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

"we tend to experience politics as a contest taking place in the present, but each nation’s identity is shaped by currents that reach back into our shared past. A strongman taps into those currents to make their ascendancy the inevitable outcome of the story" open.substack.com/pub/benrhode...

open.substack.com

Why I Wrote All We Say

The Backstory of a Book

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

"Trump simply could not do the destructive things that he has done without the collaboration, consent, or capitulation of countless people." open.substack.com/pub/benrhode...

open.substack.com

How People Reacted to the Nazis (Part 2)

A Warning for Americans

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

"We will not recover our democracy without ending the Forever War and detoxifying our country of the fury that is consuming it." benrhodes1.substack.com/p/enduring-f...

benrhodes1.substack.com

Enduring Freedom to Epic Fury

What We Can Learn from how America Names Its Wars

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

"Can you explain this to a child? If the answer is no, then perhaps we should reconsider whether the thing is worth doing in the first place." benrhodes1.substack.com/p/can-you-ex...

benrhodes1.substack.com

Can You Explain this to a Child?

A different way of looking at war

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

"Imagine, for a moment, being a parent who sent your child to that girls’ school that got bombed in Iran. Can you?" benrhodes1.substack.com/p/on-trump-a...

benrhodes1.substack.com

On Trump and Netanyahu's War on Iran

False Pretexts, No Endgame, Chaos in the Region, and the Obligation of Opposition

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Talked to Ezra Klein about the war in Iran - how we got here, where we're going, and what I'm worried about. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Great Lie of War

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

"Authoritarian politics and military aggression are a dangerous mix." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump May Come to Regret This

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Trump Wants You to Get Used to This. Don’t. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump Wants You to Get Used to This. Don’t.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

"What does it say about the United States that there was far more debate about a diplomatic agreement with Iran than there has been about a potential war with Iran?" benrhodes1.substack.com/p/trump-and-...

benrhodes1.substack.com

Trump and Iran, War and Authoritarianism

Do you know why we seem to be on the precipice of war with Iran?

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

This is why people don't trust institutions and elites. If you ignore the views of your own voters over and over and over again people give up on politics.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Democratic leaders have been feckless and wildly out of touch with their own voters who don't want another pointless war in the Middle East.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

"Just because people have legitimate grievances against a failed establishment does not mean they are justified in turning to fascism." benrhodes1.substack.com/p/how-people...

benrhodes1.substack.com

How People Reacted to the Nazis

A Warning from History

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

"What happens to a conference dedicated to security cooperation when America has become, to many Europeans, a threat?" substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Reflections on the Munich Security Conference

There was something unsettling about the Munich Security Conference.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

"What’s disturbing about Trump is not his occasionally overt racism, particularly directed at the first Black President – it’s that his ascent to the presidency is unthinkable without it." substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

MAGA and the Lost Cause

On Trump, the Obamas, Race, and the Lost Cause

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

On McNamara, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Gaza, and finally Trump. "Once you allow yourself to play by a set of rules that’s different from everyone else’s, the rules themselves are made brittle and ultimately break." www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

nybooks.com

An American Reckoning | Ben Rhodes

Robert McNamara’s failure to reckon with the exceptionalism that led the United States into the Vietnam War contributed to fifty years of foreign policy failures. It can help us understand the crisis ...

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

"MAGA die-hards have deceived themselves for so long that Trump was somehow one of them when he has always been more comfortable with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein than the vast majority of his own voters." benrhodes1.substack.com/p/on-the-eps...

benrhodes1.substack.com

On the Epstein Files and Power

Consider the picture of a smiling man next to a girl with her face blacked out, or the dashed off email with poor punctuation referencing a victim of human trafficking with a life in front of her like...

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

"For Trump, there is just a group of people – some in uniform – who stand when he enters the Situation Room, and a different group of sycophants who will tell him in the Oval Office that whatever decision he made was the right one" substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

Why Trump is getting more comfortable with war

Why is Donald Trump getting more comfortable with war?

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

"Yes, Americans want a secure border. But most of us are also tired of war, wary of an intrusive militarized government, welcoming of immigrants, and protective of our core freedoms." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Rot Goes Deeper Than ICE

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

"The war on terror has become a war against ourselves. That forever war must come to an end. Enough with the military gear. Enough with the mass surveillance. Enough with the constant fear of an ever-shifting Other." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Rot Goes Deeper Than ICE

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

"If you are 18 today, Donald Trump has dominated your experience of American political leadership for a decade. What have you absorbed, through cultural osmosis, because of that experience?" benrhodes1.substack.com/p/the-normal...

benrhodes1.substack.com

Living Under Lies

What if there was no video?

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

"If you can’t trust a single word that the Department of Homeland Security says, how can we have any idea what is going on out of sight?" benrhodes1.substack.com/p/the-normal...

benrhodes1.substack.com

The Normalization of Lies

What if there was no video?

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Starting a new substack: "We can watch a man get killed by federal agents in Minneapolis and then hear him besmirched as a terrorist or assassin despite what we saw with our own eyes. It makes you feel powerless, which it is intended to do." open.substack.com/pub/benrhode...

open.substack.com

Notes on the Stories We Tell

These are disorienting times. It is harder to understand the story we are living through, as individuals or a collective.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Trump trying to conquer a foreign country. ICE killing someone and lying about it. We're not even a year into this Trump term and we're already here.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Trump Is Falling for a Trap We Can All See Coming www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump Is Falling for a Trap We Can All See Coming

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Sometimes, it can be hard to realize that the events you fear are the ones already taking place. Let us state it plainly: We have an autocratic leader seeking power and aggrandizement through the conquest of territory and resources: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Trump Is Falling for a Trap We Can All See Coming

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

On our new era of imperial wars on behalf of Trump's power and oil companies. www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ey...

youtube.com

Obama official slams Trump’s SHOCK invasion

YouTube video by Brian Tyler Cohen

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

"If you believe a 19-year-old Jewish college student chanting “Free Palestine” is more dangerous than the vice president of the US implying that Germans should embrace the far-right party Alternative for Germany then you’re drawing the wrong lessons from history." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

"The simplest thing to do would be the right thing": www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | This Is the Story of How the Democrats Blew It on Gaza

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Trump's Ambassador to Israel hosts a notorious traitor at the US Embassy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_s1...

youtube.com

BREAKING: Spy Scandal ROCKS Trump World

YouTube video by Pod Save the World

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Zohran Mamdani showed us that generational change, bold ideas, principled stands, and movement building must be the future of a stagnant Democratic Party

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

His is a world in which autocratic leaders make deals over the heads of the people, extrajudicial force is legitimized, conflicts simmer so long as they are kept off screens and corruption intermingles with diplomacy. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Thread Tying Together Everything Trump Does

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

If Trump lies about everything else why does anyone presume he’s telling the truth about Gaza, Ukraine or Venezuela?

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

"From masked ICE agents to threats against an alleged conspiracy of leftist NGOs, a sense of chaos demoralizes opposition and silences critics. American institutions are sorted into those who are with or against the administration. The empire came home." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Britain Offers a Warning of What America Could Become

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Rodrigo Dueterte is literally in The Hague for this headline. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/u...

nytimes.com

Trump Claims the Power to Summarily Kill Suspected Drug Smugglers

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Trump, Putin, the Internet, social media, democracy, AI, climate change, and basically the history of the last decade - loved this conversation with @jonfavs.bsky.social on Offline.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Trump has not gotten a single concession from Putin - not one. His "deal making" is entirely about Ukrainian concessions.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

“My advice would be to not capitulate to Trump,” Rhodes said. “He has grown all too accustomed to people he perceives as weaker bending to his will, which is something that Putin does not do… Zelenskyy needs Europe.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

theguardian.com

Zelenskyy faces daunting trip to the White House – but this time he will not be alone

Dream team of European leaders will be with the Ukrainian president, seeking to show a united front when they meet Donald Trump

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Hawks have often weaponized "Munich" every time the U.S. doesn't go to war. But they forget the real betrayal of Munich - two big countries meeting to carve up the borders of a smaller one to give to an aggressor without that nation present.

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Trump wanting to concede Ukrainian territory that Russia does not even occupy (and that's not his to concede) is just about the worst case scenario. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

nytimes.com

Live Updates: Trump Backs Plan to Cede Land for Peace in Ukraine

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Ben Rhodes @rhodesben.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Trump’s interview shows just how easy it is for him to get completely played. Putin conceded nothing about Ukraine but repeats Trump conspiracy theories and he calls the meeting a 10 of 10.

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