Ben Rhodes

1. How did we get here? What is the argument that Americans have had since our founding? I set out to answer those questions by writing my new book out this May, available for pre-order: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717294...

So Putin gets a red carpet welcome, a ride in the presidential limo, speaks first at the presser, frames the meeting as a successful talk among equals, while making absolutely no concession on the conduct or outcome of the war.

The fact that an indicted war criminal has been invited to the US to meet with the President to look at maps of the country he invaded tells you Putin has already won.

People need to understand that we are in an entirely new paradigm. It is now Russia the US against Ukraine and Europe. This is not a shift in US policy, it is a transformation of what kind of country the United States is in the world

open.substack.com/pub/benrhode...

"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...

www.nybooks.com/events/why-t...

"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...

"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...

"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...

Donald Trump keeps doing things that help Vladimir Putin. benrhodes1.substack.com/p/how-putin-...

"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...

The Great Lie of War www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

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...