Ben Rhodes: Trump Is Getting a Terrible Deal
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The U.S. and Israel started dropping bombs on Iran because the regime, amid mass street protests, appeared to be in a weakened state. But the regime has now ended up with a much stronger hand: It's proven its leverage over the global economy with the Strait of Hormuz, and under Trump's offer, Iran will get a huge infusion of cash to rebuild its ballistic missiles program and fund its proxy terror groups. At the same time, Trump has made the United States look like a rogue state—while spending billions for a deal he could have got without a war. Plus, Israelis are likely not happy, the Gulf states realize America can't protect them from Iran's drones, Cuba is readying to be next, Dems should make clear they are the anti-war party now, Trump is fighting his demons from his first term, and JD has a radical and un-American world view.
Ben Rhodes joins Tim Miller for the holiday weekend pod.
show notes
- Ben's podcast, "Pod Save the World"
- Ben's forthcoming book, "All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches"
- Tickets for our Bulwark Live shows in San Diego and LA in May: TheBulwark.com/Events
- Tim's playlist
- For 30% off your order, head to BloodFlow7.com/THEBULWARK and use code THEBULWARK.
- Post jobs for free at ziprecruiter.com/BULWARK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, everybody. |
| 0:00.8 | Tickets are on sale now for everybody for our live shows in downtown San Diego and downtown Los Angeles. |
| 0:08.2 | You can go to the bulwark.com slash events to get your tickets now. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm looking at my flights. |
| 0:15.2 | I'm excited to be back in California. |
| 0:17.3 | Sam Stein's going to be there. |
| 0:18.7 | Sarah Longwell. |
| 0:20.5 | I think Wokebill Crystal is going to be there. We're working on some others. We're going to have fun. It's going to be fun. Who knows it's California. Maybe I'll have a gummy. I don't know. Sarah might have a gummy. Who knows? We're going to have a great time. Come hang with us. come hang with your fellow Bolwarkians, as our next guest |
| 0:40.1 | called us. And we'll see you all there. If you're looking for an excuse to have a vacation, |
| 0:45.8 | find L.A., come see the show on Thursday, spend a weekend, go to Venice. It'll be awesome. |
| 0:51.8 | Thebork.com slash events, May 20th in downtown San Diego, |
| 0:56.7 | May 21st, downtown L.A. Hope to the Bullard podcast. |
| 1:16.2 | I'm your host, Tim Miller. |
| 1:17.3 | Delighted to welcome back to the show, the former Deputy National Security Advisor for Barack Obama, |
| 1:21.9 | co-host of a show called Pod Save the World, an author of a forthcoming book, |
| 1:27.1 | All We Say, The Battle for |
| 1:28.9 | American Identity, Released in May, Pre-Oder It Now, it's Benjamin Rhodes. |
| 1:34.2 | What's up, Ben? |
| 1:35.1 | Tim, awesome to be here, as always. |
| 1:37.3 | Thank you so much for doing this. |
| 1:38.9 | Obviously, the news this morning with the Art of the Deal from our president in Iran brings us to an area of expertise and experience for you. |
| 1:48.4 | So I'm grateful for your presence. |
... |
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