Ben Rhodes
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
They got left out in the cold.
We launched this war on the Iranians.
We couldn't defend them against drones and missile attacks.
While they were spending down their missile defense that they bought for us at an exorbitant price, we were giving the Israelis missile defense for free.
They saw that the United States could not protect them.
could not keep the straight open, could not guarantee that the Dubai model is not going to be shattered by drones coming in.
And so if you're them, you're thinking, well, why did I spend all this money on American weapons and paying off Jared Kushner, having these crazy conferences with Eric Trump and Witkoff's kid, getting billions of dollars investments in crypto scams.
They bought all this American AI.
Guess what the Iranians hit?
They hit data centers in the Emirates, right?
And so they suffered huge losses.
So I think what you're going to see is they're not going to pull the plug on us, but they're going to hedge.
They're going to start making deals with the Chinese.
They're going to start making deals with the Russians.
They're not going to invest the trillion dollars that they lied and told Trump that they invest in the American economy.
And so I think that's going to be a big shift.
Anything that makes JD Vance look even more ridiculous is good.
I think here's where it matters.
I was really struck, Tim, by...
when the Pope gave this speech yesterday, he basically gave a midterm message for Democrats, right?