Top 66 Ben Rhodes Quotes

There’s this constant narrative of anxieties: Is the U.S. in decline? Is China rising? People forget… no other country is trying to play the role we play. They’re not signing up to be responsible for security in the Middle East, responsible for the global economy, responsible for enforcing international norms.

In addition to deep divisions on issues such as trade, climate change, Middle East peace and nuclear weapons, Trump’s attacks on leaders such as Trudeau and Merkel and disrespect for NATO and other institutions are prompting a reassessment by allied governments and publics.

As people who know me know, probably to a fault, I am usually not without thoughts and words.

The fact of the matter is the West Wing never gets fully renovated because nobody wants to vacate it. And so you have basically patch-up jobs that are being done, but it’s a tight and cramped environment.

The events of my twenties felt historic, but the people involved did not. I wanted a hero – someone who could make sense of what was happening around me and in some way redeem it.

What’s interesting about the foreign policy establishment critique is, you know, I think the Blob and I have more in common in some ways than people might think, but also, what I was saying can be misread.

All over the world, independent and strong civil society – NGOs, faith leaders, and other community advocates – help governments solve problems and better serve their people better by shining a light on the issues that matter most – like education standards, access to healthcare, the rule of law, and economic opportunity.

Downturns in migration almost always prove temporary, as people adjust to changes in American enforcement. What doesn’t change is the basic human impulse to pursue a better life in a place where they believe it’s still possible.

Cuba has long played an outsized role in the world’s imagination.

While President Obama raised the hopes of Americans and Cubans alike with a forward-looking opening in diplomatic, commercial and people-to-people ties, President Trump is turning back the clock to a tragically failed Cold War mindset by reimposing restrictions on those activities.

The Catholic Church played an integral role in supporting the opening between the U.S. and Cuban governments.

All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus. Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington.

Laos is a deeply Buddhist country, and my visit included a traditional Tak Bat ceremony, in which you get up at sunrise and make offerings to Buddhist monks.

For more than fifty years, our policy towards Cuba was not making life better for Cubans. In many ways, it was making it worse.

When it comes to Israel’s security, our military and intelligence cooperation, that’s off limits. That’s protected. That’s sacrosanct.

The Asia Pacific region within TPP encompasses nearly 40 percent of the world’s GDP. Shaping the rules of the road for trade in this region is good for our workers and businesses – and it is good for our national security as well.

Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, but for a long time, the distance between our two countries seemed a lot greater.

I don’t think people realize how many decisions the president of the United States makes about military action.

When I think of the things that Trump has done, ironically, everything is sort of – we care so much about Cuba and the Iran deal. I think pulling out of TPP is just devastating.

‘Make America great again,’ is not that different from Putin’s nostalgia for the Soviet Union or tsarist Russia.

I found people I really wanted to work for; I made myself available to do whatever I could with the skills I had; I took some risk, packing up and moving to Chicago; and I looked for the opportunities that fit for me. So I think the biggest advice is to find people you love to work for who you’re going to learn from.

Billions of people around the globe had come to know Barack Obama, had heard his words, had watched his speeches, and, in some unknowable but irreducible way, had come to see the world as a place that could – in some incremental way – change.

People make a mistake when they think that if you just accumulate a set number of things on your resume, it’s going to lead you to a particular place – the pattern of essentially compiling credentials to climb your way up a ladder. That may work, but that’s not at all what happened to me.

In China, you just don’t have the space for civil society and independent discourse and free media that you do in India. That’s why India’s success is so important as the world’s largest democracy.

We want a rules-based order in Asia-Pacific like we have had in the Atlantic.

One of the most depressing things about President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back elements of the Cuba opening is how predictable it was.

What I do miss is foreign travel, because there really is no substitute for showing up somewhere and representing the United States.

Havana is a source of great pride to the Cuban people.

With the 5-to-4 decision upholding Trump’s Muslim ban, arbitrary discrimination is now formal U.S. policy, celebrated by a president who campaigned on a ‘total ban’ of Muslims entering the United States.

President Obama has been on the world stage for 10 years, and people know what he believes. He doesn’t single out individual countries and doesn’t say, ‘I believe in LGBT rights because I want to embarrass the political leadership in India.’

For more than fifty years, the United States pursued a policy of isolating and pressuring Cuba. While the policy was rooted in the context of the Cold War, our efforts continued long after the rest of the world had changed.

No matter what people may think about American foreign policy, there is broad and overwhelming interest in engaging with the United States on issues related to entrepreneurship. People associate this promise with America, and that’s an extraordinary asset for our country.

The world order and American actions in the world have deep wiring.

Any country must establish control over its borders. That is essential to sovereignty and the security of our citizens. But America, at our best, has balanced that political, legal, and social objective with an appreciation for the benefits of immigration and a sense of respect for the dignity of all human beings.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is so important.

Increased remittances to Cuba from the United States has helped Cuban families.

The complete lack of governance in huge swaths of the Middle East – that is the project of the American establishment.

To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world.

Mandela was a guy who didn’t come in and just eviscerate the existing institutions. He sought to co-opt them. He brought white South Africans into his government.

Americans will forever be proud of the brave men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II, and we will never forget those who paid the last full measure of devotion for our country. Their service protected our freedom and changed the course of history around the world.

Where civil society is welcomed, communities are more safe, more secure, and more prosperous.

I don’t know anymore where I begin and Obama ends.

President Obama has made the Asia Pacific region a focus of his foreign policy, and Vietnam – a large, growing economy in the heart of Southeast Asia – is critical to those efforts.

We’ve supported the development of Cuba’s private sector. This is a human rights issue – people should have the right to live with dignity and to control their livelihoods.

Baseball is a great example of the cultural ties between the United States and Cuba and a powerful reminder of the shared experience between people that transcends our difficult history.

There is no question that our security and prosperity will be increasingly tied to the Asia Pacific. If America doesn’t set the rules of the road for trade in this region, other nations will.

In the course of a presidency, a U.S. president says millions of words in public. You never know which of them end up cementing a certain impression.

I had the Secret Service actually patrolling my block at some point. I didn’t sign up for that. I went to work to write speeches for Barack Obama!

I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there. And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we’re there – nearly a decade in Iraq.

Laos is the ghost of American military interventions past.

The only place in the world where, I think, leaders have preferred Trump are in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia and Israel.

If we’re going to play a role in shaping a future that is more secure, more prosperous, and more connected, we need to make sure that young people have the tools they need to succeed.

America’s trade policy has an enormous impact on the economic well-being of the American people and the strategic interests of the United States.

Irrespective of our foreign policies, for decades, other nations and peoples could see, in the United States, a strong democracy that could maintain social cohesion, welcome immigrants of all backgrounds, and count on stable institutions.