Benjamin J. Rhodes (born November 14, 1977) is an American writer, a political commentator, and a former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting under President Barack Obama.

[7] In 2002, James Gibney, editor of Foreign Policy, introduced Rhodes to Lee Hamilton, former member of the House of Representatives and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was looking for a speechwriter.

The New York Times reported that Rhodes spent "more than a year sneaking off to secret negotiations in Canada and finally at the Vatican" in advance of the official announcement in December 2014.

[22] In 2018, Random House published Rhodes's memoir, The World as It Is, a behind-the-scenes account of Barack Obama's presidency and a New York Times bestseller.

[26] After leaving the White House, Rhodes made public statements criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for failing to engage in good faith toward a diplomatic resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Rhodes said it had become clear to the Obama administration that the Netanyahu government was not interested in working in earnest toward a peace treaty based on a two-state solution.

[28] In a controversial profile in The New York Times Magazine, Rhodes was quoted "deriding the D.C. press corps and boasting of how he created an 'echo chamber' to market the administration's foreign policy", including the international nuclear agreement with Iran.

[29] The piece was criticized by numerous journalism outlets for Rhodes' apparent flippancy and cynicism in "pushing a 'narrative to media to sell the Iran nuclear deal".

[30][31] A blog commentary on the Foreign Policy magazine (which had named Rhodes as one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2015)[32] website, criticized him for the alleged lack of formal education in international relations and "real-world experiences".

[33] In 2017, it was alleged that Israeli private intelligence agency Black Cube attempted to manufacture incriminating or embarrassing information about Rhodes and his wife, as well as about fellow former National Security Council staffer Colin Kahl, in an apparent effort to undermine supporters of the Iran nuclear deal.