00:00On July 2nd, Treasury Secretary Besant was asked when Americans could see $3 gas again,
00:07and he said maybe by Labor Day. Things haven't worked out that way, but do you have a new
00:12timetable for Americans on when they could expect lower gas prices, and should they not
00:16expect to see $3 gas again until at least 2027? Well, in defense of Scott, he said maybe by
00:24Labor Day, because we're talking about things that are inherently unpredictable, and I think
00:27it's important. You know, I'm a strong believer that the American people are our fellow citizens,
00:32and we should speak with them honestly about these things, and the fundamental reality is that
00:36the reason gas prices are so high right now is because the Iranians are shooting at commercial
00:42shipping. Even, by the way, when they signed an agreement that said we're going to stop shooting
00:46at commercial shipping, they almost immediately went back to shooting at commercial shipping,
00:51and I actually think that this drives home a couple of points. Number one, it's why things like the
00:56Venezuela oil deal are so important is because we've learned that we can't be over-reliant on
01:01anybody for the world's supply of energy and gas. It's one of the reasons why the president
01:05has pursued an energy dominance agenda, because, yes, gas prices are higher in the United States.
01:11They're way worse everywhere else in the world because of what the president did, particularly
01:16during the first administration, to make us more energy dominant. I also think it drives home,
01:21frankly, the ridiculous atrophy that we saw in our European allies and their inability to actually
01:30do anything to help keep world energy markets supplied. So when the Iranians shoot at commercial
01:35shipping, obviously that means some ships don't want to go through. A lot of ships have gone through.
01:40We got about 15 million barrels out of the Strait of Hormuz just yesterday, despite the fact that the
01:45Iranians continue to ship or continue to shoot, I should say. What has anybody in the world done?
01:50Why is it incumbent upon the United States of America to be the only country in the world
01:55that can actually ensure world energy markets continue to stay supplied? And the answer is
02:01because we're the only country that has the capability of doing it. And so what the president
02:05has said is we really have two options here. We could leave and the entire world would be way worse
02:11off because there would be no guaranteed access to oil and gas. By the way, the Gulf Arab countries
02:17are telling us that would be the worst thing in the world. Or we can accept the Iranians are going
02:22to shoot at ships like crazy people, and we're going to do what we have to do in order to
02:26ensure
02:27that their efforts don't lead to a worldwide energy crisis. Now, we've been quite successful up to
02:32this point. Gas, frankly, could have been much, much higher were it not for our efforts. But I'm not
02:37going to make a promise about when it's going to return to $3. What I will say is that we
02:42have
02:42to remember, why are we doing this? Number one, it's so that Iran never has a nuclear weapon.
02:47And number two, what we're doing right now is protecting commercial shipping in order to ensure
02:53that we don't have a worldwide energy crisis. The only reason, the only reason we do not have a
02:58worldwide energy crisis is because of the leadership of the president, but also because of the fine work
03:02of our military from Pete Hegseth on down. But the Iranians are doing what the Iranians do. I think
03:08that they're losing their capabilities by the day. I think they're realizing, by the way, that their
03:14control over the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone, and it's a diminishing asset. So if you go
03:20back three months ago, how much oil and gas was coming out of the strait under Iranian threats,
03:25it was virtually nothing. Now it's almost back to where it was before the conflict even started.
03:31So my advice to the Iranians is stop acting like crazy people and stop shooting at commercial
03:35shipping. And in the meantime, we've got to do what we've got to do, despite what a foreign
03:41country is going to do in the Strait of Hormuz. And the Iranians say that an attack on a wedding
03:46celebration earlier this week killed several people, injured dozens of others. I know CENTCOM says
03:51it's investigating, but have you been briefed on that attack? And was the U.S. responsible?
03:55So I've been briefed to the extent that I know that we're investigating. I've seen the same public
03:59media reports everywhere else. I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good
04:07scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So I'm extremely skeptical of this.
04:12What I can say with 100 percent confidence is that, unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets
04:18civilians in combat. We never will do that. We never have done that. And unfortunately, obviously,
04:24sometimes things happen. But in this particular case, I don't think that we have any information
04:29one way or the other. We're investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know. And
04:33if we do make mistakes, again, this is a big difference between us and Iran. When our military
04:37makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them. So we're investigating it very
04:41fully. It's almost Labor Day. Labor Day is traditionally the real kickoff for campaign season.
04:47Midterm voters are looking for somebody to blame for high prices on things like gas, energy. Why
04:54shouldn't they blame Republicans? Well, I'd say a few things. First of all, if you look at how endemic
05:01inflation became during the Biden administration, and this is not to cast blame because I don't really
05:07care who's to blame for it. I care about how to fix it. And that's what we've been working to
05:10do.
05:11So inflation under the last administration hit a record high of about 9.5 percent. And it's funny,
05:17during the 2024 campaign, the president and I would say, this is the highest inflation in American
05:22history. And people would come back and say, no, no, no, it's not the highest inflation in American
05:25history. It's just the highest inflation in the last 60 or the last 48 years. It's like, well,
05:29that's still very, very bad. So what happened with that is that when prices get baked in like that,
05:35it takes a little bit of time for us to undo some of the damage. Now, you know, we have
05:40done a lot of things in order to build upon the great success of the first Trump administration
05:46and deliver wins for working people. No taxes on Social Security, no taxes on tips,
05:52no taxes on overtime. We've seen $19 trillion of new investment come into the country,
05:56but most of that is building new factories and new facilities. Those factories are being built.
06:01So if you're a construction worker, that's great. And obviously we love our construction workers.
06:04However, it takes time to build those factories and employ the rest of the workers. And then,
06:09of course, to make the stuff that's going to be made at those factories. So I guess my point is
06:13that because America's inflation problem wasn't created in a day, it was created by very bad
06:19policies of the Biden administration, trillions of dollars of new spending that was going more
06:23to fraudsters than it was to the American people. It takes a little bit of time to rebuild the
06:28foundation of America's middle-class economy. I think we've made incredible strides, but our argument
06:33to the American people is, look, it's very simple. You don't even have to listen to what we say,
06:38listen to what the Democrats have said. If you think that inflation is a problem,
06:42if you think affordability is a problem, number one, we're doing everything that we can to bring
06:47down prices. But what do the Democrats say? They say that they want to undo taxes. They want to
06:51increase taxes on Social Security and TIPS. If you're worried about affordability, how is the
06:56Democrats' tax increase going to make your life more affordable? One of the things I'm most proud of
07:01that the President has done is TrumpRx. If you look, we have almost 800 medications now
07:06that are part of TrumpRx, the most significant reduction in prescription drug costs that we've
07:11seen in 60 years. And again, that's going to accelerate as this program actually gets implemented.
07:16The Democrats did nothing. So while they're out there bragging that they're going to reverse the
07:22very policies that are making some of these prescription drugs more affordable,
07:25we're saying we're going to double down on the policies that are going to make prescription
07:29drugs more affordable. So I think if you just listen to what the Democrats are saying,
07:33what they're telling you is that every inflation problem that you're worried about today,
07:38they're going to make worse and they're going to undo our very good efforts to try to bring down
07:44the inflation and to make that reduction in inflation sustainable.
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