00:07On July 2nd, Treasury Secretary Besant was asked when Americans could see $3 gas again,
00:15and he said maybe by Labor Day. Things haven't worked out that way, but do you have a new
00:20timetable for Americans on when they could expect lower gas prices, and should they not
00:24expect to see $3 gas again until at least 2027? Well, in defense of Scott, he said maybe by Labor
00:32Day, because we're talking about things that are inherently unpredictable. And I think it's
00:35important. You know, I'm a strong believer that the American people are our fellow citizens,
00:40and we should speak with them honestly about these things. And the fundamental reality is that the
00:45reason gas prices are so high right now is because the Iranians are shooting at commercial shipping,
00:51even by the way, when they signed an agreement that said we're going to stop shooting at commercial
00:55shipping, they almost immediately went back to shooting at commercial shipping. Yes, gas prices
01:02are higher in the United States. They're way worse everywhere else in the world because of what
01:06the president did, particularly during the first administration to make us more energy dominant.
01:11I also think it drives home, frankly, the ridiculous atrophy that we saw in our European allies and
01:21their inability to actually do anything to help keep world energy markets supplied. So when the
01:25Iranians shoot at commercial shipping, obviously, that means some ships don't want to go through.
01:30A lot of ships have gone through. We got about 15 million barrels out of the Strait of Hormuz just
01:34yesterday, despite the fact that the Iranians continue to ship or continue to shoot, I should say.
01:39What has anybody in the world done? Why is it incumbent upon the United States of America to be the
01:45only
01:46country in the world that can actually ensure world energy markets continue to stay supplied?
01:52And the answer is because we're the only country that has the capability of doing it.
01:57And we're going to do what we have to do in order to ensure that their efforts don't lead to
02:02a worldwide
02:03energy crisis. Now, we've been quite successful up to this point. Gas, frankly, could have been much,
02:09much higher were it not for our efforts. But I'm not going to make a promise about when it's going
02:12to return
02:13to $3. What I will say is that we have to remember, why are we doing this? Number one,
02:18it's so that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. And number two, what we're doing right now is
02:24protecting commercial shipping in order to ensure that we don't have a worldwide energy crisis.
02:29President Trump asked on social media, when are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?
02:35Is the administration considering either arming or giving other direct support for Iranian dissidents?
02:41What the president said is exactly what I'm going to say, which is, of course, I'm not going to talk
02:46about that. There are a lot of things that we're doing, a lot of things that we're doing, of course,
02:51to try to apply pressure on the Iranians, to get them to stop shooting at commercial shipping,
02:56accepting that they're still going to try to shoot at commercial shipping. Obviously,
02:59we're protecting a lot of ships, which is why we have not had a worldwide energy crisis. I can't
03:03repeat this enough. But for the leadership of President Trump and the hard work of our troops,
03:08we would have had an energy crisis because the Iranians refused to stop acting like terrorists
03:12in the Strait of Hormuz. Now, that said, there are a lot of, of course, additional tools that we have
03:17at our disposal. Some of those the president will use and some of them he won't. But I'm not going
03:22to
03:22advertise exactly how we're going to engage with the Iranians in the months and years to come,
03:28because it frankly would take away the president's decision space. But everything that could happen
03:34is on the table. Economic pressure, military pressure, diplomatic pressure, covert pressure.
03:41Of course, these are things, these are tools in the president's toolkit. But part of the reason
03:45they're tools in the toolkit is because the vice president, hopefully, is not dumb enough to stand
03:49up before, you know, all of you and a million Americans watching at home and say exactly what it
03:54is that we plan on doing. Okay. All right. I'm going to go to Emily.
03:58Emily.
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