We attacked Kharg Island last night; we knocked out a piece -- I said, don't touch the oil because maybe we'll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island, there's not a thing they can do about it. But I said, don't hit the pipes, just hit everything else.

They're never going to have a nuclear weapon and they admit they're never going to have it, but they behave badly, always behave badly. There's something wrong with them. But when we did this, we thought oil would go much higher and it didn't go very high, and now it's coming way down and you're going to see oil drop very low. Now maybe we'll do some other things that could lift it a little bit, but I don't think it's going to lift it a lot at all. I think oil is coming down.

The prices are coming down. And when the oil comes -- you know, the oil is coming way down. The oil dropped by 50 percent in the last month, and when that comes down, it brings everything else down. Its affordability and they came up with a word, affordability.

TRUMP: I brought it down and the oil is coming down very big. REPORTER: Brent crude is up slightly today on the -- TRUMP: A little bit, yeah, because we hit them. Any time we hit them, it goes up a little bit, to $2. REPORTER: Is that what you mean -- is that what you meant when you said that we might see oil prices lift a little in response to -- TRUMP: A little bit, yeah, $2, very little. It's down from, let's say $135, down to $69. It's dropping and everything else drops when -- as oil goes, so goes everything else. But any time we hit it, we hit Iran, oil goes up a little bit. It's all right.

As you know, the oil is down we'll see whether or not we keep it down. We should keep it down. We're doing things that should have been done 47 years ago with Iran.

I think it's a tremendous success, Iran. And you see the oil prices are lower than they were when I started and people like to say that.

The prices of oil are dropping like a rock. Now they'll be up a little bit and this will end very quickly. We have a tremendous -- we have an oil glut right now because we got all those boats out of the strait and it's going to drop.

Oil's coming down. Now I've got to, I have to make sure of one thing, that we don't have lunatics having control over nuclear weapons.

I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly and will only make it safer, including for oil. Oil is going to be very free, very easy, and it's going to happen very fast. We have the Hormuz Strait; the boats have pulled out. I mean, there's a gusher of oil right now, we have a lot of oil.

We have a lot of oil. The United States has more oil than anybody. And when you add Venezuela to it, it's like, we have far more oil than any -- don't need the straits. We do this because we think it's an important thing to do.

Well, I think people know. Look, oil is now at a level that it was, I think it's even lower on a barrel basis, than it was before we started. We've gotten concessions. Now, they have to hold those concessions, but there'll be no nuclear weapon.

You know, one of the reasons we kept the oil down because a lot of people said, Kevin, and a lot of people were saying that oil could go to $300, $350 a barrel. But one of the reasons that prediction wasn't right is we were taking out on average of 10, but sometimes less, sometimes more. Three weeks ago, we had a night, 22 ships came out of the strait and the famous Strait of Hormuz. Nobody ever heard of, but it's some, that is some big money machine I'll tell you what.

REPORTER: You know what has been a really good indicator of what's happening in the war in Iran, or whatever the conflict, is oil. And regardless of what we hear from whomever has the stage in Iran, you've pointed out we don't know who's talking at any given time, there's different factions -- TRUMP: Well, we killed one group -- REPORTER: And then another. TRUMP: We killed the second level -- REPORTER: But 67, $68 oil. TRUMP: We're down to lower than we were before.

They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Or if you want to see market disruption -- so think of it. The oil today is at $68, the market is up to almost 53,000. The S&P, they said the S&P would never hit 7000.

Now, if I want to be the tough guy and close up the Strait for the next years, where 21% or whatever it might be, 20% 21% of the oil never comes out, and you can't get oil anymore -- you know, what a lot of people don't know one of the reasons it only went up -- it went up to like $115 If you remember. And I've seen guests on your show where they go, oil will be $350 a barrel, and there'll be a depression, because at 350 there's a depression.

I said we got to do something. We did something nobody knew. Every night, we were taking ships out through the South, which is the furthest point from where they have their little weapons, and they were going along the coast with no lights for a month and a half, a lot of ships came out. We had one night where we took 22 ships out. That's a lot of oil. Those are big ships, some of them are really big ships.

And those prices are all coming down and you see fuel is coming way down. It's dropping like a rock, just like I said, because those boats are coming out of the Hormuz Strait. They're coming out by numbers that nobody ever saw. We're setting records actually.

The oil is dropping. We have some great oilmen here. I don't know if they're happy or sad. I don't give a damn if they're happy or sad, I want the prices to go down. And the oil is dropping like nobody thought possible. But I told you it would. Total control, we have total control of everything.

The oil price is way down. We're down at $68, I see it hit $68 today. That's lower than when I started the -- I guess you could call it an attack on Iran so that they'd never have a nuclear weapon. So, the oil price is now lower, the retail prices, the gasoline is coming down rapidly.

You know, oil prices are way down. We hit $69 today. It was higher than that prior to the denuclearization of Iran, a fight that we have, which we're doing very well.

Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY! They’re too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south. The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE! There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead! Start targeting around the $2.50 a Gallon number, and California should stop charging such heavy Taxes on their Gasoline. Soon the Tax will be higher than the Product itself, and the United States will not stand for it, nor will the People of California, who are being abused by these ridiculous Taxes, and by their own Government. President DONALD J. TRUMP

The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’ I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing! President DJT

WTI CRUDE - $69, and heading down. This is less than it was prior to the start of the Denuclearization of Iran! President DJT

GAS PRICES COMING DOWN, FAST! REPORT ANY ABUSES AT RETAIL LEVEL!!! President DJT

Mayor Mamdani, who came to the White House and seems like a nice guy, but he said he was going to do this in his campaign. Nobody thought he was serious. He said he was going to make sure that people don't have a rent increase, even though energy went up. It's going to come down. It's coming down fast right now. I hope you're watching what's happening. We had a low number just now, $69 a barrel. That was -- some people said it was going to be 350 by now. $69, is going to be $300, $350. Never hit those numbers at all, even in the height of it all, but what the mayor doesn't say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums, and that everybody will continue leaving New York.

We had to take that detour to knock out Iran. If we didn't do that -- and we're still -- you know, we still have a fight. They have some capability, not much. They're not winning or anything, but they have some -- they can still shoot. You know, they shot a drone yesterday at a big ship going into the Hormuz Strait. They shot four of them, we knocked down three of them. One of them, I guess we didn't miss it, nobody saw it coming. And it hit a ship and did some damage. But you can't do that stuff. But very soon they will be -- we're going to be at $2.50 gasoline. You know, I was in Iowa making a speech the day before we did the attack and, again, we had to turn it around.

Over the past few weeks, the stock market and your 401(k)s skyrocketed upward like pretty much nobody's seen before. Oil prices are plummeting downward, and the world is a much safer place.

And I said, "We're gonna journey down. We're gonna do what we have to do." And we did. We knocked the hell out of 'em, and now we're negotiating from a position of pure strength, pure strength. They know that. And the strait's already open, and we're setting records in the strait.

We today have the highest stock market in history and oil is down now at the same price, a similar price, but maybe even, I think it's going to go lower, but it's dropped. It's about $70 a barrel. It was just about that level when we started the war.

They wanna make a deal with us very badly, and, uh, we probably will. I think we will. But the strait is open. Yesterday, they took out 19 million barrels of oil. That's the most in the history of the strait, and the oil prices are dropping like a rock. And you know, as goes oil, so goes everything else, including all of your products.

But what we're really doing well is oil is plummeting and costs are coming down. Affordability, we're doing great. The Democrats gave us a tremendous affordability problem, and we're reducing prices a lot.

REPORTER: Mr. President. Earlier today you instructed your Department of Justice to do an investigation for oil companies that you said gas prices were not coming down quick enough. And you are concerned that there is price gouging going on, taking advantage of the crisis, sir. Can you elaborate on that? TRUMP: So, it's ExxonMobil, it's Chevron, it's Shell, it's BP. It's a lot of them. The gasoline or the oil prices have come down so much and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be. We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump, and we're higher than that. And we are doing a big investigation on it, yeah. They're not reducing the prices commensurate with what's happening.

Look, we are sending out, think of it, 19 million barrels came out yesterday. That is a flood, that's like a gusher, that's an oil gusher, and they should be much lower. The gasoline prices, which really is what people see more than anything else, but, you know, for their car. But the gasoline prices should be much lower at the pump, and the oil companies are possibly gouging. I hope they're not otherwise they're going to be in big trouble.

Since the agreement, the stock market and your 401(k)s are skyrocketing upward. And oil prices are plummeting downward today. It hit a new low and the world is a much safer place. We had to make that little journey to Iran to do what we did. Very soon you'll be at $2.50 a gallon for gasoline.

And last week we signed a historic agreement to end the conflict with Iran, fully open the Strait of Hormuz, and accomplish what no president has ever been able to accomplish before. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's done. And thanks to the power and skill of the United States Armed Forces, today Iran has no Navy, no Air Force, no anti-aircraft capacity, no missile launches, no manufacturing, and their leadership has been obliterated. And for the first time in 3,000 years, we are finally going to have peace in the Middle East.

I see that oil just broke the $70 number. Who would have thought that was going to happen? And that's during a war. And Iran is being very nice. They're agreeing to everything that I want, and they have to. Otherwise, we just go back and do what we have to do.

19 Millions Barrels of Oil flowed out of the Hormuz Strait yesterday, an all time RECORD. Oil prices are tumbling down, and the World is a much safer place!!!

And right now, as you probably heard yesterday, we had 19 barrels of oil, 19 million barrels of oil come off, and that's the biggest in the history of the Strait, the Hormuz Strait. Our stock market is through the roof and oil prices are tumbling. We actually hit for a moment today. In fact, I think it's going to break at $70 a barrel.

The average price of gasoline nationwide is down $0.60 a gallon just from a short while ago. And remember this -- remember this. We had to make this detour. We had to go to Iran and you can't let them blow up the Middle East and then us, if that's possible. We would have gotten them before, but they would have blown up Israel.

We just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and by the way, yesterday, 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz, a very beautiful place. That's the most -- that's the most oil in the history of the strait. No. It's never been any -- you've never seen anything like it. It's called an oil gusher and most importantly, we are ensuring one thing very importantly, because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason, 99 percent for this, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and they've agreed to that.

Oil, for the first time in months hit, think of it, $70 a barrel. So we got it 70. That equates to a very low price that oil is going to come, charging down, and with oil comes everything else because I inherited from these Dumocrats.

Prices are coming down right now at levels that you've never seen. And now with oil crashing, you're going to see something really amazing.

I just want to say, before we introduce a couple of the people, we're doing very well with respect to the Hormuz Strait. We took in more oil yesterday than we've ever -- than has ever gone through the strait. You probably see that. We have an -- we have an oil gusher. The strait is totally open. You know that.

Well, a nuclear weapon supersedes depression. Depression's real bad. Nuclear weapon will cause depression much more quickly. The way we're doing it, we have the opposite of a depression. We're doing really well. The numbers are incredible. The oil is at a level that nobody's ever seen before. Oil prices are way down. I think they're very comparable to what they were. Chris, I don't know, pretty comparable to what they were before we started, right?

And two days ago, we set a record, most ever taken out of the straits. Pent up, but it's -- it's a record.

REPORTER: Vice President Vance said that there are mechanisms in place to make sure that there's not escalations with the Strait of Hormuz and with Israel and Lebanon. Can you talk about what those mechanisms are, and are you in direct talks with the supreme leader? TRUMP: Well, yeah. Look, look, here's the thing. As long as they respect us -- I don't want to use the word fear because that's an inappropriate word. But as long as they respect us, we're not going to have any trouble. We have total control of the strait.

Those ships are flowing out of the Hormuz Strait like nobody's ever seen before, actually. There were a lot of them, about 700 of them and they're pouring out and the oil is all over the place. You're gonna see oil drop so low, I hope the companies are happy about it.

An agreement that was signed last night and it's 60 days they have to make a deal otherwise we, we will do things that won't make them happy, but I don't think it's gonna get to that. I think it's gonna be very good. Remember, if we do that, then all of a sudden you're not gonna have the oil flowing out of the strait too quickly because people that own billion dollar ships don't love missiles flying over them, don't love mines all over the water.

I just do want to say, though, the stock market just hit a new all-time high. The 401(k)s just hit a new all-time high. And oil is dropping like a rock. Other than that, it's another day in paradise.

So right now, our stock market is through the roof. The oil prices are tumbling. The oil prices are practically the same as there were before I started. The big difference is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

We wouldn't have oil for months. As long as you're dropping bombs, that thing is automatically closed because those ships cost $500 to a billion dollars a piece. They're not gonna be sailing with rockets. So just to finish, I just looked. Oil is tumbling. Their ships are roaring out of there. They wanna go home. They wanna drop. They're all full with oil. This is a gusher. I mean, this, we have seven or 800 ships are leaving. But if I attack them, none of those ships are leaving.

Inflation was really bad, but that wasn't the worst thing. The worst that, 'cause I inherited all this stuff. Look at what's happening with prices. Now they're coming down. And with the oil, they're really coming down. I had to make an excursion to stop a very volatile group of people that are smart.

Now, in addition to that, the strait is going to be open toll-free. And it's toll-free beyond the 60 days. It's not -- somebody said, oh, it's toll-free for 60 -- no, no, its toll free, period. When it opens permanently, it'll be toll free.

And we just signed a deal with Iran and this country was very, very -- a very powerful ally and good things are happening. The ships are starting to move now. We're going to have it fully open by Friday. The ships are starting to move nicely. Oil is starting to go, and the prices are coming down rapidly. Stock market is going up rapidly. A lot of good things are happening. And most importantly, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Are you considering an increase on sanctions on Russia and whether it's illegal -- TRUMP: Well, soon we'll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing. So we put -- we took sanctions off because, obviously, we're not looking to impede the oil. So we're in a position to do that soon.

You're in a very good business because as goes fuel, so goes everything. Fuel is dropping. It's now in the 70s per barrel. And I think we'll get it down. When I say -- I was in Iowa and we had great victories in Iowa. And when I left, I noticed that a gas station, $1.85 a gallon. That's where we were. It was a little bit higher generally, but I saw two stations, $1.85, one had $1.91. And, you know, we're going to get around those levels.

REPORTER: Are there going to be sanctions, are there going to be real costs on Russia now that the focus has once again been shifted to the Ukraine-Russia war? TRUMP: We are looking at that. We're seeing how far the price of oil comes down. It's really tumbling, it's, I guess, $74, $75 right now, so it's down. It's soon going to be at the number that it was four months ago, it's pretty amazing.

Who's really happy is the market because the market's gone up thousands of points over the last four or five days since hearing about it, and the strait is going to be opening. It's already partially opened; it's going to be opening up soon in full over the next day or two. And the market has gone wild, and oil has come tumbling down. Oil is at $73, $74, and it's getting very close to where it was before the crisis.

I think people are going to be very happy, but there's nothing so smart as the market, and the market loves it beyond anything that I've actually seen. Again, the stock market has gone through the roof and oil has come tumbling down. I guess it's in the low $70s now, right?

Number one, the strait would never open because they don't like floating billion dollar ships up and down a strait when there are rockets flying over them and mines all over the place. So, the strait would never be open; it wouldn't be open for a long time. So, we have a very hot stock market and we have a very -- started to be a very low oil price and that's going to have a huge impact on affordability caused by the Dumocrats.

But we're bringing prices down a lot, and they're coming down fast. And with the settlement, so worthwhile, with the settlement where you're not going to have a nuclear weapon, and then we bring them down on top of that. And I think oil prices might get lower than where they were before the war.

You know, the reason oil stayed low is because we were taking ships out every night that you didn't even know about. Two days ago, three days ago, a month ago, we took out 22 ships. We averaged from 15 to 25 ships a night, nobody knew that. Our Navy did a great job; nobody knew what was happening. That's why oil didn't go to $300 a barrel. It went to $125, $115. Now it's at $72, $73. I heard it's lower than that now; I haven't seen it in the last couple of hours.

REPORTER: Sanctions on Russia, what are you going to do about that? Sanctions on Russia, like the oil waivers? TRUMP: Yeah, I may put them back on, yeah. I wanted to make sure that oil stayed as low as possible. Now that the oil price is way down, wait until you see those numbers, but it's way down, I may put it back on.

Oil prices are plummeting and that means oil prices are going to come down. You know, if you make donuts, you have a heating, you have a stove and you have to buy the heat. You need the gas or the electricity or whatever you're using. And when oil prices come down, oil is the biggest thing. Oil is, you get oil prices coming down and they're going to come down and we're hitting in the threes now for gasoline, and that'll come down a lot lower.

And oil is dropping like it has never dropped before, at levels, that went, in numbers down $7, down $8. They've never seen anything like that.

Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already increased very substantially. And the normal flow of energy will resume in the coming days.

But if we didn't do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years. You would never have the Hormuz Strait open. You would never have success. Your market would have, instead of going up at levels that nobody's ever seen before, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929 or whatever.

Don't forget, if we were going to drop bombs, let's say we went another month, another two, three months, maybe weeks, could be another three months. Could be whatever. What do you have left? Maybe nothing. But you don't have -- the strait will never be open because people that own billion-dollar ships, these ships cost $1 billion, they don't like sailing ships or having their ships participate when you go up the coast and you go through the strait and there are rockets flying over your head. They want to protect their billion-dollar investment. You wouldn't have oil for maybe years.

If we keep bombing, those ships won't be going and you're talking about $500, $600, $700 million a day. It's a lot of money, a lot of money. That's why the world is OK, it's liquid, it's fine. Also, we run out of reserves in about four weeks. There are reserves all over the world and we would really run out and there would be a time when you wouldn't be able to get it, and you want to see bedlam.

We can never let that happen to our country again. To me, the worst, the worst inflation ever. We had the worst in prices and costs. It's all coming down now because the oil is bringing it down. You're going to see numbers that are going to be amazing,

I mean, one of the things I was very intent on, they have water desalination plants, very good ones. I could have knocked them out in five minutes, just like I knocked out Kharg Island. I knocked out everything but the oil. I said 25 -- it was so complete. The only thing there is the pipes coming with the oil, because I didn't want to ruin the world market, because they do a lot of money. But I didn't want to do that. No. It would have been so easy. It would have been easier, and I would have satisfied a group of 10 percent of the people, but it would have been the wrong thing to do, and it could have caused a -- it could have caused an international depression, maybe not.

We took a little journey down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we bombed the hell out of them, and now they can never have a nuclear weapon. Now, we had a disturbance, but I must say, it was much less than anybody thought. The oil never went to $350 a barrel, it went to $115, $120. The oil never went anywhere near that.

And the other thing, I thought the stock market would go down 25 or 30 percent. The stock market, a week ago, before we started this, was higher than it was when we started, which tells you that we have a very resilient economy. We have the strongest economy we've ever had.

And now that the oil is coming down, you're going to see everything follow. Everything follows the cost of energy and we're going to end up having the lowest energy anywhere in the world.

I don't think we're going to need much help because we have an agreement where it's going to be open and it's tollfree. We had a little argument on that. It's tollfree. So, I don't think we're going to need much help, but I don't think it's a bad idea to have a ship or two up here from a few countries. You'd be a great country to do it because you never know what happens. But I think it's going to be open and I think it's going to be free sailing.

This is a very powerful document and I want it to be released. So, probably pretty soon. I would say after sometime after Friday because the strait opens, it's open now, but it opens completely. We'll have all the mines knocked out for the most part. We have a lot of lanes right now already.

The Iran deal that we made is going to bring a lot of success to the world because the oil was really clogged up there for a while. He would call me on occasion say, ‘Come on, please. Let's go the oil prices,’ but the oil is coming way down.'

Very importantly, the oil is plummeting down and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket today, like record kind of numbers. And the oil has taken its biggest plunge and we're into the low numbers. Not quite back yet, Kevin, to the extent, but we're getting close to the numbers we were before it all started.

The deal's all signed and the strait is already partially opened. As you know, they're doing a little hunting for a couple of mines that they've already found. But it's essentially ships are starting to go out now, on Friday, it'll be completely opened.

Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz. They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!! President DJT

The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!

This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!

And the strait is open. But the straits have been open for a number of months already and you just didn't know about it.

I mean, the straits are going to open immediately upon signing. Maybe it'll be Saturday or Monday.

REPORTER: And when this deal is signed, is the United States going to immediately lift the blockade? TRUMP: Yes, that's part of the deal. And we'll have oil prices dropping like a rock.

The strait will officially open as soon as we sign which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe. I won't be able to be there, but JD will be there, vice president, and some of the people.

We bombed their radar and everything so they couldn't see what was going on. We took out some nights 25 ships, some nights 15. Last four or five nights we did 25, 22, 21, 26, 18, and 14. Who else would remember those numbers? Nobody. And but a lot of ships, a lot of oil is out. That's why oil, even before this, the market couldn't understand why it was so free. There was more oil than they thought what they're trying –to we took them out at night.

Oil's dropped. Oil will start coming down to I think even lower than it was before. We had, I said I was in Iowa. It was $1.85 a gallon. And I don't know if I'm going to get there, but we're going to get pretty close. It's going to come down. And when oil comes down, everything else comes down.

Millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that's why it's at $85, $90 a barrel instead of $250. But we have the greatest military in the world. [...] When this conflict is over -- Todd said, please call it a conflict, right? As opposed to the word war. He didn't like the word war, but it's sort of a conflict. It's a military operation. When it's over, you will see oil drop to where it was before. We're getting gasoline -- just before it started, I was in Iowa and we passed gas stations, $1.85 a gallon, and we'll be back at those levels very soon.

I said, I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran's going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. We have to go and attack. So we hit them with the B-2 bombers, which took a lot of courage. It was totally successful. We buried it, very hard to get. But now we had to make the second move. And I said, you know, the bad part is the stock market will go down by a lot based on predictions of experts, like 25 percent. And it was worth it. To me, it was worth it, not to have a nuclear weapon. And the other thing is that oil would go to $250 a barrel. It's at 85.

Because as soon as this war is over -- you know, I can say it now, something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it, Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships, late at night with no lights, because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out -- that's why oil is $85 a barrel.

REPORTER: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning. Could that be a– TRUMP: No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now, something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships, late at night with no lights because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out, That's why oil's $85 a barrel.

REPORTER: Do you expect inflation to come down between now and – TRUMP: Oh, when. When the war is over, it's coming down. It's going to come down like a rock.

REPORTER: Is there an oil or gasoline price, sir, in this conflict that would prompt you to release more from the strategic petroleum reserve? TRUMP: Well, we are and we are releasing more from a lot of a lot of oils coming out of the Hormuz Strait. A lot of it is coming out and if you notice the price is not very high, relatively speaking. I mean, it's lower than during the Biden administration. And he wasn't stopping a country from having a nuclear weapon.

So out of my short one and a half years, we have, we've had 73 brand new highs on the various stock exchanges. And that's a record. Nobody's ever had anything like that. And that's during a military conflict. So, you know, pretty amazing. And even the oil and gas, it's lower during a military conflict than it was during the Biden administration. And they didn't have that because, to them, it was ok that Iran has a nuclear weapon. And I say it's not ok.

They cannot have a nuclear weapon. And Lindsey has been fighting with me all the way, all the way for that. We've been a very tough team, and I think we are winning that battle, but you're really gonna win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory. It'll be a total victory. It'll happen very soon and oil prices will come tumbling down.

And when we have a completion, you will see things like you've never seen. The oil will go down. The stock market already, as you know, it's at an all-time high. Even in the midst of it, it hit all-time highs. We had 73 all-time highs in the short period of time that I've been in office, which is a record, by the way.

REPORTER: And yet, gas is up. Diesel is up. TRUMP: It's all coming down as soon as the war's over. REPORTER: Well, 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer. What's your message to TRUMP:The farmers are doing very well.

Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could've kept it that way. But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody. We're going to have higher gasoline. We’re going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people. Excuse me. Wait. It should've been done for 47 years. No president had the guts to do it. I did it, and I've done it. It's almost complete. As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock.

REPORTER: Are gas prices going higher or have they peaked? TRUMP: They're going to come low, very low. They're going to go lower than they were before. REPORTER: Have they peaked? TRUMP: As soon -- Well, it depends. I mean, it depends where the war goes. It could be, I'll have to give them a shot, and it could be we'll sign an agreement. If we sign an agreement, it'll go down now. Otherwise, it'll go down after we're finished.

REPORTER: Mr. President, on oil and gas prices, I know you're saying that oil prices and gas prices will fall after the conflict ends. Would you limit exports of gasoline if prices in the short-term go up? TRUMP: We can do a lot of things. We have a lot of alternatives. But the beautiful thing from our standpoint is, we have more oil and gas and coal and everything else than any other country on the planet.

REPORTER: Are US oil majors doing enough to boost output in the US? Are you asking them to do more? TRUMP: Well, we have -- we have everything we need. The world doesn't. But I will say, people thought it was going to be a lot worse. You know, today, I looked at $96 a barrel. People thought that was going to be $300 a barrel. And in the meantime, we're having great success with Iran.

REPORTER: How much oil have you gotten through the strait with the help of naval escorts? And are you asking, are you directing US forces to guide those ships through the strait, more tankers through the strait? TRUMP: A lot. I don't want to say how many, but a lot. A lot of oil is coming into our country. A lot of oil is coming into the world that people don't even know about, and that's why it's at $97 a barrel instead of $300 a barrel. And when that whole thing is straightened out it shouldn’t take long, one way or the other it’s going to get done. And when it's all straightened out, you're going to have oil prices drop down to maybe even lower than they were.

Now, it's been, over the last couple of months since we went in for the military operation, you've seen fertilizer go up and you've seen energy go up. It's going to come down to where it was or lower.

We're going to come out of Iran very quickly and it's going to be very strong one way or the other, whether it's a piece of paper or the very tough way, OK? The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we're going to come out and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago. Your fertilizers down, your energy's down, your oil, your gas is all coming way down.

And frankly, I thought it would go much higher than it did. I thought, frankly, that gasoline would be much higher than it was. I was in Iowa, another place I like a lot, and it was just before we started the excursion to Iran. And we passed gas stations, it was $1.85 a gallon, and we're going to get them down to those numbers again very quickly.

If you want to call it a war or if you want to call it a military operation, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And everybody agrees to that, no matter, almost everybody. But wait a minute, our gasoline prices are lower than they were with Biden without that. And he would have let them have, in fact, he inspired them to have, frankly, a nuclear weapon, him and Obama.

You know, we don't need it. We have our own, we have much more than we need in terms of oil and energy generally, but European countries and other countries, they need it tremendous.

We took a detour down to Iran because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Under any circumstances we can't let that happen. So, the reporters should be happy.

We had to take a detour as far as wishes for, and I'm very proud of that detour you know. By the way, just to finish off on that, we had the strongest stock market in history and I said, we have no choice, we have to do it. I knew it would affect it, but I was very happily surprised when I saw that today we had another stock market high.

Costs are coming down, you know, we took over the highest costs and the highest inflation in the history of our country. Costs are coming down. Everything's good and I hate to tell you this, but we've got to take a little detour and go down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we're going to have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon.

But one of the other things that's important and very important is that immediately upon signing the memorandum of understanding, the Hormuz Strait will open, and it'll open up quickly, and we've already had our minesweepers there, you know, we're sweeping, as you probably have heard. And these are underwater minesweepers. They're great, amazing technology. They're underwater because usually when you're looking for mines, that usually means you have some dangerous characters out there this way. So we're underwater, but we've swept mines and we've gotten most of them, we think. So but, the Hormuz Strait will open immediately upon signing.

You know, Biden had like 9-10% inflation and I inherited that and we have it way down. And then I said, I did have to say we have to do something about Iran because regardless of how well we're doing, we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. And we, they've already agreed they're not going to have a nuclear weapon

Now, our country on the other hand has the best stock market we've ever had. We have, with the exception of the oil for a short period of time, because of the war. I mean, you know, other than that, we have very little inflation. The country is doing fantastically.

TRUMP: We don't have very much inflation look if you take away just the price of gasoline the energy we have very little inflation we're doing very well, other than this. So, but that's a big, that's a big puller. You know, energy and gasoline and all that's a big factor. DEVINE: People feel it. TRUMP: So, it's, you know, it's a very important thing item and that'll start coming down very rapidly as soon as this ends, when it ends. But what we will have is we'll have a situation where Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And that's really more important than all of it.

We want low gasoline. You know, I had it, I had it down to a $1.85 a gallon. Think of it, a $1.85 in Iowa. I was in Iowa just before the war started and I had it down to a $1.85 a gallon in various parts of the country. And it'll be back there again at some point in the probably not too distant future. I think as soon as it ends, it's going to come.

It's already, by the way, it's already way down. You know that. I mean, I saw it the other day. It's $98 a barrel. So, everyone said it was going to be 300, $400 a barrel. It's $98 a barrel, but that's not a big price to pay. If you look at the possibility of them having a nuclear weapon, it's not a very big price to pay.

We did a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran or as they say the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we did that little excursion knowing that you know, hey, I just hit the highest stock market price in history at very little inflation. And I said, ‘Gentlemen and ladies, we're going to now have to make an excursion now because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.’ And that's what we've said.

DEVINE: And how do you see the economy, Iran, by say Labor Day, September 7, where's our country going to be? TRUMP: I think we're going to be in very good shape. We're in good shape right now. We have the blockade, which is amazing. Our navy is great. Our milit- We have the strongest military in the world.

DEVINE: So you think the blockade will still be in place by Labor Day? TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, I think it could be, but I think it's unlikely. I think that we'll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly.

DEVINE: Do you wish you waited until after the midterms? TRUMP: I could have, but I, no, because this is, this is too important. If I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon.

I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance. I think oil is going to come down very much. You have 1,700 boats right now that are loaded up with oil, and that’s going to be like an oil gusher. So I’m not worried about it at all, and the people understand it, and the only thing I care about, the thing I care about, I care about everything, but the thing I care about most at this point in life is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And if they want to try and have a new nuclear weapon, I will blow them up to kingdom come.

Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us. [...] It is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!

Well, we're winning Iran. It's a total win for us.

Look, two things with, number one, the strait has to be opened immediately and has to be free, no tolls, et cetera, et cetera. And number two is they can't have a nuclear weapon. That’s all there is. It's very simple. And then we're going to get out of there and we don't need the Strait. You know, we don't need it because we have more. So we produce now because of us, me, we produce more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined times two. Think of that. We double what they do. Add Saudi Arabia and Russia, multiply it times two, and we're going to be much higher. We’re the, we're the oil superpower, far greater than even Saudi Arabia, even Russia. But you add them up. These are two big monsters. You add them up, and we double it. We have a great country. We have had tremendous success.

So we're getting what we want slowly, very tough negotiators. It takes a long time. I'm in no hurry. I'd like to say I'm in a hurry because, you know, gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down. But if you're going to be in a hurry, you're not going to make a good deal.

REPORTER: How much economic pressure do you feel to get the Strait of Hormuz open? TRUMP: Well, you have to understand, the United States has so much oil that we are an exporter of oil. So we have plenty of oil. We're very lucky. We're blessed with the greatest piece of land in the world, from that standpoint.

REPORTER: Does that give you more urgency, Mr. President? You've said that you're in no rush to make a deal but with gas prices that are so high across the country, people are paying more for travel, does that give you more urgency to make a deal? Why doesn't it? TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you, the primary urgency I have, I said this, it wasn't covered properly, but the primary urgency is that we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

Those prices are going to come down. They're going to come down fast. I think, I think that you'll see, actually, Todd, I think you're going to see lower prices than we had even before we did this. Now, I knew there'd be an increase.

REPORTER: But the American people, sir, are seeing higher gas prices. TRUMP: Yeah, they are. REPORTER: It's come down a little bit, but it's still $4.45. TRUMP: No, it's come down. It'll come down a lot. It'll come down to where it was before. We had it, when I was in Iowa, we had, we're driving by and we saw gas stations, $1.90 a gallon, $1.85, $1.87, were the three that we saw.

We had gasoline down to a very low number. I think we'll be hitting that number, shortly after that whole excursion ends. But regardless of anything, regardless of anything, as Marco said, better than anybody can say it, you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

Iran is very much intent– they want very much to make a deal. […] Their whole economic system is broken down. They thought they were going to outwait me; you know, ‘We'll outwait him. He's got the midterms.’ I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was the prelude to the midterms. People understand it, they know that, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

So, we're producing right now more oil, by double, than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. There's never been anything like that. We have, we don't need oil, we don't need the strait, we don't need anything. But we have more oil now being produced by double, by two times, than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined.

By the way, the oil prices are going to tumble as soon as I finish up with Iran, tumble, boom. I was in Iowa, I was in Iowa, we had it down to $1.85 a gallon in Iowa, but we had it down around the $2 point. And then I said, well, Lutnick, we're going to have to take a trip to, we got Scott Bessent, we got all of them. I said, we just hit 50,000 on the Dow, and I said, that's a record, highest ever. I said, sorry to do this to you, but we're going to have to journey down to the Middle East.

And we'll have that over with soon. It'll be over with soon, and you're going to see numbers like you've never seen, both on the upside and also in terms of costs. You're going to see costs go down.

But prices are down. But the big thing is, of course, energy. We had the energy way down, but I had to do a journey to Iran. I had to say, you know, we just hit the best markets. By the way, the stock market today is at the highest it's ever been and we've had 59 of them, 59 days out of a very short period of time where the stock market hit all-time highs.

And this is with the Iran conflict. That'll end soon, very soon. And when it ends, your gasoline prices will go down lower than they were before. You know, I left Iowa a few months ago, and gasoline was at $1.85 a gallon. And we'll be hitting numbers like that again.

So, we're going to give this one shot. I'm in no hurry. You never think, ‘Oh, the midterms, I'm in a hurry.’ I'm in no hurry. I just, ideally, I'd like to see few people killed as opposed to a lot.

We're gonna end that war very quickly. They wanna make a deal so badly. They're tired of this, this should've happened for 47 years. Somebody should have done something about it and it's gonna happen and it's gonna happen fast and you're gonna see oil prices plummet. They're gonna come down. There's so much oil out there, they're gonna come plummeting down.

Two and a half months ago, we hit the best numbers that we've ever hit as a country. Jobs the best. Everything was the best. Stock market the highest. And I called my people in. I called them in. I said, "Congratulations everybody, but we're gonna have to make a little journey down to a place called Iran.

I think we're gonna be finished with that very quickly, and they won't have a nuclear weapon, and hopefully we're gonna get it done in a very nice manner. Factory construction, as you heard today also is up. Housing starts are up, and consumer spending is up. All things that, we have an economy, people aren't seeing it yet.

Look, as soon as this war is over, gas is going, you know, I had gasoline down to $1.85 in Iowa. I was in Iowa and the stations had it at $1.85. But I was down to, in many cases, less than $2.00 a barrel, a gallon. And then I said to myself, this is great, we just hit a new high in the stock market, everything is going good. I'm sorry, but we have to go down and take a little journey down to, we have to do something with Iran. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. You want to see the world explode? You want to see a problem? And this is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while, it won't be much longer.

I called Scott and Howard. I called them all into my office. I say, we're going to take a little excursion down to the Middle East, and we're going to confront Iran because they are desperate to have a nuclear weapon.

BAIER: Gas prices in America are still high, painfully high. TRUMP: They're going to drop like a rocket as soon as it's over. BAIER: Painfully high though now, and could be creeping higher before it's done. TRUMP: Well, lower than Biden. Excuse me, lower than Biden, and much lower than people thought they'd be.

When people hear me say it, everybody agrees. Short-term pain, it's going to be short-term pain, but the pain is much less than people thought, because people thought that the oil would go up to $250. You know, it was $99 yesterday, $99 a barrel. I thought it might go up to $200, I was okay with that, not that I wanted it.

When you tell somebody you're going to have to pay a little more, not that much more, a little more for gasoline, for a very short period of time, because we want to stop the threat of being blown to pieces by a lunatic, by a crazy person, and they are crazy using nuclear weapons. Everybody says that's fine.

The Strait will be open, they will not have a nuclear weapon, and the world will go on, and you will see gasoline prices drop, energy prices generally drop like no, but don't forget, they have a lot of boats that are loaded up with oil that are going to bring the oil out as soon as this is over.

[on his statement that he doesn't think about Americans' financial situations] That's right. That's a perfect statement. I'd make it again.

If I didn't make the little excursion to the country of Iran, I had to do it. We just hit the highest stock market ever, which by the way, now we're the highest, we're now higher than we were before the war started. And oil went up very little compared to what most people, even including me, I thought it would go up more, but it, that was okay for a short period of time because we, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

It's going to work out very well. I think you're going to have so much oil, you're going to have a gusher of oil like you've never had before. So when oil goes up a little bit, I thought it would go up much more. If you go back three, four months ago, when we were contemplating, we assumed oil would go much higher. Yesterday was at $99, and if you think about it, I would have taken that all day long, because it's very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

As soon as this war is over, which will not be long, you're going to see oil prices drop and you're going to see a stock market, which is already at the highest point in history, go through the roof. You're going to see the golden age of America, frankly, and you're seeing it now.

When it's over, you're going to have a massive drop in the price of oil, which a lot of people thought would be higher. And I mean, it was a hundred, it was $99 yesterday, which is low, which is relatively low. When this war is over, oil is going to drop, the stock market's going to go through the roof and truly, I think we're in the golden age right now. You're going to see a golden age like we've never seen before.

REPORTER: When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, what extend are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal? TRUMP: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters, when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.

The economy is going to be unbelievable as soon as this war ends. It already is. They said we just broke the record for the best stock market. 401ks are booming for people. And I think we we're going to have I had the best economy in history in my first four years. And I think this one's going to blow it. But I had to take a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran. I had to do a little excursion and get rid of the nuclear weapons.

The economy is gonna be unbelievable as soon as this war ends. It already is. I said, we just broke the record for the best stock market. 401Ks are booming for people and I think we, we're gonna have, I had the best economy in history in my first four years and I think this one's gonna blow it. But I had to take a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. Supposed to be the best in the business. Well, you know what? It's, I figured it would triple when we did, we had to make an excursion to the beautiful country of Iran. We didn't want to let them have a nuclear weapon. And we made the right decision. And we've got it pretty good. And those prices are going to come crashing down as soon as that's over.

Let me tell you, as soon as this is over with, Iran, as soon as it's over, you're going to see,, gasoline and oil drop like a rock. It's going to be dropping down like a rock.

And it's sort of amazing, you know, it found its way. So a lot of people thought oil would go to $250, $300. It's not. I mean, today it's at less than $100. Think of that. Now, when this ends, you're going to see a drop like a rock.

REPORTER: Are you considering maybe going back to that now that gas prices are more than $4.50? TRUMP: Well, no, gas prices have come down today. Have you looked? They've come down very substantially today. The gas prices, you know what's happened today? Gas prices are way down, and the stock market is way up today. So, gas prices have come down. And I saw today, that they broke negatively, in other words, to our positive position, they broke our way very substantially. And when the war is over, gas will fall down at levels that you've never seen before. You'll be down to where you were, maybe even lower.

And oil is coming down and the stock market today just hit an all time high. You know, I was reading about doom and gloom. We had to do, we had to do what we did. We took a little U-turn. We just hit the highest number in the history of our country with the stock market. And I said to my people, "We're going to have to take a little U-turn and go to the lovely country of Iran and blow them up a little bit because they're not going to have a nuclear weapons."

When, when this is over, I think you're going to see oil prices drop down to the levels where they were and maybe lower. There's a lot of oil out there.

But I thought we'd be down maybe 20 percent and we're up. The stock market is higher now than when we started this war. And I thought oil prices would go to $200, $250. It's at $100 now. And I think you're surprised and I'm surprised. But even if it went to $200, it would have been worth it, I understood that.

We had just set a record, 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the S&P, a record. And I said, I hate to do this, but we have to make an excursion down to Iran because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Gas prices in the United States are $1.48 a gallon? You said they would come back down. TRUMP: They’ll drop lower than they were before.

So, when I did this, I thought the market would go down 25 percent and I thought that was a great deal if it did. If it went down 25 percent, I was satisfied. I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon, they'll use it, we can't. I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300, and I knew it would be short term, but I thought it would go up. I look today, it's like at 102, and that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

When I first did this, I thought maybe the market would go down 20 or 25%. And I was okay with that because I know it would come back up, but I thought it would go down and I thought oil could hit $200, $250. Well, oil's at $100, $102, and you did too. Most people did.

When this war ends, gasoline and oil and everything, it's going to come tumbling down. But right now, as of this moment, the stock market has hit record highs. We have more people, again, working in the United States today than at any time in the history of our country. We are really doing well.

Now, gasoline is high, other prices are way down, but gasoline is high. But when this is over, you'll have a world without a nuclear weapon with Iran. If you allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, the world would be in great jeopardy so it's not going to happen. As soon as the war ends, the gasoline prices will come down.

We got a little rise with gasoline. It’s going to come down lower than what it was. Don't forget, we had that gasoline down to $2 and below $2 in many cases. It's going to come tumbling down. There is so much oil out there. It's pent up. It's all locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, a beautiful place. It's, I think they have close to 400 ships loaded up with oil. When all of that gets released, when all of that comes out, these people tried to hold up our country for years and years, the world, by closing up the Strait of Hormuz. When all of that stuff comes out, you're going to see prices dropping on gasoline like you've never seen. And all of that, electricity, gasoline, anything having to do with energy.

Those ships are coming up instead of the Hormuz Strait. They're coming up. Those ships are coming up by the hundreds. They're loading up in Texas, Louisiana, Alaska but we had those beautiful words. We have plenty of oil we have more oil we have double the oil if you add up Saudi Arabia and Russia, we're more than double what they produced together. Think of that. The words are drill, baby, drill.

But I did something that was, I don't know, foolish, brave. But it was smart, I would do it again, but I thought the numbers would be much worse. I thought the stock market would go down much more. I thought the oil prices would go up much more.

Everyone's doing great, oil prices were very low, they were 60 and 70. They were buying oil for $2 and even less. Let's remember just a couple of months ago, you were at $2 and $1.85. I was in Iowa it was $1.85 a gallon. I said, congratulations. Now, I'm going to upset the apple cart for you, because we have to take a little journey down to a beautiful country known as Iran and we have to make sure that they don't have a nuclear weapon.

I said, look, we're going to have to make this journey. So, it's almost like we built up this great thing and then I said, now we have to break the eggs a little bit and we have to go and do it and the only thing that I'm surprised is that I really thought oil would be, Dr. Oz, we talked about it I thought oil would be much, much higher than it turned out to be. I mean, it's not low. It's certainly not low. It's going to come crashing down as soon as this war is over and they're getting decimated.

We had to make a detour to Iran. Everything will snap back. We were down to less than $2 for gasoline in Iowa. I was in Iowa two months ago, just before the, uh, the little skirmish took place, is taking place, and, price for gasoline was $1.85 a gallon. And we were a lot of places were $2, some below $2. And I believe it will snap back very, very quickly, as soon as, there's so much oil. These ships are loaded up with oil. They can't get out of the strait. We’ll, I think we're going to have it solved.

Core inflation has dropped to a five-year low, with the exception of oil prices, which is just I think most of the people in this room understand that. As soon as it's over, it's going to drop like a rock. I think it goes below where it was because there's so much oil. It's not like, it would be a problem if there wasn't a lot. There's so much oil out there.

The only thing that is up is the gasoline and that's coming down. But, you know, with all of this and I say it again, we had to do this little excursion because if we didn't, if they had a nuclear weapon, this world would be in, it would be a horror.

They used the Hormuz Strait as a weapon for many, many years. They said they'll close it, so they closed it. Then I closed it on them, which is sort of, they want a little business; they get no business. But it's going to work out because everything works out.

You know, it's amazing. I come into office and I say, ‘Wow, look at how high these prices are.’ And the Democrats start screaming, ‘Affordability, affordability.’ They're the ones that cause the problem. I'll tell you one thing, they got one good line of bullshit. That's one thing I'll say about it. They are so bad. They are so bad. It's true. Affordability.

[image of a graphic claiming that oil was down 25% or $30 per barrel cheaper since the Biden administration]

Wait until you see, when the war ends, even with the war, you know, we just hit a new high on the economy. Think of it. We hit a new high. We have the best economy. The stock market just now hit a new high during the war or the military operation, whatever you'd like to call it. I mean, we are doing great.

The gas will go down. As soon as the war is over, it'll drop like a rock. There's so much of it. It's all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world, and it'll go down.

So we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [...] We had to do that. I took the greatest economy we have ever had and I said, we're going to have to take a little detour and stop that from happening. And that's what happened. And we have done a great job. And it'll come to an end very soon. And we're going to be very victorious.

I called all of these people and others and I said, "We have to take a little journey. I hate to do this. We just had the great number. We just broke 50,000." Wasn't supposed to happen during my term. Wasn't reachable. Did it in one year and I said, "We're gonna have to make a journey to Iran. They, they're gonna have a nuclear weapon if we don't do it."

I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel. And oil is at a very different number than anyone thought. In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use. We're actually, ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States while this is closed, the Hormuz Strait.

REPORTER: If it does go to 200, are you OK with that, sir, if oil goes to 200? TRUMP: I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities or three. I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe.

REPORTER: Excuse me. What do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know that they are having higher gas prices? TRUMP: You are such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam, how many years was Vietnam?

REPORTER: If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future? TRUMP: For a little while. REPORTER: But how long? TRUMP: You know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East. You want to see what shock would be? And I have to be honest; the stock market is at an all-time high right now. I thought it would have been down 20, 25 percent.

REPORTER: How long are you willing to wait until you get– TRUMP: Don't rush me. Don't rush me, Jeff. You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh, so we were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years. We were in for all the, I don't like to say World War II because that was a biggie, but we were four and a half, almost five years in World War II. We were in the Korean War for seven years. I've been doing this for six weeks, and their military is totally defeated.

I said, "I hate to tell you, fellas, but we have to do a little bit of a detour. We have to go to Iran and make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon." We had just broken every financial record. And, the amazing thing is we continue to break them even during the war. Now, fuel went up, but I thought it would have gone up much more.

For those people, fewer in number now than ever before, that are reading The Failing New York Times, or watching Fake News CNN, that think that I am ‘anxious’ to end the War (if you would even call it that!) with Iran, please be advised that I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position. I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!

We're going down to a place called Iran, and we're going to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon because they'll use it to blow up [...] And they said, wow, that's going to be bad. I said, yeah, it's going to hurt the market, and it's going to drive up the price of oil and whatever it is. But that's peanuts compared to what would happen if we let this happen.

But the fact is that we took this little journey. And if you would have told me that the Dow was almost, I'm looking at your thing, I mean, literally, we're at 50,000. And if you would have told me that oil is at $90 as opposed to $200, I would be frankly surprised.

I thought the oil would be much higher and I'm very happy to say that it wasn't. And when it's over, and it will end, when it's over, you know they wanted it to be over immediately.

As we get them to no nuclear weapons in Iran, which is gonna happen, I think, very quickly, actually, we've just decimated them. But as soon as we get that, you're gonna see prices drop, you're gonna see energy come down like you've never seen it before. All these things are gonna happen. But I got rid of, you go right before, and even now, you go right before the, the fact that I had to make that little journey.

[on Wright's assessment that gas prices may not drop until 2027]: No, I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong.

We're ending wars all over the place by the way, with the exception of our little excursion and wait till you see prices fall. Did you see oil is down today and prices are down today?

We're having some fake inflation because of the fuel, the energy prices, which everybody said was going to $250. We were talking about that, Scott. They said $250, $300. I mean, today, what was it? It finished at $89 or $90, right? And that's in the, you know, we haven't settled yet, and maybe we won't, but I think, I think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. [...] I had people, we have consultants, great guys that we both know, we see, and they're very talented. "Sir, if you do this, fuel is gonna go to $300 a barrel," right? One guy in particular who we like a lot. But I said, "I don't think so. I think we're gonna be good."

REPORTER: On gas prices, how much longer will Americans continue to see these high gas prices? TRUMP: Well, they're not very high, if you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon, with the danger that entails. So the gas prices have come down very much over the last three, four days.

I think we're very close to making a deal with Iran. You'll be the first to know, but I think we're, we have a chance. And if that happens, oil goes way down, prices go way down.

BARTIROMO: You think gas prices will be lower before the midterm elections? TRUMP: I think they will be much lower, before the midterm, much lower, yes. On the assumption that we stop a country that could not have a nuclear weapon, [...] on the assumption that we have that settled hopefully long before that, and maybe almost immediately, could be very soon, when that’s settled, gas prices will go down tremendously, and gasoline and gas prices, cost per barrel, fill up your car, per gallon anyway you look at it, numbers will go down. Electricity’s going to go down. It fuels everything.

BARTIROMO: Oil prices are up 50%, the stock market had a tough first quarter. TRUMP: You’re right, but they're not up– BARTIROMO: You thought it was going to be worse. TRUMP: Honestly, I thought they would be much, and I was willing to do that to stop a nuclear weapon to be used against this country or the Middle East. Anybody in the Middle East. They we're going to take out the Middle East, to stop that, it was certainly worthwhile, it’d be much higher that it is right now.

If you told me at only 92 a barrel, $92 a barrel, I would've been very surprised, and you know what? I’m very happy, and it’s going to come dropping very big as soon as this as this is over, and I think it could be over very soon. If they’re smart, it will end soon.

BARTIROMO: Overall, the impact on the economy, do you expect it a hit to growth, do you expect a spike in inflation? TRUMP: Look, there is a hit, because we go through it for whatever it is, six weeks. There’s going to be a hit, but it’s going to recover I think fully. Somehow, they misquoted me. I think oil will be down to the level that it was, you know, they said I expect oil to be high at the midterms, I don't expect that. I think we will be around where we were maybe even lower.

BARTIROMO: Is this all going to be enough? The blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity in the United States, is this going to be enough to lower the price of oil and gas, sir? TRUMP: Well, it's going to be, eventually, it's going to be lower. No, it might not happen initially, but it's going to go down.

BARTIROMO: So, do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections? TRUMP: I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same.

Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home. This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.

And, in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally. They're going to want to be able to sell oil because that's all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up. They haven't come down very much. Frankly, they came down a little bit, but they've had some very good days over the last couple of days. We've done actually much better than I thought, but we had to take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat.

The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won't be taking any in the future. We don't need it. We haven't needed it and we don't need it.

REPORTER: Mr. President, a couple of questions for you on Iran. But first, one that affects Americans here at home, gas prices. Today they hit $4. TRUMP: We have $4, yeah, and we have a country that's not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us in six months. REPORTER: Of course, but Americans are feeling the effects in the interim of this operation. TRUMP: And they're also feeling a lot safer. REPORTER: What is the plan to bring them back down? TRUMP: All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll come tumbling down.

When this war ends, it's going to be like a rocket ship. I thought we were going to go down more, and I thought oil prices were going to go up higher than they are now. It's not finished yet. I'm not saying -- it's finished, but it's not finished. It's got to be finished. And I thought that we would see a bigger drop in stock. Hasn't been that bad.

Secretary Scott Bessent will discuss the actions that we're taking to address energy prices, which have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. And, you know, it's not over, so maybe it'll go up a little bit more. It's all going to come back down to where it was, and probably lower. And my predictions have been right.

Frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more, and I thought the stock market would go down more, hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought.

REPORTER: You talked about gas prices coming down, obviously they will. Would you ever consider suspending the federal gas tax in order to kind of temporarily alleviate some– TRUMP: Well, some people should do that. [...] It hasn't, I mean, we've thought about it, I guess, but, honestly, when I did this, I knew it was going to be a little bit, we had the greatest economy ever. We had the greatest stock market in history. I said, we're going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit. It's going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion.

I said, "We have to take a little bit of a detour." We have to take a little journey to a place called Iran where these mad people were going to have a nuclear weapon and they could do tremendous damage, not only to the Middle East and Israel, but also to our country because we would be next. And I said, "We're gonna take a little detour and we're gonna go and we're gonna knock them out."

I actually thought when I went on this excursion, as I call it, excursion into hell, excursion into a terrible place. [...] We had no choice, but I thought it would be much worse. I thought that the energy prices, oil price would go go up higher. I thought the stock market would go somewhat lower, but it didn't matter to me. It's short term.

The price of oil will drop like a rock as soon as a deal is done. I guess it already is today.

We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country known as Iran that for 47 years has been just a purveyor of terror, and they're very close to having a nuclear weapon. We can keep going and get that 50,000 up to 55,000 and 60,000. There's no end. Or we can take a stop and make a little journey into the Middle East and eliminate a big problem. And, Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up and you said, let's do it, because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Mr. President, the price of oil is way up. The stock market is dying. TRUMP: It's going to go down. REPORTER: Did you miscalculate the cost of going into Iran? TRUMP: No, no, no. No. We're not giving a nuclear weapon to terrorist thugs and we're, we're knocking the hell out of them.

REPORTER: But did you expect the economic effect? TRUMP: And, no, I expected worse, actually. I really thought, I thought that oil prices would go much higher when I did that.

I said, "I have to go off on that path and I have to take a little journey." [...] But we had to go off on a circuitous path and take care of business and we have, we are in the process of doing it. And I'll tell you, I think we're weeks ahead of schedule.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you intend to lift sanctions on Iranian oil? And do you intend to potentially put US troops or more troops in the region? TRUMP: No. I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops, and we will do whatever is necessary to keep the price.

Everything was going great, the economy was great, oil prices were very low, gasoline was dropping to -- I mean we had $1.99, $1.85, we had great everything. And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion and, when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world.

So, I wanted to put out that fire and I said, you let me do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse, much worse actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad and it's going to be over with pretty soon.

We had to do a little excursion, if you don't mind, little excursion to take care of nuclear weaponry in the hands of maniacs, but other than that, in a couple of weeks, and won't be much longer, it's moving along fast. We're way ahead of schedule.

It'll bounce back so fast, the oil prices will drop like a rock and the economy is so powerful, so strong.

We took a little bit of a journey, a little bit of an excursion over the last two weeks because we thought we had to do something about very bad people that want to have nuclear weapons.

I called it an excursion. I didn't want to make this journey. We had the highest stock market in history. We had low gas prices, everything was good and I know exactly, I know what, you know, you're going to do it and people are going to raise the price of oil. But I know that, but that's a very small thing compared to allowing them to have, you want to see a stock market go down? Start letting them hit you with nukes, OK? I said it this morning, I think it's a very small price to pay and frankly, I thought it was going to go down much more, if you want to know the truth. I assumed that it was going to go down much more.

REPORTER: Have your advisors told you anything in terms of how long we can expect gas prices as high as they are right now? TRUMP: I don't need advisors to tell me that. I know what it is. [...] I can tell you that when this is over, oil prices are going to go down very, very rapidly, so is inflation, so is everything else.

But frankly, much more important than short-term or even long-term oil prices, you can't let the most violent, vicious country in the last 50 years have a nuclear weapon, because the Middle East will be gone.

The prices are gonna come tumbling down as soon as it's over and it's gonna be over pretty quickly. [...] I can't say that, you know, gee, I, I don't want have any impact on oil prices for three or four weeks, or two months, and we're gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon and blow up the entire place and beyond, right?

Well, I think your gas prices, as soon as that's over, are gonna come tumbling down along with everything else. I think it's going to be, you're gonna see a very big decrease in the price of gasoline, gas, anything having to do with energy, as soon as this has ended.

Look, we took an excursion. We had the greatest economy ever. We still do. And we have to do a little excursion to get rid of mad, mad people, crazy people that have, that wanna have nuclear weapons.

The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money. BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World.

I'm pleased to report that earlier today, the International Energy Agency agreed to coordinate the release of a record 400 million barrels of oil from various national petroleum reserves around the world, which will substantially reduce the oil prices as we end this threat to America and this threat to the world.

And my administration, as you know better than anybody, is also working to keep the oil flowing. It's all flowing all over.

And we did a little excursion, we had to take this little couple of weeks, few weeks of excursion, but it's been incredible. [...] We're doing our job, so we had to take an excursion, but it's doing well. The market's holding up well. I figured we'd be hit a little bit, but we were hit probably less than I thought, and we'll be back on track in a pretty short while.

Prices are coming down very substantially, oil will be coming down. That's just a, that's just a matter of war. It happens very, you can almost predict it. I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It's going to come down more than we, than anybody understands.

We had to take an excursion. But it's doing well. The market's holding up well. I figured we'd be hit a little bit, we were hit probably less than I thought, and we'll be back on track in a pretty short while. Prices are coming down very substantially. Oil will be coming down. That's just a, it's just a matter of war. It happens very, you can almost predict it. I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It's gonna come down more than we, than anybody understands.

This is an excursion, a little excursion, and I think it's only that. And in that little time, that short period of time, we've taken care of business. We took care of a country that was very dangerous, very bad, would've had a nuclear weapon if it weren't for me and the B2 bombers and what we did not very long ago.

REPORTER: I want to ask you about it, something that's on everybody's mind, gas prices. Last few weeks folks have been seeing them go up. Are you looking at a threshold for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Saw the announcement from the IEA earlier today. TRUMP: Well, we'll do that, and then we'll fill it up. I filled it up once, and I'll fill it up again. But right now we'll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.

In recent years, the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks on hundreds of commercial vessels. We're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all. And the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families. We've done that, we've done it. We brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done.

You know, Iran was supposed to be this big, powerful country. We wrapped the hell out of them and, you know, I don't know when they cry uncle, but they should have cried it two days ago, right? But they don't have anything left. In our country, inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising, the economy is surging

Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.

REPORTER: Are you worried about gas prices right now? TRUMP: No. This is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years. 47 years it's taken to do this, and no president had the guts to do it.

This is an excursion. We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. They'll also come down. They'll come down very fast, and we will have gotten rid of a major, major cancer by the face of the earth.

I don't have any concern about it. [...] They'll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.

Yesterday, my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices, including offering political risk insurance for tankers transiting into the Gulf. As you know, pretty dangerous territory. Further action to reduce pressure on oil is imminent and the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized. We had it very low.

But I had to take this little detour if it's OK with everybody. Scott, it's OK with you? Scott's the one that has to put up with it.

So, if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before.

We attacked Kharg Island last night; we knocked out a piece -- I said, don't touch the oil because maybe we'll take over Kharg Island. We may take over Kharg Island, there's not a thing they can do about it. But I said, don't hit the pipes, just hit everything else.

They're never going to have a nuclear weapon and they admit they're never going to have it, but they behave badly, always behave badly. There's something wrong with them. But when we did this, we thought oil would go much higher and it didn't go very high, and now it's coming way down and you're going to see oil drop very low. Now maybe we'll do some other things that could lift it a little bit, but I don't think it's going to lift it a lot at all. I think oil is coming down.

The prices are coming down. And when the oil comes -- you know, the oil is coming way down. The oil dropped by 50 percent in the last month, and when that comes down, it brings everything else down. Its affordability and they came up with a word, affordability.

TRUMP: I brought it down and the oil is coming down very big. REPORTER: Brent crude is up slightly today on the -- TRUMP: A little bit, yeah, because we hit them. Any time we hit them, it goes up a little bit, to $2. REPORTER: Is that what you mean -- is that what you meant when you said that we might see oil prices lift a little in response to -- TRUMP: A little bit, yeah, $2, very little. It's down from, let's say $135, down to $69. It's dropping and everything else drops when -- as oil goes, so goes everything else. But any time we hit it, we hit Iran, oil goes up a little bit. It's all right.

As you know, the oil is down we'll see whether or not we keep it down. We should keep it down. We're doing things that should have been done 47 years ago with Iran.

I think it's a tremendous success, Iran. And you see the oil prices are lower than they were when I started and people like to say that.

The prices of oil are dropping like a rock. Now they'll be up a little bit and this will end very quickly. We have a tremendous -- we have an oil glut right now because we got all those boats out of the strait and it's going to drop.

Oil's coming down. Now I've got to, I have to make sure of one thing, that we don't have lunatics having control over nuclear weapons.

I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly and will only make it safer, including for oil. Oil is going to be very free, very easy, and it's going to happen very fast. We have the Hormuz Strait; the boats have pulled out. I mean, there's a gusher of oil right now, we have a lot of oil.

We have a lot of oil. The United States has more oil than anybody. And when you add Venezuela to it, it's like, we have far more oil than any -- don't need the straits. We do this because we think it's an important thing to do.

Well, I think people know. Look, oil is now at a level that it was, I think it's even lower on a barrel basis, than it was before we started. We've gotten concessions. Now, they have to hold those concessions, but there'll be no nuclear weapon.

You know, one of the reasons we kept the oil down because a lot of people said, Kevin, and a lot of people were saying that oil could go to $300, $350 a barrel. But one of the reasons that prediction wasn't right is we were taking out on average of 10, but sometimes less, sometimes more. Three weeks ago, we had a night, 22 ships came out of the strait and the famous Strait of Hormuz. Nobody ever heard of, but it's some, that is some big money machine I'll tell you what.

REPORTER: You know what has been a really good indicator of what's happening in the war in Iran, or whatever the conflict, is oil. And regardless of what we hear from whomever has the stage in Iran, you've pointed out we don't know who's talking at any given time, there's different factions -- TRUMP: Well, we killed one group -- REPORTER: And then another. TRUMP: We killed the second level -- REPORTER: But 67, $68 oil. TRUMP: We're down to lower than we were before.

They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Or if you want to see market disruption -- so think of it. The oil today is at $68, the market is up to almost 53,000. The S&P, they said the S&P would never hit 7000.

Now, if I want to be the tough guy and close up the Strait for the next years, where 21% or whatever it might be, 20% 21% of the oil never comes out, and you can't get oil anymore -- you know, what a lot of people don't know one of the reasons it only went up -- it went up to like $115 If you remember. And I've seen guests on your show where they go, oil will be $350 a barrel, and there'll be a depression, because at 350 there's a depression.

I said we got to do something. We did something nobody knew. Every night, we were taking ships out through the South, which is the furthest point from where they have their little weapons, and they were going along the coast with no lights for a month and a half, a lot of ships came out. We had one night where we took 22 ships out. That's a lot of oil. Those are big ships, some of them are really big ships.

And those prices are all coming down and you see fuel is coming way down. It's dropping like a rock, just like I said, because those boats are coming out of the Hormuz Strait. They're coming out by numbers that nobody ever saw. We're setting records actually.

The oil is dropping. We have some great oilmen here. I don't know if they're happy or sad. I don't give a damn if they're happy or sad, I want the prices to go down. And the oil is dropping like nobody thought possible. But I told you it would. Total control, we have total control of everything.

The oil price is way down. We're down at $68, I see it hit $68 today. That's lower than when I started the -- I guess you could call it an attack on Iran so that they'd never have a nuclear weapon. So, the oil price is now lower, the retail prices, the gasoline is coming down rapidly.

You know, oil prices are way down. We hit $69 today. It was higher than that prior to the denuclearization of Iran, a fight that we have, which we're doing very well.

Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY! They’re too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south. The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE! There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead! Start targeting around the $2.50 a Gallon number, and California should stop charging such heavy Taxes on their Gasoline. Soon the Tax will be higher than the Product itself, and the United States will not stand for it, nor will the People of California, who are being abused by these ridiculous Taxes, and by their own Government. President DONALD J. TRUMP

The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’ I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing! President DJT

WTI CRUDE - $69, and heading down. This is less than it was prior to the start of the Denuclearization of Iran! President DJT

GAS PRICES COMING DOWN, FAST! REPORT ANY ABUSES AT RETAIL LEVEL!!! President DJT

Mayor Mamdani, who came to the White House and seems like a nice guy, but he said he was going to do this in his campaign. Nobody thought he was serious. He said he was going to make sure that people don't have a rent increase, even though energy went up. It's going to come down. It's coming down fast right now. I hope you're watching what's happening. We had a low number just now, $69 a barrel. That was -- some people said it was going to be 350 by now. $69, is going to be $300, $350. Never hit those numbers at all, even in the height of it all, but what the mayor doesn't say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums, and that everybody will continue leaving New York.

We had to take that detour to knock out Iran. If we didn't do that -- and we're still -- you know, we still have a fight. They have some capability, not much. They're not winning or anything, but they have some -- they can still shoot. You know, they shot a drone yesterday at a big ship going into the Hormuz Strait. They shot four of them, we knocked down three of them. One of them, I guess we didn't miss it, nobody saw it coming. And it hit a ship and did some damage. But you can't do that stuff. But very soon they will be -- we're going to be at $2.50 gasoline. You know, I was in Iowa making a speech the day before we did the attack and, again, we had to turn it around.

Over the past few weeks, the stock market and your 401(k)s skyrocketed upward like pretty much nobody's seen before. Oil prices are plummeting downward, and the world is a much safer place.

And I said, "We're gonna journey down. We're gonna do what we have to do." And we did. We knocked the hell out of 'em, and now we're negotiating from a position of pure strength, pure strength. They know that. And the strait's already open, and we're setting records in the strait.

We today have the highest stock market in history and oil is down now at the same price, a similar price, but maybe even, I think it's going to go lower, but it's dropped. It's about $70 a barrel. It was just about that level when we started the war.

They wanna make a deal with us very badly, and, uh, we probably will. I think we will. But the strait is open. Yesterday, they took out 19 million barrels of oil. That's the most in the history of the strait, and the oil prices are dropping like a rock. And you know, as goes oil, so goes everything else, including all of your products.

But what we're really doing well is oil is plummeting and costs are coming down. Affordability, we're doing great. The Democrats gave us a tremendous affordability problem, and we're reducing prices a lot.

REPORTER: Mr. President. Earlier today you instructed your Department of Justice to do an investigation for oil companies that you said gas prices were not coming down quick enough. And you are concerned that there is price gouging going on, taking advantage of the crisis, sir. Can you elaborate on that? TRUMP: So, it's ExxonMobil, it's Chevron, it's Shell, it's BP. It's a lot of them. The gasoline or the oil prices have come down so much and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be. We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump, and we're higher than that. And we are doing a big investigation on it, yeah. They're not reducing the prices commensurate with what's happening.

Look, we are sending out, think of it, 19 million barrels came out yesterday. That is a flood, that's like a gusher, that's an oil gusher, and they should be much lower. The gasoline prices, which really is what people see more than anything else, but, you know, for their car. But the gasoline prices should be much lower at the pump, and the oil companies are possibly gouging. I hope they're not otherwise they're going to be in big trouble.

Since the agreement, the stock market and your 401(k)s are skyrocketing upward. And oil prices are plummeting downward today. It hit a new low and the world is a much safer place. We had to make that little journey to Iran to do what we did. Very soon you'll be at $2.50 a gallon for gasoline.

And last week we signed a historic agreement to end the conflict with Iran, fully open the Strait of Hormuz, and accomplish what no president has ever been able to accomplish before. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's done. And thanks to the power and skill of the United States Armed Forces, today Iran has no Navy, no Air Force, no anti-aircraft capacity, no missile launches, no manufacturing, and their leadership has been obliterated. And for the first time in 3,000 years, we are finally going to have peace in the Middle East.

I see that oil just broke the $70 number. Who would have thought that was going to happen? And that's during a war. And Iran is being very nice. They're agreeing to everything that I want, and they have to. Otherwise, we just go back and do what we have to do.

19 Millions Barrels of Oil flowed out of the Hormuz Strait yesterday, an all time RECORD. Oil prices are tumbling down, and the World is a much safer place!!!

And right now, as you probably heard yesterday, we had 19 barrels of oil, 19 million barrels of oil come off, and that's the biggest in the history of the Strait, the Hormuz Strait. Our stock market is through the roof and oil prices are tumbling. We actually hit for a moment today. In fact, I think it's going to break at $70 a barrel.

The average price of gasoline nationwide is down $0.60 a gallon just from a short while ago. And remember this -- remember this. We had to make this detour. We had to go to Iran and you can't let them blow up the Middle East and then us, if that's possible. We would have gotten them before, but they would have blown up Israel.

We just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and by the way, yesterday, 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz, a very beautiful place. That's the most -- that's the most oil in the history of the strait. No. It's never been any -- you've never seen anything like it. It's called an oil gusher and most importantly, we are ensuring one thing very importantly, because this is why I did it. I did it for this reason, 99 percent for this, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and they've agreed to that.

Oil, for the first time in months hit, think of it, $70 a barrel. So we got it 70. That equates to a very low price that oil is going to come, charging down, and with oil comes everything else because I inherited from these Dumocrats.

Prices are coming down right now at levels that you've never seen. And now with oil crashing, you're going to see something really amazing.

I just want to say, before we introduce a couple of the people, we're doing very well with respect to the Hormuz Strait. We took in more oil yesterday than we've ever -- than has ever gone through the strait. You probably see that. We have an -- we have an oil gusher. The strait is totally open. You know that.

Well, a nuclear weapon supersedes depression. Depression's real bad. Nuclear weapon will cause depression much more quickly. The way we're doing it, we have the opposite of a depression. We're doing really well. The numbers are incredible. The oil is at a level that nobody's ever seen before. Oil prices are way down. I think they're very comparable to what they were. Chris, I don't know, pretty comparable to what they were before we started, right?

And two days ago, we set a record, most ever taken out of the straits. Pent up, but it's -- it's a record.

REPORTER: Vice President Vance said that there are mechanisms in place to make sure that there's not escalations with the Strait of Hormuz and with Israel and Lebanon. Can you talk about what those mechanisms are, and are you in direct talks with the supreme leader? TRUMP: Well, yeah. Look, look, here's the thing. As long as they respect us -- I don't want to use the word fear because that's an inappropriate word. But as long as they respect us, we're not going to have any trouble. We have total control of the strait.

Those ships are flowing out of the Hormuz Strait like nobody's ever seen before, actually. There were a lot of them, about 700 of them and they're pouring out and the oil is all over the place. You're gonna see oil drop so low, I hope the companies are happy about it.

An agreement that was signed last night and it's 60 days they have to make a deal otherwise we, we will do things that won't make them happy, but I don't think it's gonna get to that. I think it's gonna be very good. Remember, if we do that, then all of a sudden you're not gonna have the oil flowing out of the strait too quickly because people that own billion dollar ships don't love missiles flying over them, don't love mines all over the water.

I just do want to say, though, the stock market just hit a new all-time high. The 401(k)s just hit a new all-time high. And oil is dropping like a rock. Other than that, it's another day in paradise.

So right now, our stock market is through the roof. The oil prices are tumbling. The oil prices are practically the same as there were before I started. The big difference is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

We wouldn't have oil for months. As long as you're dropping bombs, that thing is automatically closed because those ships cost $500 to a billion dollars a piece. They're not gonna be sailing with rockets. So just to finish, I just looked. Oil is tumbling. Their ships are roaring out of there. They wanna go home. They wanna drop. They're all full with oil. This is a gusher. I mean, this, we have seven or 800 ships are leaving. But if I attack them, none of those ships are leaving.

Inflation was really bad, but that wasn't the worst thing. The worst that, 'cause I inherited all this stuff. Look at what's happening with prices. Now they're coming down. And with the oil, they're really coming down. I had to make an excursion to stop a very volatile group of people that are smart.

Now, in addition to that, the strait is going to be open toll-free. And it's toll-free beyond the 60 days. It's not -- somebody said, oh, it's toll-free for 60 -- no, no, its toll free, period. When it opens permanently, it'll be toll free.

And we just signed a deal with Iran and this country was very, very -- a very powerful ally and good things are happening. The ships are starting to move now. We're going to have it fully open by Friday. The ships are starting to move nicely. Oil is starting to go, and the prices are coming down rapidly. Stock market is going up rapidly. A lot of good things are happening. And most importantly, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Are you considering an increase on sanctions on Russia and whether it's illegal -- TRUMP: Well, soon we'll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing. So we put -- we took sanctions off because, obviously, we're not looking to impede the oil. So we're in a position to do that soon.

You're in a very good business because as goes fuel, so goes everything. Fuel is dropping. It's now in the 70s per barrel. And I think we'll get it down. When I say -- I was in Iowa and we had great victories in Iowa. And when I left, I noticed that a gas station, $1.85 a gallon. That's where we were. It was a little bit higher generally, but I saw two stations, $1.85, one had $1.91. And, you know, we're going to get around those levels.

REPORTER: Are there going to be sanctions, are there going to be real costs on Russia now that the focus has once again been shifted to the Ukraine-Russia war? TRUMP: We are looking at that. We're seeing how far the price of oil comes down. It's really tumbling, it's, I guess, $74, $75 right now, so it's down. It's soon going to be at the number that it was four months ago, it's pretty amazing.

Who's really happy is the market because the market's gone up thousands of points over the last four or five days since hearing about it, and the strait is going to be opening. It's already partially opened; it's going to be opening up soon in full over the next day or two. And the market has gone wild, and oil has come tumbling down. Oil is at $73, $74, and it's getting very close to where it was before the crisis.

I think people are going to be very happy, but there's nothing so smart as the market, and the market loves it beyond anything that I've actually seen. Again, the stock market has gone through the roof and oil has come tumbling down. I guess it's in the low $70s now, right?

Number one, the strait would never open because they don't like floating billion dollar ships up and down a strait when there are rockets flying over them and mines all over the place. So, the strait would never be open; it wouldn't be open for a long time. So, we have a very hot stock market and we have a very -- started to be a very low oil price and that's going to have a huge impact on affordability caused by the Dumocrats.

But we're bringing prices down a lot, and they're coming down fast. And with the settlement, so worthwhile, with the settlement where you're not going to have a nuclear weapon, and then we bring them down on top of that. And I think oil prices might get lower than where they were before the war.

You know, the reason oil stayed low is because we were taking ships out every night that you didn't even know about. Two days ago, three days ago, a month ago, we took out 22 ships. We averaged from 15 to 25 ships a night, nobody knew that. Our Navy did a great job; nobody knew what was happening. That's why oil didn't go to $300 a barrel. It went to $125, $115. Now it's at $72, $73. I heard it's lower than that now; I haven't seen it in the last couple of hours.

REPORTER: Sanctions on Russia, what are you going to do about that? Sanctions on Russia, like the oil waivers? TRUMP: Yeah, I may put them back on, yeah. I wanted to make sure that oil stayed as low as possible. Now that the oil price is way down, wait until you see those numbers, but it's way down, I may put it back on.

Oil prices are plummeting and that means oil prices are going to come down. You know, if you make donuts, you have a heating, you have a stove and you have to buy the heat. You need the gas or the electricity or whatever you're using. And when oil prices come down, oil is the biggest thing. Oil is, you get oil prices coming down and they're going to come down and we're hitting in the threes now for gasoline, and that'll come down a lot lower.

And oil is dropping like it has never dropped before, at levels, that went, in numbers down $7, down $8. They've never seen anything like that.

Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already increased very substantially. And the normal flow of energy will resume in the coming days.

But if we didn't do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years. You would never have the Hormuz Strait open. You would never have success. Your market would have, instead of going up at levels that nobody's ever seen before, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929 or whatever.

Don't forget, if we were going to drop bombs, let's say we went another month, another two, three months, maybe weeks, could be another three months. Could be whatever. What do you have left? Maybe nothing. But you don't have -- the strait will never be open because people that own billion-dollar ships, these ships cost $1 billion, they don't like sailing ships or having their ships participate when you go up the coast and you go through the strait and there are rockets flying over your head. They want to protect their billion-dollar investment. You wouldn't have oil for maybe years.

If we keep bombing, those ships won't be going and you're talking about $500, $600, $700 million a day. It's a lot of money, a lot of money. That's why the world is OK, it's liquid, it's fine. Also, we run out of reserves in about four weeks. There are reserves all over the world and we would really run out and there would be a time when you wouldn't be able to get it, and you want to see bedlam.

We can never let that happen to our country again. To me, the worst, the worst inflation ever. We had the worst in prices and costs. It's all coming down now because the oil is bringing it down. You're going to see numbers that are going to be amazing,

I mean, one of the things I was very intent on, they have water desalination plants, very good ones. I could have knocked them out in five minutes, just like I knocked out Kharg Island. I knocked out everything but the oil. I said 25 -- it was so complete. The only thing there is the pipes coming with the oil, because I didn't want to ruin the world market, because they do a lot of money. But I didn't want to do that. No. It would have been so easy. It would have been easier, and I would have satisfied a group of 10 percent of the people, but it would have been the wrong thing to do, and it could have caused a -- it could have caused an international depression, maybe not.

We took a little journey down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we bombed the hell out of them, and now they can never have a nuclear weapon. Now, we had a disturbance, but I must say, it was much less than anybody thought. The oil never went to $350 a barrel, it went to $115, $120. The oil never went anywhere near that.

And the other thing, I thought the stock market would go down 25 or 30 percent. The stock market, a week ago, before we started this, was higher than it was when we started, which tells you that we have a very resilient economy. We have the strongest economy we've ever had.

And now that the oil is coming down, you're going to see everything follow. Everything follows the cost of energy and we're going to end up having the lowest energy anywhere in the world.

I don't think we're going to need much help because we have an agreement where it's going to be open and it's tollfree. We had a little argument on that. It's tollfree. So, I don't think we're going to need much help, but I don't think it's a bad idea to have a ship or two up here from a few countries. You'd be a great country to do it because you never know what happens. But I think it's going to be open and I think it's going to be free sailing.

This is a very powerful document and I want it to be released. So, probably pretty soon. I would say after sometime after Friday because the strait opens, it's open now, but it opens completely. We'll have all the mines knocked out for the most part. We have a lot of lanes right now already.

The Iran deal that we made is going to bring a lot of success to the world because the oil was really clogged up there for a while. He would call me on occasion say, ‘Come on, please. Let's go the oil prices,’ but the oil is coming way down.'

Very importantly, the oil is plummeting down and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket today, like record kind of numbers. And the oil has taken its biggest plunge and we're into the low numbers. Not quite back yet, Kevin, to the extent, but we're getting close to the numbers we were before it all started.

The deal's all signed and the strait is already partially opened. As you know, they're doing a little hunting for a couple of mines that they've already found. But it's essentially ships are starting to go out now, on Friday, it'll be completely opened.

Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz. They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!! President DJT

The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!

This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace. With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!

And the strait is open. But the straits have been open for a number of months already and you just didn't know about it.

I mean, the straits are going to open immediately upon signing. Maybe it'll be Saturday or Monday.

REPORTER: And when this deal is signed, is the United States going to immediately lift the blockade? TRUMP: Yes, that's part of the deal. And we'll have oil prices dropping like a rock.

The strait will officially open as soon as we sign which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe. I won't be able to be there, but JD will be there, vice president, and some of the people.

We bombed their radar and everything so they couldn't see what was going on. We took out some nights 25 ships, some nights 15. Last four or five nights we did 25, 22, 21, 26, 18, and 14. Who else would remember those numbers? Nobody. And but a lot of ships, a lot of oil is out. That's why oil, even before this, the market couldn't understand why it was so free. There was more oil than they thought what they're trying –to we took them out at night.

Oil's dropped. Oil will start coming down to I think even lower than it was before. We had, I said I was in Iowa. It was $1.85 a gallon. And I don't know if I'm going to get there, but we're going to get pretty close. It's going to come down. And when oil comes down, everything else comes down.

Millions of barrels of oil has come out, and that's why it's at $85, $90 a barrel instead of $250. But we have the greatest military in the world. [...] When this conflict is over -- Todd said, please call it a conflict, right? As opposed to the word war. He didn't like the word war, but it's sort of a conflict. It's a military operation. When it's over, you will see oil drop to where it was before. We're getting gasoline -- just before it started, I was in Iowa and we passed gas stations, $1.85 a gallon, and we'll be back at those levels very soon.

I said, I hate to do this to you guys, but Iran's going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. We have to go and attack. So we hit them with the B-2 bombers, which took a lot of courage. It was totally successful. We buried it, very hard to get. But now we had to make the second move. And I said, you know, the bad part is the stock market will go down by a lot based on predictions of experts, like 25 percent. And it was worth it. To me, it was worth it, not to have a nuclear weapon. And the other thing is that oil would go to $250 a barrel. It's at 85.

Because as soon as this war is over -- you know, I can say it now, something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it, Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships, late at night with no lights, because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out -- that's why oil is $85 a barrel.

REPORTER: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning. Could that be a– TRUMP: No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now, something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships, late at night with no lights because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out, That's why oil's $85 a barrel.

REPORTER: Do you expect inflation to come down between now and – TRUMP: Oh, when. When the war is over, it's coming down. It's going to come down like a rock.

REPORTER: Is there an oil or gasoline price, sir, in this conflict that would prompt you to release more from the strategic petroleum reserve? TRUMP: Well, we are and we are releasing more from a lot of a lot of oils coming out of the Hormuz Strait. A lot of it is coming out and if you notice the price is not very high, relatively speaking. I mean, it's lower than during the Biden administration. And he wasn't stopping a country from having a nuclear weapon.

So out of my short one and a half years, we have, we've had 73 brand new highs on the various stock exchanges. And that's a record. Nobody's ever had anything like that. And that's during a military conflict. So, you know, pretty amazing. And even the oil and gas, it's lower during a military conflict than it was during the Biden administration. And they didn't have that because, to them, it was ok that Iran has a nuclear weapon. And I say it's not ok.

They cannot have a nuclear weapon. And Lindsey has been fighting with me all the way, all the way for that. We've been a very tough team, and I think we are winning that battle, but you're really gonna win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory. It'll be a total victory. It'll happen very soon and oil prices will come tumbling down.

And when we have a completion, you will see things like you've never seen. The oil will go down. The stock market already, as you know, it's at an all-time high. Even in the midst of it, it hit all-time highs. We had 73 all-time highs in the short period of time that I've been in office, which is a record, by the way.

REPORTER: And yet, gas is up. Diesel is up. TRUMP: It's all coming down as soon as the war's over. REPORTER: Well, 70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer. What's your message to TRUMP:The farmers are doing very well.

Fertilizer was very cheap. Everything was cheap. Gasoline was very low. Everything was very low. I could've kept it that way. But I said, I have to take a little bit of a turn. The farmers are going to understand it better than anybody. We're going to have higher gasoline. We’re going to have a little higher fertilizer, et cetera, et cetera. But I'm going to get rid of a nuclear weapon in the hands of very dangerous people. Excuse me. Wait. It should've been done for 47 years. No president had the guts to do it. I did it, and I've done it. It's almost complete. As soon as that's complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock.

REPORTER: Are gas prices going higher or have they peaked? TRUMP: They're going to come low, very low. They're going to go lower than they were before. REPORTER: Have they peaked? TRUMP: As soon -- Well, it depends. I mean, it depends where the war goes. It could be, I'll have to give them a shot, and it could be we'll sign an agreement. If we sign an agreement, it'll go down now. Otherwise, it'll go down after we're finished.

REPORTER: Mr. President, on oil and gas prices, I know you're saying that oil prices and gas prices will fall after the conflict ends. Would you limit exports of gasoline if prices in the short-term go up? TRUMP: We can do a lot of things. We have a lot of alternatives. But the beautiful thing from our standpoint is, we have more oil and gas and coal and everything else than any other country on the planet.

REPORTER: Are US oil majors doing enough to boost output in the US? Are you asking them to do more? TRUMP: Well, we have -- we have everything we need. The world doesn't. But I will say, people thought it was going to be a lot worse. You know, today, I looked at $96 a barrel. People thought that was going to be $300 a barrel. And in the meantime, we're having great success with Iran.

REPORTER: How much oil have you gotten through the strait with the help of naval escorts? And are you asking, are you directing US forces to guide those ships through the strait, more tankers through the strait? TRUMP: A lot. I don't want to say how many, but a lot. A lot of oil is coming into our country. A lot of oil is coming into the world that people don't even know about, and that's why it's at $97 a barrel instead of $300 a barrel. And when that whole thing is straightened out it shouldn’t take long, one way or the other it’s going to get done. And when it's all straightened out, you're going to have oil prices drop down to maybe even lower than they were.

Now, it's been, over the last couple of months since we went in for the military operation, you've seen fertilizer go up and you've seen energy go up. It's going to come down to where it was or lower.

We're going to come out of Iran very quickly and it's going to be very strong one way or the other, whether it's a piece of paper or the very tough way, OK? The very tough way is maybe the easier way, but we're going to come out and your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago. Your fertilizers down, your energy's down, your oil, your gas is all coming way down.

And frankly, I thought it would go much higher than it did. I thought, frankly, that gasoline would be much higher than it was. I was in Iowa, another place I like a lot, and it was just before we started the excursion to Iran. And we passed gas stations, it was $1.85 a gallon, and we're going to get them down to those numbers again very quickly.

If you want to call it a war or if you want to call it a military operation, you cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And everybody agrees to that, no matter, almost everybody. But wait a minute, our gasoline prices are lower than they were with Biden without that. And he would have let them have, in fact, he inspired them to have, frankly, a nuclear weapon, him and Obama.

You know, we don't need it. We have our own, we have much more than we need in terms of oil and energy generally, but European countries and other countries, they need it tremendous.

We took a detour down to Iran because we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Under any circumstances we can't let that happen. So, the reporters should be happy.

We had to take a detour as far as wishes for, and I'm very proud of that detour you know. By the way, just to finish off on that, we had the strongest stock market in history and I said, we have no choice, we have to do it. I knew it would affect it, but I was very happily surprised when I saw that today we had another stock market high.

Costs are coming down, you know, we took over the highest costs and the highest inflation in the history of our country. Costs are coming down. Everything's good and I hate to tell you this, but we've got to take a little detour and go down to a place called the Islamic Republic of Iran, and we're going to have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon.

But one of the other things that's important and very important is that immediately upon signing the memorandum of understanding, the Hormuz Strait will open, and it'll open up quickly, and we've already had our minesweepers there, you know, we're sweeping, as you probably have heard. And these are underwater minesweepers. They're great, amazing technology. They're underwater because usually when you're looking for mines, that usually means you have some dangerous characters out there this way. So we're underwater, but we've swept mines and we've gotten most of them, we think. So but, the Hormuz Strait will open immediately upon signing.

You know, Biden had like 9-10% inflation and I inherited that and we have it way down. And then I said, I did have to say we have to do something about Iran because regardless of how well we're doing, we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. And we, they've already agreed they're not going to have a nuclear weapon

Now, our country on the other hand has the best stock market we've ever had. We have, with the exception of the oil for a short period of time, because of the war. I mean, you know, other than that, we have very little inflation. The country is doing fantastically.

TRUMP: We don't have very much inflation look if you take away just the price of gasoline the energy we have very little inflation we're doing very well, other than this. So, but that's a big, that's a big puller. You know, energy and gasoline and all that's a big factor. DEVINE: People feel it. TRUMP: So, it's, you know, it's a very important thing item and that'll start coming down very rapidly as soon as this ends, when it ends. But what we will have is we'll have a situation where Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And that's really more important than all of it.

We want low gasoline. You know, I had it, I had it down to a $1.85 a gallon. Think of it, a $1.85 in Iowa. I was in Iowa just before the war started and I had it down to a $1.85 a gallon in various parts of the country. And it'll be back there again at some point in the probably not too distant future. I think as soon as it ends, it's going to come.

It's already, by the way, it's already way down. You know that. I mean, I saw it the other day. It's $98 a barrel. So, everyone said it was going to be 300, $400 a barrel. It's $98 a barrel, but that's not a big price to pay. If you look at the possibility of them having a nuclear weapon, it's not a very big price to pay.

We did a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran or as they say the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we did that little excursion knowing that you know, hey, I just hit the highest stock market price in history at very little inflation. And I said, ‘Gentlemen and ladies, we're going to now have to make an excursion now because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.’ And that's what we've said.

DEVINE: And how do you see the economy, Iran, by say Labor Day, September 7, where's our country going to be? TRUMP: I think we're going to be in very good shape. We're in good shape right now. We have the blockade, which is amazing. Our navy is great. Our milit- We have the strongest military in the world.

DEVINE: So you think the blockade will still be in place by Labor Day? TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, I think it could be, but I think it's unlikely. I think that we'll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly.

DEVINE: Do you wish you waited until after the midterms? TRUMP: I could have, but I, no, because this is, this is too important. If I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon.

I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance. I think oil is going to come down very much. You have 1,700 boats right now that are loaded up with oil, and that’s going to be like an oil gusher. So I’m not worried about it at all, and the people understand it, and the only thing I care about, the thing I care about, I care about everything, but the thing I care about most at this point in life is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And if they want to try and have a new nuclear weapon, I will blow them up to kingdom come.

Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us. [...] It is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!

Well, we're winning Iran. It's a total win for us.

Look, two things with, number one, the strait has to be opened immediately and has to be free, no tolls, et cetera, et cetera. And number two is they can't have a nuclear weapon. That’s all there is. It's very simple. And then we're going to get out of there and we don't need the Strait. You know, we don't need it because we have more. So we produce now because of us, me, we produce more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined times two. Think of that. We double what they do. Add Saudi Arabia and Russia, multiply it times two, and we're going to be much higher. We’re the, we're the oil superpower, far greater than even Saudi Arabia, even Russia. But you add them up. These are two big monsters. You add them up, and we double it. We have a great country. We have had tremendous success.

So we're getting what we want slowly, very tough negotiators. It takes a long time. I'm in no hurry. I'd like to say I'm in a hurry because, you know, gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down. But if you're going to be in a hurry, you're not going to make a good deal.

REPORTER: How much economic pressure do you feel to get the Strait of Hormuz open? TRUMP: Well, you have to understand, the United States has so much oil that we are an exporter of oil. So we have plenty of oil. We're very lucky. We're blessed with the greatest piece of land in the world, from that standpoint.

REPORTER: Does that give you more urgency, Mr. President? You've said that you're in no rush to make a deal but with gas prices that are so high across the country, people are paying more for travel, does that give you more urgency to make a deal? Why doesn't it? TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you, the primary urgency I have, I said this, it wasn't covered properly, but the primary urgency is that we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

Those prices are going to come down. They're going to come down fast. I think, I think that you'll see, actually, Todd, I think you're going to see lower prices than we had even before we did this. Now, I knew there'd be an increase.

REPORTER: But the American people, sir, are seeing higher gas prices. TRUMP: Yeah, they are. REPORTER: It's come down a little bit, but it's still $4.45. TRUMP: No, it's come down. It'll come down a lot. It'll come down to where it was before. We had it, when I was in Iowa, we had, we're driving by and we saw gas stations, $1.90 a gallon, $1.85, $1.87, were the three that we saw.

We had gasoline down to a very low number. I think we'll be hitting that number, shortly after that whole excursion ends. But regardless of anything, regardless of anything, as Marco said, better than anybody can say it, you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

Iran is very much intent– they want very much to make a deal. […] Their whole economic system is broken down. They thought they were going to outwait me; you know, ‘We'll outwait him. He's got the midterms.’ I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was the prelude to the midterms. People understand it, they know that, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

So, we're producing right now more oil, by double, than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. There's never been anything like that. We have, we don't need oil, we don't need the strait, we don't need anything. But we have more oil now being produced by double, by two times, than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined.

By the way, the oil prices are going to tumble as soon as I finish up with Iran, tumble, boom. I was in Iowa, I was in Iowa, we had it down to $1.85 a gallon in Iowa, but we had it down around the $2 point. And then I said, well, Lutnick, we're going to have to take a trip to, we got Scott Bessent, we got all of them. I said, we just hit 50,000 on the Dow, and I said, that's a record, highest ever. I said, sorry to do this to you, but we're going to have to journey down to the Middle East.

And we'll have that over with soon. It'll be over with soon, and you're going to see numbers like you've never seen, both on the upside and also in terms of costs. You're going to see costs go down.

But prices are down. But the big thing is, of course, energy. We had the energy way down, but I had to do a journey to Iran. I had to say, you know, we just hit the best markets. By the way, the stock market today is at the highest it's ever been and we've had 59 of them, 59 days out of a very short period of time where the stock market hit all-time highs.

And this is with the Iran conflict. That'll end soon, very soon. And when it ends, your gasoline prices will go down lower than they were before. You know, I left Iowa a few months ago, and gasoline was at $1.85 a gallon. And we'll be hitting numbers like that again.

So, we're going to give this one shot. I'm in no hurry. You never think, ‘Oh, the midterms, I'm in a hurry.’ I'm in no hurry. I just, ideally, I'd like to see few people killed as opposed to a lot.

We're gonna end that war very quickly. They wanna make a deal so badly. They're tired of this, this should've happened for 47 years. Somebody should have done something about it and it's gonna happen and it's gonna happen fast and you're gonna see oil prices plummet. They're gonna come down. There's so much oil out there, they're gonna come plummeting down.

Two and a half months ago, we hit the best numbers that we've ever hit as a country. Jobs the best. Everything was the best. Stock market the highest. And I called my people in. I called them in. I said, "Congratulations everybody, but we're gonna have to make a little journey down to a place called Iran.

I think we're gonna be finished with that very quickly, and they won't have a nuclear weapon, and hopefully we're gonna get it done in a very nice manner. Factory construction, as you heard today also is up. Housing starts are up, and consumer spending is up. All things that, we have an economy, people aren't seeing it yet.

Look, as soon as this war is over, gas is going, you know, I had gasoline down to $1.85 in Iowa. I was in Iowa and the stations had it at $1.85. But I was down to, in many cases, less than $2.00 a barrel, a gallon. And then I said to myself, this is great, we just hit a new high in the stock market, everything is going good. I'm sorry, but we have to go down and take a little journey down to, we have to do something with Iran. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. You want to see the world explode? You want to see a problem? And this is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while, it won't be much longer.

I called Scott and Howard. I called them all into my office. I say, we're going to take a little excursion down to the Middle East, and we're going to confront Iran because they are desperate to have a nuclear weapon.

BAIER: Gas prices in America are still high, painfully high. TRUMP: They're going to drop like a rocket as soon as it's over. BAIER: Painfully high though now, and could be creeping higher before it's done. TRUMP: Well, lower than Biden. Excuse me, lower than Biden, and much lower than people thought they'd be.

When people hear me say it, everybody agrees. Short-term pain, it's going to be short-term pain, but the pain is much less than people thought, because people thought that the oil would go up to $250. You know, it was $99 yesterday, $99 a barrel. I thought it might go up to $200, I was okay with that, not that I wanted it.

When you tell somebody you're going to have to pay a little more, not that much more, a little more for gasoline, for a very short period of time, because we want to stop the threat of being blown to pieces by a lunatic, by a crazy person, and they are crazy using nuclear weapons. Everybody says that's fine.

The Strait will be open, they will not have a nuclear weapon, and the world will go on, and you will see gasoline prices drop, energy prices generally drop like no, but don't forget, they have a lot of boats that are loaded up with oil that are going to bring the oil out as soon as this is over.

[on his statement that he doesn't think about Americans' financial situations] That's right. That's a perfect statement. I'd make it again.

If I didn't make the little excursion to the country of Iran, I had to do it. We just hit the highest stock market ever, which by the way, now we're the highest, we're now higher than we were before the war started. And oil went up very little compared to what most people, even including me, I thought it would go up more, but it, that was okay for a short period of time because we, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

It's going to work out very well. I think you're going to have so much oil, you're going to have a gusher of oil like you've never had before. So when oil goes up a little bit, I thought it would go up much more. If you go back three, four months ago, when we were contemplating, we assumed oil would go much higher. Yesterday was at $99, and if you think about it, I would have taken that all day long, because it's very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

As soon as this war is over, which will not be long, you're going to see oil prices drop and you're going to see a stock market, which is already at the highest point in history, go through the roof. You're going to see the golden age of America, frankly, and you're seeing it now.

When it's over, you're going to have a massive drop in the price of oil, which a lot of people thought would be higher. And I mean, it was a hundred, it was $99 yesterday, which is low, which is relatively low. When this war is over, oil is going to drop, the stock market's going to go through the roof and truly, I think we're in the golden age right now. You're going to see a golden age like we've never seen before.

REPORTER: When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, what extend are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal? TRUMP: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters, when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.

The economy is going to be unbelievable as soon as this war ends. It already is. They said we just broke the record for the best stock market. 401ks are booming for people. And I think we we're going to have I had the best economy in history in my first four years. And I think this one's going to blow it. But I had to take a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran. I had to do a little excursion and get rid of the nuclear weapons.

The economy is gonna be unbelievable as soon as this war ends. It already is. I said, we just broke the record for the best stock market. 401Ks are booming for people and I think we, we're gonna have, I had the best economy in history in my first four years and I think this one's gonna blow it. But I had to take a little excursion down to the beautiful country of Iran.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. Supposed to be the best in the business. Well, you know what? It's, I figured it would triple when we did, we had to make an excursion to the beautiful country of Iran. We didn't want to let them have a nuclear weapon. And we made the right decision. And we've got it pretty good. And those prices are going to come crashing down as soon as that's over.

Let me tell you, as soon as this is over with, Iran, as soon as it's over, you're going to see,, gasoline and oil drop like a rock. It's going to be dropping down like a rock.

And it's sort of amazing, you know, it found its way. So a lot of people thought oil would go to $250, $300. It's not. I mean, today it's at less than $100. Think of that. Now, when this ends, you're going to see a drop like a rock.

REPORTER: Are you considering maybe going back to that now that gas prices are more than $4.50? TRUMP: Well, no, gas prices have come down today. Have you looked? They've come down very substantially today. The gas prices, you know what's happened today? Gas prices are way down, and the stock market is way up today. So, gas prices have come down. And I saw today, that they broke negatively, in other words, to our positive position, they broke our way very substantially. And when the war is over, gas will fall down at levels that you've never seen before. You'll be down to where you were, maybe even lower.

And oil is coming down and the stock market today just hit an all time high. You know, I was reading about doom and gloom. We had to do, we had to do what we did. We took a little U-turn. We just hit the highest number in the history of our country with the stock market. And I said to my people, "We're going to have to take a little U-turn and go to the lovely country of Iran and blow them up a little bit because they're not going to have a nuclear weapons."

When, when this is over, I think you're going to see oil prices drop down to the levels where they were and maybe lower. There's a lot of oil out there.

But I thought we'd be down maybe 20 percent and we're up. The stock market is higher now than when we started this war. And I thought oil prices would go to $200, $250. It's at $100 now. And I think you're surprised and I'm surprised. But even if it went to $200, it would have been worth it, I understood that.

We had just set a record, 50,000 on the Dow, 7,000 on the S&P, a record. And I said, I hate to do this, but we have to make an excursion down to Iran because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Gas prices in the United States are $1.48 a gallon? You said they would come back down. TRUMP: They’ll drop lower than they were before.

So, when I did this, I thought the market would go down 25 percent and I thought that was a great deal if it did. If it went down 25 percent, I was satisfied. I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon, they'll use it, we can't. I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300, and I knew it would be short term, but I thought it would go up. I look today, it's like at 102, and that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

When I first did this, I thought maybe the market would go down 20 or 25%. And I was okay with that because I know it would come back up, but I thought it would go down and I thought oil could hit $200, $250. Well, oil's at $100, $102, and you did too. Most people did.

When this war ends, gasoline and oil and everything, it's going to come tumbling down. But right now, as of this moment, the stock market has hit record highs. We have more people, again, working in the United States today than at any time in the history of our country. We are really doing well.

Now, gasoline is high, other prices are way down, but gasoline is high. But when this is over, you'll have a world without a nuclear weapon with Iran. If you allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, the world would be in great jeopardy so it's not going to happen. As soon as the war ends, the gasoline prices will come down.

We got a little rise with gasoline. It’s going to come down lower than what it was. Don't forget, we had that gasoline down to $2 and below $2 in many cases. It's going to come tumbling down. There is so much oil out there. It's pent up. It's all locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, a beautiful place. It's, I think they have close to 400 ships loaded up with oil. When all of that gets released, when all of that comes out, these people tried to hold up our country for years and years, the world, by closing up the Strait of Hormuz. When all of that stuff comes out, you're going to see prices dropping on gasoline like you've never seen. And all of that, electricity, gasoline, anything having to do with energy.

Those ships are coming up instead of the Hormuz Strait. They're coming up. Those ships are coming up by the hundreds. They're loading up in Texas, Louisiana, Alaska but we had those beautiful words. We have plenty of oil we have more oil we have double the oil if you add up Saudi Arabia and Russia, we're more than double what they produced together. Think of that. The words are drill, baby, drill.

But I did something that was, I don't know, foolish, brave. But it was smart, I would do it again, but I thought the numbers would be much worse. I thought the stock market would go down much more. I thought the oil prices would go up much more.

Everyone's doing great, oil prices were very low, they were 60 and 70. They were buying oil for $2 and even less. Let's remember just a couple of months ago, you were at $2 and $1.85. I was in Iowa it was $1.85 a gallon. I said, congratulations. Now, I'm going to upset the apple cart for you, because we have to take a little journey down to a beautiful country known as Iran and we have to make sure that they don't have a nuclear weapon.

I said, look, we're going to have to make this journey. So, it's almost like we built up this great thing and then I said, now we have to break the eggs a little bit and we have to go and do it and the only thing that I'm surprised is that I really thought oil would be, Dr. Oz, we talked about it I thought oil would be much, much higher than it turned out to be. I mean, it's not low. It's certainly not low. It's going to come crashing down as soon as this war is over and they're getting decimated.

We had to make a detour to Iran. Everything will snap back. We were down to less than $2 for gasoline in Iowa. I was in Iowa two months ago, just before the, uh, the little skirmish took place, is taking place, and, price for gasoline was $1.85 a gallon. And we were a lot of places were $2, some below $2. And I believe it will snap back very, very quickly, as soon as, there's so much oil. These ships are loaded up with oil. They can't get out of the strait. We’ll, I think we're going to have it solved.

Core inflation has dropped to a five-year low, with the exception of oil prices, which is just I think most of the people in this room understand that. As soon as it's over, it's going to drop like a rock. I think it goes below where it was because there's so much oil. It's not like, it would be a problem if there wasn't a lot. There's so much oil out there.

The only thing that is up is the gasoline and that's coming down. But, you know, with all of this and I say it again, we had to do this little excursion because if we didn't, if they had a nuclear weapon, this world would be in, it would be a horror.

They used the Hormuz Strait as a weapon for many, many years. They said they'll close it, so they closed it. Then I closed it on them, which is sort of, they want a little business; they get no business. But it's going to work out because everything works out.

You know, it's amazing. I come into office and I say, ‘Wow, look at how high these prices are.’ And the Democrats start screaming, ‘Affordability, affordability.’ They're the ones that cause the problem. I'll tell you one thing, they got one good line of bullshit. That's one thing I'll say about it. They are so bad. They are so bad. It's true. Affordability.

[image of a graphic claiming that oil was down 25% or $30 per barrel cheaper since the Biden administration]

Wait until you see, when the war ends, even with the war, you know, we just hit a new high on the economy. Think of it. We hit a new high. We have the best economy. The stock market just now hit a new high during the war or the military operation, whatever you'd like to call it. I mean, we are doing great.

The gas will go down. As soon as the war is over, it'll drop like a rock. There's so much of it. It's all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world, and it'll go down.

So we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. [...] We had to do that. I took the greatest economy we have ever had and I said, we're going to have to take a little detour and stop that from happening. And that's what happened. And we have done a great job. And it'll come to an end very soon. And we're going to be very victorious.

I called all of these people and others and I said, "We have to take a little journey. I hate to do this. We just had the great number. We just broke 50,000." Wasn't supposed to happen during my term. Wasn't reachable. Did it in one year and I said, "We're gonna have to make a journey to Iran. They, they're gonna have a nuclear weapon if we don't do it."

I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel. And oil is at a very different number than anyone thought. In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use. We're actually, ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States while this is closed, the Hormuz Strait.

REPORTER: If it does go to 200, are you OK with that, sir, if oil goes to 200? TRUMP: I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities or three. I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe.

REPORTER: Excuse me. What do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know that they are having higher gas prices? TRUMP: You are such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam, how many years was Vietnam?

REPORTER: If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future? TRUMP: For a little while. REPORTER: But how long? TRUMP: You know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East. You want to see what shock would be? And I have to be honest; the stock market is at an all-time high right now. I thought it would have been down 20, 25 percent.

REPORTER: How long are you willing to wait until you get– TRUMP: Don't rush me. Don't rush me, Jeff. You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh, so we were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years. We were in for all the, I don't like to say World War II because that was a biggie, but we were four and a half, almost five years in World War II. We were in the Korean War for seven years. I've been doing this for six weeks, and their military is totally defeated.

I said, "I hate to tell you, fellas, but we have to do a little bit of a detour. We have to go to Iran and make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon." We had just broken every financial record. And, the amazing thing is we continue to break them even during the war. Now, fuel went up, but I thought it would have gone up much more.

For those people, fewer in number now than ever before, that are reading The Failing New York Times, or watching Fake News CNN, that think that I am ‘anxious’ to end the War (if you would even call it that!) with Iran, please be advised that I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position. I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!

We're going down to a place called Iran, and we're going to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon because they'll use it to blow up [...] And they said, wow, that's going to be bad. I said, yeah, it's going to hurt the market, and it's going to drive up the price of oil and whatever it is. But that's peanuts compared to what would happen if we let this happen.

But the fact is that we took this little journey. And if you would have told me that the Dow was almost, I'm looking at your thing, I mean, literally, we're at 50,000. And if you would have told me that oil is at $90 as opposed to $200, I would be frankly surprised.

I thought the oil would be much higher and I'm very happy to say that it wasn't. And when it's over, and it will end, when it's over, you know they wanted it to be over immediately.

As we get them to no nuclear weapons in Iran, which is gonna happen, I think, very quickly, actually, we've just decimated them. But as soon as we get that, you're gonna see prices drop, you're gonna see energy come down like you've never seen it before. All these things are gonna happen. But I got rid of, you go right before, and even now, you go right before the, the fact that I had to make that little journey.

[on Wright's assessment that gas prices may not drop until 2027]: No, I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong.

We're ending wars all over the place by the way, with the exception of our little excursion and wait till you see prices fall. Did you see oil is down today and prices are down today?

We're having some fake inflation because of the fuel, the energy prices, which everybody said was going to $250. We were talking about that, Scott. They said $250, $300. I mean, today, what was it? It finished at $89 or $90, right? And that's in the, you know, we haven't settled yet, and maybe we won't, but I think, I think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. [...] I had people, we have consultants, great guys that we both know, we see, and they're very talented. "Sir, if you do this, fuel is gonna go to $300 a barrel," right? One guy in particular who we like a lot. But I said, "I don't think so. I think we're gonna be good."

REPORTER: On gas prices, how much longer will Americans continue to see these high gas prices? TRUMP: Well, they're not very high, if you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon, with the danger that entails. So the gas prices have come down very much over the last three, four days.

I think we're very close to making a deal with Iran. You'll be the first to know, but I think we're, we have a chance. And if that happens, oil goes way down, prices go way down.

BARTIROMO: You think gas prices will be lower before the midterm elections? TRUMP: I think they will be much lower, before the midterm, much lower, yes. On the assumption that we stop a country that could not have a nuclear weapon, [...] on the assumption that we have that settled hopefully long before that, and maybe almost immediately, could be very soon, when that’s settled, gas prices will go down tremendously, and gasoline and gas prices, cost per barrel, fill up your car, per gallon anyway you look at it, numbers will go down. Electricity’s going to go down. It fuels everything.

BARTIROMO: Oil prices are up 50%, the stock market had a tough first quarter. TRUMP: You’re right, but they're not up– BARTIROMO: You thought it was going to be worse. TRUMP: Honestly, I thought they would be much, and I was willing to do that to stop a nuclear weapon to be used against this country or the Middle East. Anybody in the Middle East. They we're going to take out the Middle East, to stop that, it was certainly worthwhile, it’d be much higher that it is right now.

If you told me at only 92 a barrel, $92 a barrel, I would've been very surprised, and you know what? I’m very happy, and it’s going to come dropping very big as soon as this as this is over, and I think it could be over very soon. If they’re smart, it will end soon.

BARTIROMO: Overall, the impact on the economy, do you expect it a hit to growth, do you expect a spike in inflation? TRUMP: Look, there is a hit, because we go through it for whatever it is, six weeks. There’s going to be a hit, but it’s going to recover I think fully. Somehow, they misquoted me. I think oil will be down to the level that it was, you know, they said I expect oil to be high at the midterms, I don't expect that. I think we will be around where we were maybe even lower.

BARTIROMO: Is this all going to be enough? The blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity in the United States, is this going to be enough to lower the price of oil and gas, sir? TRUMP: Well, it's going to be, eventually, it's going to be lower. No, it might not happen initially, but it's going to go down.

BARTIROMO: So, do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections? TRUMP: I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same.

Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home. This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.

And, in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally. They're going to want to be able to sell oil because that's all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up. They haven't come down very much. Frankly, they came down a little bit, but they've had some very good days over the last couple of days. We've done actually much better than I thought, but we had to take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat.

The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won't be taking any in the future. We don't need it. We haven't needed it and we don't need it.

REPORTER: Mr. President, a couple of questions for you on Iran. But first, one that affects Americans here at home, gas prices. Today they hit $4. TRUMP: We have $4, yeah, and we have a country that's not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us in six months. REPORTER: Of course, but Americans are feeling the effects in the interim of this operation. TRUMP: And they're also feeling a lot safer. REPORTER: What is the plan to bring them back down? TRUMP: All I have to do is leave Iran, and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll come tumbling down.

When this war ends, it's going to be like a rocket ship. I thought we were going to go down more, and I thought oil prices were going to go up higher than they are now. It's not finished yet. I'm not saying -- it's finished, but it's not finished. It's got to be finished. And I thought that we would see a bigger drop in stock. Hasn't been that bad.

Secretary Scott Bessent will discuss the actions that we're taking to address energy prices, which have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. And, you know, it's not over, so maybe it'll go up a little bit more. It's all going to come back down to where it was, and probably lower. And my predictions have been right.

Frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more, and I thought the stock market would go down more, hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought.

REPORTER: You talked about gas prices coming down, obviously they will. Would you ever consider suspending the federal gas tax in order to kind of temporarily alleviate some– TRUMP: Well, some people should do that. [...] It hasn't, I mean, we've thought about it, I guess, but, honestly, when I did this, I knew it was going to be a little bit, we had the greatest economy ever. We had the greatest stock market in history. I said, we're going to take a little bit of a hit, a short-term hit. It's going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion.

I said, "We have to take a little bit of a detour." We have to take a little journey to a place called Iran where these mad people were going to have a nuclear weapon and they could do tremendous damage, not only to the Middle East and Israel, but also to our country because we would be next. And I said, "We're gonna take a little detour and we're gonna go and we're gonna knock them out."

I actually thought when I went on this excursion, as I call it, excursion into hell, excursion into a terrible place. [...] We had no choice, but I thought it would be much worse. I thought that the energy prices, oil price would go go up higher. I thought the stock market would go somewhat lower, but it didn't matter to me. It's short term.

The price of oil will drop like a rock as soon as a deal is done. I guess it already is today.

We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country known as Iran that for 47 years has been just a purveyor of terror, and they're very close to having a nuclear weapon. We can keep going and get that 50,000 up to 55,000 and 60,000. There's no end. Or we can take a stop and make a little journey into the Middle East and eliminate a big problem. And, Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up and you said, let's do it, because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

REPORTER: Mr. President, the price of oil is way up. The stock market is dying. TRUMP: It's going to go down. REPORTER: Did you miscalculate the cost of going into Iran? TRUMP: No, no, no. No. We're not giving a nuclear weapon to terrorist thugs and we're, we're knocking the hell out of them.

REPORTER: But did you expect the economic effect? TRUMP: And, no, I expected worse, actually. I really thought, I thought that oil prices would go much higher when I did that.

I said, "I have to go off on that path and I have to take a little journey." [...] But we had to go off on a circuitous path and take care of business and we have, we are in the process of doing it. And I'll tell you, I think we're weeks ahead of schedule.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you intend to lift sanctions on Iranian oil? And do you intend to potentially put US troops or more troops in the region? TRUMP: No. I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops, and we will do whatever is necessary to keep the price.

Everything was going great, the economy was great, oil prices were very low, gasoline was dropping to -- I mean we had $1.99, $1.85, we had great everything. And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion and, when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world.

So, I wanted to put out that fire and I said, you let me do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse, much worse actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad and it's going to be over with pretty soon.

We had to do a little excursion, if you don't mind, little excursion to take care of nuclear weaponry in the hands of maniacs, but other than that, in a couple of weeks, and won't be much longer, it's moving along fast. We're way ahead of schedule.

It'll bounce back so fast, the oil prices will drop like a rock and the economy is so powerful, so strong.

We took a little bit of a journey, a little bit of an excursion over the last two weeks because we thought we had to do something about very bad people that want to have nuclear weapons.

I called it an excursion. I didn't want to make this journey. We had the highest stock market in history. We had low gas prices, everything was good and I know exactly, I know what, you know, you're going to do it and people are going to raise the price of oil. But I know that, but that's a very small thing compared to allowing them to have, you want to see a stock market go down? Start letting them hit you with nukes, OK? I said it this morning, I think it's a very small price to pay and frankly, I thought it was going to go down much more, if you want to know the truth. I assumed that it was going to go down much more.

REPORTER: Have your advisors told you anything in terms of how long we can expect gas prices as high as they are right now? TRUMP: I don't need advisors to tell me that. I know what it is. [...] I can tell you that when this is over, oil prices are going to go down very, very rapidly, so is inflation, so is everything else.

But frankly, much more important than short-term or even long-term oil prices, you can't let the most violent, vicious country in the last 50 years have a nuclear weapon, because the Middle East will be gone.

The prices are gonna come tumbling down as soon as it's over and it's gonna be over pretty quickly. [...] I can't say that, you know, gee, I, I don't want have any impact on oil prices for three or four weeks, or two months, and we're gonna let Iran have a nuclear weapon and blow up the entire place and beyond, right?

Well, I think your gas prices, as soon as that's over, are gonna come tumbling down along with everything else. I think it's going to be, you're gonna see a very big decrease in the price of gasoline, gas, anything having to do with energy, as soon as this has ended.

Look, we took an excursion. We had the greatest economy ever. We still do. And we have to do a little excursion to get rid of mad, mad people, crazy people that have, that wanna have nuclear weapons.

The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money. BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World.

I'm pleased to report that earlier today, the International Energy Agency agreed to coordinate the release of a record 400 million barrels of oil from various national petroleum reserves around the world, which will substantially reduce the oil prices as we end this threat to America and this threat to the world.

And my administration, as you know better than anybody, is also working to keep the oil flowing. It's all flowing all over.

And we did a little excursion, we had to take this little couple of weeks, few weeks of excursion, but it's been incredible. [...] We're doing our job, so we had to take an excursion, but it's doing well. The market's holding up well. I figured we'd be hit a little bit, but we were hit probably less than I thought, and we'll be back on track in a pretty short while.

Prices are coming down very substantially, oil will be coming down. That's just a, that's just a matter of war. It happens very, you can almost predict it. I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It's going to come down more than we, than anybody understands.

We had to take an excursion. But it's doing well. The market's holding up well. I figured we'd be hit a little bit, we were hit probably less than I thought, and we'll be back on track in a pretty short while. Prices are coming down very substantially. Oil will be coming down. That's just a, it's just a matter of war. It happens very, you can almost predict it. I would say it went up a little bit less than we thought. It's gonna come down more than we, than anybody understands.

This is an excursion, a little excursion, and I think it's only that. And in that little time, that short period of time, we've taken care of business. We took care of a country that was very dangerous, very bad, would've had a nuclear weapon if it weren't for me and the B2 bombers and what we did not very long ago.

REPORTER: I want to ask you about it, something that's on everybody's mind, gas prices. Last few weeks folks have been seeing them go up. Are you looking at a threshold for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Saw the announcement from the IEA earlier today. TRUMP: Well, we'll do that, and then we'll fill it up. I filled it up once, and I'll fill it up again. But right now we'll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.

In recent years, the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks on hundreds of commercial vessels. We're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all. And the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families. We've done that, we've done it. We brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done.

You know, Iran was supposed to be this big, powerful country. We wrapped the hell out of them and, you know, I don't know when they cry uncle, but they should have cried it two days ago, right? But they don't have anything left. In our country, inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising, the economy is surging

Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace.

REPORTER: Are you worried about gas prices right now? TRUMP: No. This is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years. 47 years it's taken to do this, and no president had the guts to do it.

This is an excursion. We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. They'll also come down. They'll come down very fast, and we will have gotten rid of a major, major cancer by the face of the earth.

I don't have any concern about it. [...] They'll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.

Yesterday, my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices, including offering political risk insurance for tankers transiting into the Gulf. As you know, pretty dangerous territory. Further action to reduce pressure on oil is imminent and the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized. We had it very low.

But I had to take this little detour if it's OK with everybody. Scott, it's OK with you? Scott's the one that has to put up with it.

So, if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before.