Episode 5219: Where Does The Market Say The Economy Is Going With The Iran Conflict

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Bannon’s War Room - Episode 5219

Title: Where Does The Market Say The Economy Is Going With The Iran Conflict
Date: March 16, 2026
Host: Stephen K. Bannon
Key Guests: Eric Bolling, Admiral Cooper, Scott Bessant, Captain James Fennell, Rob Lockwood, Jack Posobiec

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Episode Overview

This episode of Bannon’s War Room centers on the economic and geopolitical fallout from the ongoing Iran conflict, the changing balance of power in the Middle East, the impact on global energy markets (especially oil), and strategic options facing the U.S. and its allies. The conversation features market analysis, military updates, policy critique, and forward-looking assessments, all underpinned by the show's signature 'America First' tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. U.S. in the Middle East: Endless War or Strategic Imperative?

• Bannon (00:00): Opens by reflecting on years of U.S. entanglement in the Middle East, drawing parallels with past conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. He stresses that today's campaign is claimed to have clear, "peace through strength" objectives, yet the risk of quagmire lingers.
• Regional Power Shift (01:10): With Iran potentially neutralized, there is concern among Arab nations about emerging Israeli hegemony, destabilizing the region's delicate balance.
• Quote:

  "You have an Israeli hegemony in the region which isn’t, I think, exactly what people calculated..." – Lisa (01:16)

2. Military Campaign Against Iran: Goals & Progress

• Admiral Cooper (02:19): Details the U.S. and allied strikes on Iran's military infrastructure including drone and missile factories and naval assets—emphasizing a strategy to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten both Americans and allies.
• Quote:

  "Our Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aviators have collectively flown more than 6,000 combat flights demonstrating the unmatched capability of America’s joint force." – Admiral Cooper (02:52)

• "Victory Disease":
  Eric Bolling warns (04:44) about overconfidence post-military successes, referencing Israel’s past mistakes in Lebanon and cautioning against mission creep.

3. The Strait of Hormuz: Economic Bottleneck

• Shipping Chokepoint (07:51): Bolling highlights the dramatic drop in tanker traffic, impacting global oil, gas, and commodities.
• Discussion of Market Flows:
  Iranian and some Indian/Chinese ships are moving, but at a trickle. There's a release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), but this is seen as a stopgap.
• Quote:

  "Ultimately we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market. That is not a simple task." – Eric Bolling (09:50)

4. Oil Market Response & Strategic Oil Releases

• Market Turbulence (17:57 onwards): Scott Bessant criticizes the administration’s math and approach, arguing shutdown levels are much higher than stated and the SPR is being dangerously depleted.
• Future Oil Prices:
  Market anticipates persistent high prices—$4/gallon gas likely soon, and futures are well above pre-crisis levels.
• Quote:

  "If it were a very temporary blip...you would see $100 on the spot price... and $60 in October, November, December... They believe [price elevation] is going to remain." – Scott Bessant (22:45)

5. U.S. Energy Policy: Harold Hamm & Energy Dominance

• Rob Lockwood (24:44): Advocates for appointing oilman Harold Hamm to the U.S. Senate, calling him the “Tom Brady” of energy independence—a critical move for advancing Trump’s energy dominance agenda and securing political wins.
• Quote:

  "Harold Hammond is the intellectual godfather and an operator who helped usher in an American energy renaissance and American energy independence before President Trump even took office." – Rob Lockwood (24:52)

6. Military Options: Naval Strategy & Avoiding “Boots on the Ground”

• Jack Posobiec & Captain Fennell (30:29–44:00): Detail alternative strategies for neutralizing Iranian assets without large-scale ground invasions—emphasizing cyberwarfare, maritime interdiction, targeted air power, and coalition tactics.
• Naval escort operations from the '80s are reviewed as a playbook for restoring shipping, but with caution to avoid U.S. losses.
• Quote:

  "We have been decimating that. And a reflection of that success has been that there hasn't been one ship that's hit a mine." – Captain James Fennell (36:25)

7. Call for Global Coalition & Allied Reluctance

• Trump’s Appeal (42:27): Urges NATO and other global allies to help keep the Strait open—a call met with reluctance by the UK, Germany, and Australia; more optimism for Japanese involvement.
• Broader Significance: The panel asserts that keeping trade lanes open is a "free world" issue, not just a U.S. responsibility.
• Quote:

  "This is the free world’s war. This is about whether or not we’re going to allow Iran to have the jugular of the world’s economic system..." – Captain James Fennell (42:58)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Bannon’s Framing:

  "Peace is better than war, he said, but war is better than nuclear annihilation." – Stephen K. Bannon (11:24)

• Oil Market Decoded:

  "You’re going to hit hundreds of millions of barrels over a three week situation... Not in that day and age. Here’s my point: I want Trump to win. My biggest problem with what’s going on right now, Steve, is it wasn’t one and done." – Scott Bessant (20:13)

• Naval & Air Operations:

  "You don’t have to take this territory to neutralize it...You just hit the pier." – Jack Posobiec, on Kharg Island (30:49)

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Key Timestamps of Important Segments

• Opening reflections on U.S. policy & Middle East analysis: 00:00–02:13
• Military briefing by Admiral Cooper (Iran strike details): 02:19–04:19
• Israeli actions in Lebanon, “victory disease”: 04:39–06:00
• Strait of Hormuz bottleneck and oil supply math: 07:51–10:54
• Bannon’s invocation of U.S. historical leaders: 11:14–12:31
• Oil market analysis, futures pricing (Bessant/Bolling): 17:57–24:06
• Rob Lockwood on Harold Hamm and Senate strategy: 24:44–26:48
• Military stratagem and coalition dynamics (Posobiec, Fennell): 30:29–44:00
• Call for allied support, reluctance abroad: 42:27–43:33
• Final discussion—energy policy, U.S. production: 49:55–52:26

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Analysis and Takeaways

• The show frames the Middle East escalation as both an existential and economic threat, with energy markets as the new front line.
• Despite successes in degrading Iranian military capabilities, panelists worry about mission creep and economic blowback from prolonged conflict in the Strait of Hormuz.
• There is skepticism toward ‘temporary’ solutions (SPR releases, partial embargoes) and a push for political maneuvers (Harold Hamm as Senate appointee) to shore up American energy independence.
• Military guests stress the thoroughness and planning behind current operations, while emphasizing the utility of advanced surveillance, targeted airstrikes, and multinational naval operations over ground invasions.
• Global alliances are in flux, with traditional partners wavering and a heavy implication that the world’s economic stability depends on U.S. action and leadership.

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Episode Mood and Language

• Tone: Urgent, combative, bracing—with recurring calls for American strength and skepticism about both foreign allies and internal opposition.
• Language: Patriotic, occasionally martial, often personal (invoking historical presidents, invoking “peace through strength” ethos).

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In Summary

For listeners seeking an in-depth, frontline analysis of how the Iran conflict is shaping markets, military decisions, and U.S. political posturing, this episode blends rapid-fire updates with pointed critiques, market math, and muscular calls for energy and strategic dominance.

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[End of summary]

Transcript

[Stephen K. Bannon]

But first, here's my take. For around 15 years, many American leaders, including all three presidents in that period, have believed that the country was too deeply entangled in trying to reorder the societies of the Middle East. They felt the more pressing challenges were rebuilding America's industrial base at home and confronting the rise of China. Yet here, America is once again fighting a war to reorder a society in the greater Middle East. And like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, this seems unlikely to turn out quite as its proponents hoped. Lisa, you heard in the earlier segment we were talking about how Israel says three weeks in, but we have three weeks to go. What that means is not only will they totally destroy Iran's military capacity and they're destroying the factories where weapons are produced, they're also destroying Hezbollah root and branch. What is the Middle east going to look like and how are the Arabs going to view Israel countries like Saudi Arabia at this moment? Well, look, I think one of the things that the region had been characterized was a sort of balancing between Iran and Israel from the point of view of the Arab countries. In the absence of Iran, Iran decimated in the way the Israelis say that they're going to be able to do. Then you have an Israeli hegemony in the region which isn't, I think, exactly what people calculated. Even the Gulf countries, even the Abraham Accords members didn't particularly see the region as having only one hegemonic power or aspiring hegemonic power. So I think it's going to be very complicated because, you know, when you have Israeli officials saying they're going to do in southern Lebanon what they did in Gaza when the guns stop, if there's that kind of devastation also in Lebanon, which is in a sense not a combatant, I think there's going to be a very, you know, a sort of heart rending conversation within the Arab world about where they want to position themselves, see what happens.

[Eric Bolling]

Sir, you talked about selling oil.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Can you say why?

[Eric Bolling]

You're very obnoxious.

[Admiral Cooper]

For 16 days, we've delivered overwhelming firepower deep into Iran. This past Friday, US Forces executed a large scale precision strike on Kharg island, destroying more than 90 Iranian military targets, including storage bunkers for naval mines and missiles and other military infrastructure. To date, our Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aviators have collectively flown more than 6,000 combat flights demonstrating the unmatched capability of America's joint force. As we maintain air superiority over Iranian skies, we continue to remain centered on our military objectives. These are well defined and include eliminating Iran's ballistic missiles, drones and naval threats. It's one thing to defend by striking launchers and intercepting missiles and drones, but it's another thing to eliminate the wider manufacturing apparatus behind them. And we are doing that today. We've talked about it in concept. Here's what it looks like in reality. Let me show you for the first time a few examples of how we are dismantling Iran's defense industrial base, which will prevent threats to the region into the future. Here you see a photo from March 1 of a naval drone storage facility located near the Strait of Hormuz. This is the same location eight days later, completely destroyed. Next, here's a photo taken of an attack drone production factory in Tehran on March 5th. Here's that same factory six days later after a devastating barrage of U.S. airstrikes. And finally, the Yazdi Military depot, pictured here last month. These eight buildings are part of the IRGC's Missile Command Infrastructure and are used to produce light and heavyweight torpedoes. Now, here's that same military depot just last week, or what's left of it. US and partner strikes are doing exactly what they are intended to do, deliver on very clear military objectives to eliminate Iran's ability to project power against Americans and against its neighbors.

[Eric Bolling]

I don't understand the continued excursion into Lebanon. I don't understand the scale of the attacks into Lebanon. I don't understand why it continues to widen.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Help help me and help everybody else understand.

[Eric Bolling]

Why is Netanyahu taking such an expansive

[Scott Bessant]

approach to warfare in Lebanon?

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Joe, It's a tough one to answer.

[Eric Bolling]

Israelis have bitter memories of Lebanon. I watch as they roll all the way to Beirut in 1982 and live to regret it deeply for several decades. An essayist who writes for the Atlantic magazine last weekend wrote an essay on

[Stephen K. Bannon]

victory disease, the ways in which leaders

[Eric Bolling]

and armies can become so stoked by one victory that they keep going beyond the limits of good sense. Certainly, Donald Trump had victory disease after his stunning success in Venezuela. I think the Israelis, after the amazing successes of the last two years, years against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, have thought they just have to keep going, go all the way. Lebanon has been a real quagmire for Israel, and I would expect that in the in the next few days you'll hear growing criticism of the idea of a big ground invasion of Lebanon again because people have seen where that leads. Why does it happen? It happens because leaders get intoxicated by their own power.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

All this talk about this war wasn't imminent. Why did we decide now? All this talk about what is the mission, all of this is used to try and obstruct, undermine, dispirit and divide this nation at a time when Donald Trump is doing what great presidents do. And the battle against Iran, maybe we should call it, for now, the battle of Iran. I call it a peace mission because that's the objective. Peace. Peace through strength. Taking on a government, an illegitimate terrorist regime whose roots are in the seventh century of barbarism, just like our founding fathers had to take on barbarism, just like Franklin Roosevelt needed to lead the nation against a barbaric Third Reich. You see many similarities here. The primary indispensable role of the United States is to anchor the global system against the revisionist ambitions of Beijing and Moscow. China is not getting bogged down in Middle Eastern quagmires. It is relentlessly investing in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, solar and wind power, batteries and robots, the technologies that will determine the balance of global power. Russia remains fiercely committed to disrupting the European security architecture and undermining Western democracies through hybrid political military warfare that has proved hard to detect and even harder to defeat. But while Moscow and Beijing challenged the basic architecture of America's world order, Washington is preparing once again to spend blood and treasure policing the Middle east and trying to pick the leaders of one of its countries.

[Eric Bolling]

But it's enough, but it's enough to distort the, probably the most important shipping point in the world. And I don't want to say that the strait is, quote, closed. I don't like that term. But the reality is shipping traffic has fallen off a cliff. It's critical for oil, for gas, for

[Captain James Fennell]

fertilizers, helium, for semiconductors. Is there a plan to get that

[Rob Lockwood]

fully, I don't want to say, reopen.

[Captain James Fennell]

There was a tanker that ran through

[Eric Bolling]

today, fully operational and safe for all global shipping. Well, let's pull that apart. So we are seeing more and more the fuel ships start to go through. The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we've let that happen to supply the rest of the world. We've seen Indian ships go out now. So the Indians, who rely very heavily on Gulf oil, we believe some Chinese ships have gone out so that, and that should start ramping up before there are any the flotillas or protective armadas in the Gulf.

[Scott Bessant]

So we think that there will be

[Eric Bolling]

a natural opening that the Iranians are letting out. And for now, we're, we're fine with that. We want the world to be well supplied. You know, the other thing that we did, we gave a 30 day waiver for Russian oil that was already on the water is about 130 million barrels. And that's, that's a lot of oil. Good thing about one and a half days global supply.

[Captain James Fennell]

The.

[Eric Bolling]

Mr. Secretary. No, no, but that's bad framing. Good framing is that there was about 20 million a day coming out of the Gulf. That 1.5 of that is the Iranian oil. So the 18.5. The Saudis and UAE have diverted the

[Scott Bessant]

production into the Red Sea.

[Eric Bolling]

So that's about another five.

[Scott Bessant]

There's a strategic Petroleum release.

[Eric Bolling]

So we are in deficit somewhere between 10 and 14. But ultimately we have to reopen the straight off Hormuz to ensure stability in the market. That is not a simple task. So we're working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible.

[Admiral Cooper]

We're also zeroed in on dismantling Iran's decades old threat to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz. Through a combination of air, land and maritime capabilities, we have successfully destroyed over 100 Iranian naval vessels. And we are done. We will continue to rapidly deplete Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Our progress remains steady and we remain vigilant against the enemy because it is their territory.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

It's the place from which they get their energy and they should come and

[Eric Bolling]

they should help us protect it.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

You could make the case that maybe we shouldn't be there at all because

[Eric Bolling]

we don't need it. We have a lot of oil. We were the number one producer anywhere in the world.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

Times soon by double, at least double

[Eric Bolling]

Now, I think it's much higher than that.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

But we do it. It's almost like we do it for habit.

[Eric Bolling]

But we also do it for some very good allies that we have.

[Stephen K. Bannon]

In the middest commander in chief, Donald Trump, who's facing the same kind of ugly internal forces as Roosevelt did, who's facing the same kind of enemy that Jefferson did and Madison did. Just remember this. This is a righteous war that seeks peace. Peace again, changing slightly the quote from Madison in 1815. Peace is better than war, he said, but war is better than nuclear annihilation. He said. War is better than enslavement. War is better than nuclear annihilation. I ask you, I ask you, what do you think Jefferson and Madison would do in these circumstances today? What do you think Franklin Roosevelt would do in these circumstances today? Or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington? Or even Ronald Reagan when they didn't have nuclear weapons in Iran. What do you think they would do?

[Eric Bolling]

It's Monday, the 16th of March in the year of our Lord 2026. Want to thank the team in Denver, Real America's Voice. Also our magnificent team hit the war room. That was a perfect curation of what's happened in the last 24 hours. Beautifully cut and wedged in. And I believe that Lincoln and Washington and Madison and Jefferson would have focused on the real threat to the United States coming from the streets of New York with Mandami and what's happening in Texas with this Islamic takeover and the 20 million illegal aliens Mark Levin, Tel Aviv Levin that we have here in the United States, that now the Republican pollsters think, oh my gosh, Mr. President, sending him fake polls that you can never mention mass deportations again. The fake polls are showing him to turned down, shut down the Maha movement. So now that we're, we're, we are promoters of roundup of every significant MAGA policy to now focus on the Middle East. And like I said to the National Conservative Convention in June before the 12 Day War, the Middle east is a sideshow to the central problems of the United States of America and Israel is a sideshow to a sideshow. And of course, Fareed Zakara sounded like Captain James Fennell. Keep the main thing, the main thing. Okay, here's what we're going to do and a programming change. Already the commander in chief of the American military forces in the President United States has just announced on Truth Social that he is holding a press conference right before his board meeting at the Kennedy center, the Trump Kennedy Center. That board meeting is supposed to start 1145 12. We assume the president may hold this press conference sometime in the 11 o' clock hour. So we're going to be packed today already. We're going to start with oil. We've got Eric Bolling and Rob Lockwood to walk us through it. Two great briefings today we'll put up in its entirety on our streaming. Scott Besson on cnbc, our own former contributor and Secretary of the Treasury. Also Ebrill Cooper and centcom, Two really great briefings. We got Poso and Captain James Fennell to break it all down for us. The first hour is going to be on fire. Short commercial break. Natasha Owens will take us out. We'll be back in a moment. Think about this. In 2006, $20,000 equaled roughly 33 ounces of gold at spot prices. At Today's prices, those 33 ounces of gold will be worth $165,000. Smart Americans diversify a portion of their savings into precious metals. And that's why you need to consider buying gold from my friends at Birch Gold Group. For thousands of years gold has been a store of wealth and today it is a crucial part of any balance strategy. Even better, Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered retirement account in gold. Just text my name, Bannon B A N N Owen to the number 98989 to receive your free info kit on gold. The there's no obligation, just useful information with an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers. Let Birch Gold help you diversify with gold. Now that's peace of mind. Text Bannon to 989-898. Again, my name, Bannon B A N N O N to the number 989-898. Do it today.

[Jack Posobiec]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.

[Eric Bolling]

The Arizona engine rooms on fire this morning. They remind me that on 4th of July 1821, John Quincy Adams we need not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Also General Jack Keane, very close to the President United States. We tried to get him as national Security Advisor. The first administration didn't work out on Fox. We are there to eliminate Iran's offensive capabilities and the manufacturing that support it so they cannot threaten others. We are not there to take over the country like Russia has tried to do in Ukraine for five years, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The center of gravity of this war has shifted to very quickly shifted to the Persian Gulf, the world's oil markets. So today we've got two. We've got Rob Lockwood and Eric Bolling, Eric Scott Bessant and we'll put the entire interview up from cnbc. He walked through principally the calm oil markets. What number one, they're not going to intervene. Right. Not going to intervene with other methodologies at Treasury. But walk me through his assessment and the math of what he had to say this morning vis a vis what you're seeing of traders last night. I think the first trade got West Texas Intermediate, which is the American proxy for our price, over a hundred dollars that's backed off, I think pretty substantially this morning. What's going on?

[Scott Bessant]

So over the weekend there was more bombings going on. Steve, we talked about bombing Kharg island, which is the Iranian oil platform processing platform, which it's beyond me why we do that. Listen, he's got a plan. I hope it's working. But I listened to Scott Best and there had a couple problems with, with Bessant's analysis. He was asked, you know, what is actually being shut in right now, what's, what's being held back through the strait. And he mentioned some Iranian boats are getting through. Hear me out. There's 20 million barrels a day that, that goes through, through that channel. The, the vast majority of those ships are around one and a half to two million barrels. They hold, they're called vlc, very large crude carriers. There's a lot of ships that have to go through there to get back to normal. A few Iranian boats, maybe a Chinese boat and maybe an Indian boat isn't what's going to happen. And he went to the to, he was asked how much and he said we're about 10 to 14 million barrels held back. I would say we're about 20, 19 million barrels, 18 million barrels per day being held back. So I'm not sure where he gets his math. So I have a bit of an issue with that. Then he was asked about draining the SPR even further. We were at 415 million barrels. We're going to release 172 million of our own SPR. That'll bring us to what, 260, 270 million barrels that we were getting dangerously low. But there was another, I think the Energy secretary is on saying don't worry, we're going to buy it back in the futures market down the road. You know, I looked at eight months down the road. Oil's still $80 a barrel back there. So it doesn't make sense to refill the SPR at an $80 a barrel of oil. It's better than the.

[Eric Bolling]

But let's just go, but let's just, but hang on, let's just go back to some math. I think it's a consensus at least three vessels are getting through. Scott saying five at a million and a half barrels or a million barrels, that's roughly 5, 4 to 5 million barrels right from the 20. That's 15, that's, that's 14 or 15 million. I mean his math works out. It's roughly 15 million barrels a day. Are not getting through.

[Scott Bessant]

He didn't say four to five are getting through. He said, I mean let's call it 15 a day.

[Eric Bolling]

Okay, okay.

[Scott Bessant]

You're talking hundreds of million. You know, you're going to hit hundreds of millions of barrels over a three week situation. It's been in essence shut the idea of, of ensuring these boats with, with Lloyd to London passage is also not going to work because there's no captain worth his salt that's going to risk the lives of 200 crew members to put it through there just because they have insurance. If the thing blows up, their families will be taken care of. No, not in that day and age. Here's my point. I want Trump to win. I want us to win in the midterms. My biggest problem with what's going on right now, Steve, is it it wasn't one and done. It didn't get in there and get the hell out. Which he, we, we, I thought we should have, we could have because this is now pushing a $4 gallon gasoline within the next, I would say 20, 30 days national. Even if it ends.

[Eric Bolling]

Everybody, everybody including the president, everybody, including the president with current reporting wanted something quick and dirty. Okay. Whether it was misdiagnosed, Captain Fernell is going to walk through why it's very methodical what we're doing. And that was a multi week program. Whether people didn't hear that or didn't want to hear it or didn't understand it, the military is moving down a path to deindustrialize Iran. Okay. And just to put in perspective, Iran, 90 million people, Texas 30 million. So three times the population. And Iran's about two and a half size, two and a half times the size of Texas. So you have a large.

[Scott Bessant]

We're not fixing it, Steve. The problem is bombing these, their ability to create drones and, and various forms of military assets. They're, they're a petro state. They, you know, they're, they're selling 3 million barrels a day at 100, $300 million per day. They can build that stuff back over time. You know, I, I'd like to see that's it's more permanent.

[Eric Bolling]

Not.

[Scott Bessant]

Let's take out their ability to.

[Eric Bolling]

How.

[Scott Bessant]

Yep, go ahead.

[Eric Bolling]

Well, I know the you, you want, you want to, you want to cut a deal as it's trading right now. Where does the market. Because the, the, the market was up from the time BB went to, went to Mar a Lago in late December. I think the, I think the oil market was up 20 or 25% even before the, the bombing started. So the oil market is quite efficient as it deals on information. Right, right. It tends towards efficiency. Where is this market today telling us what the market thinks this is going? Not with President Trump and not with Besson. Where does the market say this is going right now?

[Scott Bessant]

It's elevated. I just pointed out, I just looked at October delivery For crude oil just right now, $70 a barrel today, that means the market believes in October it'll be at least the $78 barrel in October, which translates to about 375 a gallon. However, we're coming down from likely a $4 per gall gasoline the market. You're right, Steve. So in late December, early January, we were about $55 a barrel. It started to move up because there was anticipation of a conflict in the Middle east market. The oil market is very smart, very efficient, very smart and it predicts and it plans for conflicts. It plans for supply shocks. It also plans for oversupply. And so you see if it were a very temporary blip, let's call it believe, believed in the oil market you would see $100 on the spot price, which is traded today, 95 today, but it got to 103 last night. So $100 a barrel today and you'd see $60 or $65 in October, November and December because they would believe that oil prices are coming down. They believe it's, it's going to remain certainly elevated from where it, where we started from, maybe a little less from than where we are today because we're not fixing the problem. You leave Iranians build, you're going to have another problem down the road.

[Eric Bolling]

Okay, hang on a second. I want you to stick around for Posobic and Captain Fanel. I want to bring in Rob Lockwood, one of the original gangsters of kind of the MAGA movement. Rob, both Republican strategists, media expert, you've got a piece up that I find very intriguing. You're saying part of the solution for to get back to that $50 barrel, $55 barrel full spectrum energy dominance maybe in the appointment of the senator from Oklahoma. And you're strongly recommending Harold Ham. Tell our audience who is Harold Ham and why is he so important to the current environment, Sir?

[Rob Lockwood]

Sure. So Steve, as outlined by Eric, we live in a complex world and the oil and energy markets are complex. Harold Ham, if Donald Trump is the CEO and the architect of America's national energy dominance strategy, which he is, Harold Hamilton is the intellectual godfather and an operator who helped usher in an American energy renaissance and American energy independence before President Trump even took office. So he was a guy who grew up in absolute poverty, one of 13 kids, sharecropper family in Oklahoma. They had no water on the farm in which they lived. He had no formal education, no political connections, no industry connections, who built a titan company called Continental Resources. And Harold Ham is a huge supporter of President Trump's, and he has been for a long time. And I wrote this piece because right now in Oklahoma, with the, I think, forthcoming appointment and confirmation of Senator Mullen to head dhs, there's going to be an opening. And this opening is a temporary seat, seven or eight months until the November election is certified. This is political crunch time, as we're seeing with the world of geopolitical affairs, but also because it's an election year with the midterms. We have to win because if we don't, the Democrats will throw all the sand in the gears with all of the momentum that President Trump has built. And so my thought is Harold Hammond. I'm a Patriots fan. I apologize to your audience who hates them, but he is the Tom Brady of modern American energy. And this is political crunch time. And Governor Kevin Stitt has the opportunity to put an energy icon into the Senate who can work with Republican caucus members to message how that energy is the foundation of prosperity and peace abroad. And he could even tutor privately some Democrats who may not be able to campaign on that issue. But there are some who do privately understand the need for increased baseload power, the need for President Trump's energy dominance agenda to continue. And so for me, it's a no brainer. Put this guy in the Senate for seven to eight months, he can help President Trump save America. He can help the Republicans win in the midterms and then have two more years of furthering the agenda that's gonna bring America back to true greatness. So that's the thesis of the piece and who Harold Hamm is.

[Eric Bolling]

Yeah, yeah, hang on for a second. And Eric, hang on. We're gonna get to some of the military, but I want you to hang on for a second. Harold Ham is also, I mean, he was with us early on. This guy is original MAGA and was with President Trump early on. He's also President Trump's kind of mentor about the whole theory of the case of full spectrum energy dominance. And you've seen Harold Ham have a voice in the situation in Venezuela. I mean, I don't think you could get a more important ally of President Trump and platform in the Senate between now and election Day. And also get some minds right over there and even in the administration about the importance of full spectrum energy dominance. Harold Ham, I would say, is original gangster when it comes to that. He certainly is an incredible kind of a throwback to the wildcatters of the mythical or the foundational myth of our oil industry that Ham goes back to that and has that kind of stuff cut of his jib. Anyway, short commercial break we're going to juggle a little bit this morning. President said he's going to have an impromptu press conference probably around 11 o'.

[Captain James Fennell]

Clock.

[Eric Bolling]

There's obviously a lot to talk about in the media is banging like a pack of jackals after him. So it'll be quite interesting. Take your phone out. Text Birch Gold. Text Bannon B A N N O N 989898 the Ultimate Guide is totally free and no obligation for investigating of gold and precious metals in the Age of Trump. Find it. From Philip Patrick and team why Gold is a Hedge during times of financial if a major disruption happened to you, once again, if a major disruption happened and you couldn't get to the store, how long do you think you could last with what's in your house right now? If it's anything less than a month, you need to check out our friends at my patriot supply. They're America's number one preparedness company with over 3 million satisfied customers. And right now when you go to preparewithbannon.com their best selling 4 week emergency supply food kit comes with an additional week of free food. That's you get the best selling four week emergency food supply and it comes with an additional week of free food kicked in. This is the best long term storable food you can find. You're getting at least 2,000 calories a day, real meals made with real ingredients, no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and a shelf life measured in decades. Look, we all need to know that we need food stored for emergencies. Look around your house right now. How long would you last? Why not get it from the most trusted folks in the business? Get a free week of food thrown in. While you're at it, go to preparewithbannon.com to get your free week of emergency food today. That's preparewithbannon.com America's number one preparedness company. My Patriot supply with over 3 million satisfied customers. Make sure you're one of them.

[Jack Posobiec]

Here's your host, Stephen K. Banner.

[Eric Bolling]

Welcome back. MBS is telling the New York Times continue bombing. Take the head off the snake behind the scenes. Who knows what they're saying. We're going to keep Rob Lockwood and Eric Bolling. Like I said, the president looks like he may have a press conference in the 11 o' clock hour. We'll go to that live. Let's go to Jack. We got Captain Fennell, Jack Posobic. Jack, your assessment of what you've seen over the weekend. And what does it mean, sir?

[Jack Posobiec]

Well, Steve, as I said yesterday here on the program, and I would say as well, President Trump clearly at a crossroads in this situation. You've got the 31st MEU, which is now steaming its way, I'm told, through the Straits of Malacca right about now coming up. They were in opera in operations in and around the Philippines, South China Sea area. They're headed up through the Strait of Malacca. They are steaming along, picking up speed and heading over to the Persian Gulf, which obviously allows the president for a range of optionality, as it's called in military defense circles these days, along with the different, the different pieces of the puzzle that he has. And I was on media earlier this morning and I would say here again, as well as to the war room, that I have seen a very strange contention from the Wall Street Journal and others saying that boots on the ground are necessary to take Carg Island. And that's one of the most ridiculous things that I've heard. You don't need to take this, this territory to be, to be able to neutralize it. Because if you just simply want to neutralize Carg island, you could use cyber warfare very easily to shut down offload and onload operations. Anything with the computer could be fried. And of course, the United States Navy has been neutralizing peers for centuries at this point. In fact, the United States Navy Seals were designed for, for that specific purpose. If you go back to the UDT teams and so this is, this is something that the Navy is able to do. You can take out the pier. You don't have to touch any of the fuel supplies, the depots, the pipelines, any of it. You just, you just hit the pier. It's really simple. But I think, Steve, that what's going on now is that there are people who are deeply and seriously agitating, including Wall Street Journal, for the president to put boots on the ground because they realize that once he has done so that the mission creep will be so far in thing could explode into a full fledged war. And they deeply want that. And that's what I said here last week, that Lindsey Graham was certainly part of that push gesture gooning up and down for a wider full scale war with Iran.

[Eric Bolling]

So on the Sunday show lineup on Friday and all the Sunday shows, Lady Lindsay was not included. Now on the Saturday update, he was, he was included in a couple, I think, Meet the Press and a couple others. My understanding, he was not on the Sunday shows yesterday as a surrogate. They're maybe trying to dial Down. I think they're buying your theory of jester gooning, but hang on for a second. Jack, let's bring in Captain Fennell. Captain Fennell, CENTCOM Admiral Cooper went through another methodical briefing today of what the still the focus of CENTCOM on the military objectives, also the industrial base. The Israelis have told us they've got 6,000 more targets at least two or three weeks, maybe four weeks of still intense bombing. And every day is pretty intense. In fact, you could say over the last, at least through Saturday night, those three or four nights in a row increased in intensity every night. Your assessment of CENTCOM and then the broader military objectives here, sir.

[Captain James Fennell]

Well, Steve, I agree with Admiral Cooper's statement that Iranian military capability is declining while US US Military capability is increasing. And the numbers that he put out in his briefing this morning are very clear that we are really, really pounding them every day for 16 days. And I would like to give an example because I heard Eric's bowling's, you know, angst, and I understand it about the straight and the concern that everyone has about this being shut down. But one just little note from the UK's Maritime Trade Office. They have what they call a Joint Maritime Information center. And they've been putting out reports every day of the conflict. And since the conflict has started, they pointed out in their daily reports, number 15 was released last night, that there has been no Iranian mines detected in the Persian Gulf and in the Strait of Hormuz. And people could say, well, that's not verified, or they can go down that tangent. But let's just take that independent agencies, there's no clearly no skin in the game to exaggerate. They have stated that now for 15 days. Why is that? And I would say that is a reflection of the targeting plan that CENTCOM put together and that they outlined every day since this conflict has been going on. Take out the missiles, take out the missile launchers, take out the missile production factories, which they are now heavily doing in the last 24, 48 hours. But also this Navy piece, and when we say Navy, we just think of ships floating. But it wasn't just ships floating. It was those bases and those storage facilities for top torpedoes, mines, drones, ammunition, the boats themselves that go ashore, the small, fast boats. So we have been decimating that. And a reflection of that success has been that there hasn't been one ship that's hit a mine. There's been no detected mines in and around the strait in this last 16 days. And I remind people the number one weapon that has damaged more US Navy warships since World War II is the mine. So we have actually been very successful in that regard. And so I think what we should. And I know it's very hard for people to do that. I haven't been in the military. But when you listen to the former Commanders of NAVCENT 5th Fleet, like Admiral Donegan, who's on ABC this Sunday, we are. We have known about this, we have planned for this, and we are going through it very systematically. And I agree with Jack. We don't have to put boots on the ground in Carg island to take out their capacity to produce oil or to at least disseminate the oil. And last night there was overhead imagery, commercial imagery, that showed three maritime tankers from Iran sitting at Carg island being loaded up with fuel. At some point, that will stop. And that's the President's time to choose to do that. And I'm not the President. I'm not sure exactly when he'll do that, but at some point, if this doesn't ratchet back, he'll have another ladder of rung on the ladder to take up in the escalation, at least in terms of putting pressure on the regime to capitulate. And we do not have to be boots on the ground, and we do not have to have an endless war. We can do this if we just stay the helm or steady on the helm and keep proceeding as we have. And the Tripoli coming through the Strait of Malacca, she'll probably pick up two littoral combat system, littoral combat ships with mine warfare packages, and they'll escort them out to the Gulf should we have to use even minesweepers. But there is a another plan that we can use, which is right now, we're going to start rolling in 8, 10 Warthogs, the Thunderbolts, and with those, along with F18s, F15s, and F16s, with this advanced precision kill weapon system that the Ukrainians have been using to shoot down drones in the Ukraine. These $25,000 missiles can be used, and they're being brought out to the theater to be able to take down any kind of unmanned surface vessel or any kind of drone. So we have the capacity to start really making it apparent to the shipping community that it is going to be safe. Still need some more time. We'll be safe.

[Eric Bolling]

I want to go back in time. My kid brother was there. I know you were very involved. Go back to the. It's not directly analogous, but we've had this issue before, the tanker wars of 87 and 88, how did we actually have combatants? How did we escort? Because this is going to be a big issue. They're, they're pouring more naval assets into the region, into the North Arabian Sea, about the actual escorting of, of these tankers. We've done this before during the 87, 88 tanker war. Explain to us what happened then and what lessons do we derive from that.

[Captain James Fennell]

Well, those wars actually started in 81, but we didn't actually start doing the escort program until that, like you said, 87, 88. And during that whole period, those seven, eight years, there were over 450 ships that were struck, attacked or struck by Iranian and Iraqis during that period. 55 of these ships actually sank during that time period. And what we did in Operation Praying Mantis is that we started escorting groups of ships with our destroyers and frigates. We used to have a lot of frigates then because it was a 600 ship Navy. Today we only have a 300 ship Navy. But we have much greater capabilities on our ships with our Aegis radar systems. So we have these Aegis equipped destroyers, the Arleigh Burke class and those ships and most of the estimates I've heard from former flags, admirals have said somewhere around a dozen or a little over, a little under. If we had a dozen of those operating into the strait escorting groups of tankers, we could start ratcheting these numbers up from the 1, 2, 3 or 4 that happened a couple of days ago up to in the 50s or 60s in short order. But before we start putting a US Navy warship in those waters off that coast, CENTCOM is going to want to know and be absolutely certain that we don't bring a destroyer in there and have it take a hit from something that the Iranians have. And all of a sudden now we're talking about how the United States Navy lost a warship and killed 300 sailors. That's not what we want. So they're going to make sure that they rub everything out. And the other way that you can do this, like I said with the mines and these other systems that the Iranians have, is what we have is persistent isr. We have satellites, we have airborne unmanned ISR platforms, we have manned platforms, we have dirgeables that are actually afloat that can look,

[Eric Bolling]

tell people, Hang on. Tell people what ISR means Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

[Captain James Fennell]

It's our ability to detect electrolyte, optical imagery, infrared imagery, signals intelligence, communications intelligence, electronic intelligence. So we are sucking up everything. As somebody said on another channel, Admiral Mark Montgomery said an Unblinking eye. We are seeing all of the, everything that's there. And we have the preponderance of air forces now that are working, as Admiral Cooper said, in an air superiority arena now, so we don't have to worry about. We're still not taking it for granted, but we're not as under pressure for being shot down, so we're able to put the pressure on Iranians.

[Eric Bolling]

Would you surprise. Were you surprised he didn't use the term air supremacy? He was very specific about air superiority, yes.

[Captain James Fennell]

And so because he's the closest man to the fight, I would go with his assessment. I've heard air supremacy from others, but when Admiral Cooper says it, I'll go with that. So he probably was speaking across the whole scope of Iran. So we probably don't have air supremacy or air superiority in the Far east, on the Afghan border or on the east side of that country. But I'm guarantee you in the Strait of Hormuz and along that coastal area, we have air supremacy, I'm guessing, and we are operating over there. And if they try to take something out of a cave or out of a bunker, a mine, for instance, we're going to see that and that's going to be vaporized before it can even get close to the water. And I think that's, that's where he wants us to be at. And when we get in that position, then we can bring in the Aegis destroyers and, oh, by the way, our allies have Aegis equipment. The South Korean Navy and the Japanese navy have Aegis equipped destroyers.

[Eric Bolling]

Hang on, the Japanese. The Japanese ambassadors come to the White House this afternoon. The Prime Minister's coming for a huge meeting and dinner on Thursday. Talk to me. President Trump actually made a call to arms. Says he needs all the allies, NATO and kind of implied, hey, if you're not there, maybe we're not gonna be there. Called for NATO, he called for the Chinese Communist Party. Send the People's Liberation Navy. We got 60 seconds, sir. I'm gonna keep you around. Give me 30 seconds on. President Trump's calling for all the navies of the world to come and keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

[Captain James Fennell]

The president's exactly right. I said this a couple of weeks ago. An article was written. This is the free world's war. This is about whether or not we're going to allow Iran to have the jugular of the world's economic system, which runs on oil, unfortunately, and therefore we have to. We should be expecting our partners and allies to join us. And already we've already seen the UK today said no. Albanese down in Australia said no. The Germans are indicating they're going to say no. Let's see what our allies in Asia do. I'm, I'm more confident that they'll probably try to help us at least the Japanese.

[Eric Bolling]

Okay. Yes. Hang on, Captain. I might add that I think the Filipinos, I think the Philippine government also told the Chinese Communist Party today that the South China Sea is not an internal sea of China. You do not have sovereignty over complex, complicated. That's why you're in the war room to get the information you need. Fellow patriots, the Federal Reserve has betrayed America for over a century. Printing fiat, inflating away your savings, serving globalist masters. But President Trump is ending it. President Trump is wielding a 112 year old law to reclaim control over the rogue Federal Reserve. He's replacing Jerome Powell slashing rates and igniting America's re industrialization. This isn't theory. Government backed industry plus low rates unleashes super cycles. History repeats. Gold's already exploding. Miners are up 400% in the last year. What Rickards is calling Trump's new gift is wealth for American patriots, not global handouts. Now it's America's turn gold to 27,000 in the coming years. Jim Rickards CIA and Pentagon veteran says act now. Go to insider2026.com that's insider2026com to get Jim Rickards Strategic Intelligence Newsletter today

[Admiral Cooper]

here's

[Jack Posobiec]

your host Stephen K. Ban.

[Eric Bolling]

We have an event at the Kennedy center night. There's a lunch for the Kennedy center board or Trump Kennedy center board is going to take place around noon. President says he's going to do a press conference beforehand. I think that's in the east room. We're in standby for all of it. We'll cover it obviously live tonight there's a free event on kill to order the book one of our books that Jan Uchelic is the great epoch Times writer and American thought leaders host is putting out. Make sure you go to I'll give you I'll it's up there on the screen but I'll read it later when I get my glasses on. It's totally free. We've at we're now in the concert hall so we've added another thousand spaces. You get a free book also if you and Rob Steiner is going to be there for a conversation with Jan. It's going to be incredible. Also cpac.org war room 17 ticket 4 days at CPAC, the entire real America's voice team will be there also with Patriot Mobile. Everybody's very excited. All kind of side events. 174 days cpac.org Worm, you gotta go to Worm. Get the special deal. Check it out. Today, Jack Posobic, thoughts and observations on centcom's plan and our naval strategy.

[Jack Posobiec]

Well, Steve, certainly there's a lot to be brought to bear here. Now the idea that NATO is going to send their ships in, it's, it's going to be interesting. We'll, we'll have to see. Also real questions about Israel. Israel also has a navy as well and yet we haven't heard any calls. I think for the Israeli navy to get involved in this as well. They are striking Iran with their air power certainly right now. But they do have naval assets that could be brought to bear. And so of course if Israel wants to send their naval assets to this trade of Hormuz, that could also be an option here for, for greater forces in that region. And certainly, and by the way, there's also one other option of course that the United States also has not taken and that's our own use of asymmetric warfare against Iranian tankers that we've seen in the past. So we have seen the seizing of tankers by whether it's Venezuela bound, whether it's these Venezuela flag tankers. If the United States Navy were to be able to start conducting those interdiction style operations that we saw with the Venezuelan sanctions, then you wouldn't necessarily need to close the Strait of Hormuz at all. You'd be able to affect Iran in the same exact way. Now again, of course this also increases the level of escalation, but doesn't necessarily require boots on the ground. And again, Steve, I'm just talking about the, the wide variety of options, the plethora of options that the President has at his fingertips here that again, totally at sea or using air power, tech, technology or capabilities do not require boots on the ground.

[Eric Bolling]

Asymmetric number one, go to Dubai and seize the pirates. That's the pirate cove of the Middle east, just like Tortuga was against the British Empire in the Caribbean. They should seize all the financial assets of Iran. The Persians all do it. You know, allow them to do it because they're, they're making, they're making, yeah, they're making huge, they're making huge coin off that. They ought to seize that immediately. We also put sanctions on any country trading with Iran financially to seize it. And I think it, I think you, you keep it open. But I don't know why you're not seizing any, any oil coming out of there that can't is being traded and cash is going to the Iranians. I don't get it. I don't get how you put people in harm's way and like choke them down, cut their cash off. When Besant started destroying the what's the currency? The real back in January you had, you know, millions of people take to the streets, choke them out. They shouldn't get a penny. They shouldn't get a penny from it, including the Chinese Communist Party. Jack, social media, you're on fire. Your Twitter feed is like the modern Associated Press for getting information out about this war. Where do people go?

[Jack Posobiec]

Well, thank you, Steve. Of course we're going to be up Human Events Daily every day. If you missed that, we got our sit reps that come out daily in terms of the email and of course the podcast is Human Events Daily on Apple, on Spotify. We're going to be up there as well. And today we're also going to be issuing a response because Steve, I didn't know there's a little TV show that goes on that's been going on for a while called the, the Oscars, the Academy Awards where Conan o' Brien decided to call out my Turning Point halftime show last night. So of course we'll be responding to his very poorly watched, you know, little, little shindig last night and maybe give him a little more ratings. He really needs it.

[Eric Bolling]

It's going to YouTube. Nobody watched it, but I did see the clip of the joke. Good luck on that, Rob Lockwood. I think Harold Ham will be, I think Harold Ham will be saying let's, let's rev up Venezuela and let's get rolling in Guyana in the Gulf of and in Texas we got 10x the president said yesterday we got 10 times the natural gas and oil resources here in this part of the world that they got in the Middle East. And we can certainly put the Middle east on the back burner. I want people to go read your article one more time. Why should Harold Ham be in the United States Senate for the next eight months?

[Rob Lockwood]

Behind the shale revolution energy renaissance in America, he led the crusade to legalize the sale of energy exports in America in 2015. That set the table when President Trump came in and had tremendous success. You were a key part of that in his first term which allowed America to become truly energy independent. The disastrous Biden years set us back. But in the first year of the Trump administration, we were able to do Things like get 6,000 permits approved for drilling. President Trump opened the Gulf of America back open for business with the stroke of a pen. He led to 100,000 barrels more per day in immediate exploration. And there are already holding leases for new energy exploration rigs down in the Gulf of America right now, generating hundreds of millions of dollars of proceeds already. But it ensures an America energy dominant future if we hold the Senate, if we hold the House with President Trump's leadership, and there's no better person in the entire world to fill that vacant Senate seat than Harold Ham. So you put Harold Ham in the Senate, you let him work with President Trump hand to hand for the next seven months. We save America and we save the world.

[Captain James Fennell]

World.

[Rob Lockwood]

That's the nut, nutshell of the argument.

[Eric Bolling]

Just, just an observation. At $55 a barrel, you hold at $100 a barrel. Problematic. Lockwood, where do people go and find out you're exactly. There's 55, I think in mid December. Anyway, where do people, where do people go to track you down, Sir, I'm

[Rob Lockwood]

a simple man just at Rob Lockwood,

[Eric Bolling]

you're far from that. But thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you for the article and introducing the audience to one of the original gangsters of the Trump movement, Harold Ham. Bowling. You don't want higher prices. You're just giving us the analysis of, hey, this is what's happening. You want, actually, you want lower prices. Correct? I'm gonna hold you through. I know you got a bounce.

[Scott Bessant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eric Bolling]

So take a short commercial break.

[Scott Bessant]

Contrary to the chat.

[Eric Bolling]

Go ahead.

[Scott Bessant]

Prices. Yep. Yeah. Contrary to the chat. Who thinks I want higher. I want lower prices for America, for Trump and for my trade.

[Eric Bolling]

By the way, he's not, he's not talking his book. He's actually on the other side of that trade. Short commercial break Captain Fennell is going to stick with us. Eric Bolling, Luke Goldstein, There's a trial in federal court I think you ought to know about. State attorney generals are hanging in there on one of the most, I don't know, nefarious, nefarious monopolies out there. Live Nation. Also about the SAVE Act, Save America, all of it.

[Captain James Fennell]

Next,

[Eric Bolling]

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