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Quest Means Business
Investors Increasingly Wary of Iran Conflict's Economic Toll; President Trump Fires Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary; Seven South Korean Oil Tankers Stuck Near Strait of Hormuz; LNG Shipments Subject to Delays, Rising Costs; Trump Gives Update on Iran War; White House Posts Iran Video Containing Video Game Footage. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 05, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:18]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. The Congressional Medal of Honor Ceremony
recipients are ringing the closing bell. What a wonderful thing to see. The market is off the lows of the day, but it has been a fairly torrid
session across all the major markets.
We are waiting for, yes, sir would you please -- there they are. Lovely! Trading is over. Those are the markets. And these are the events, there
you can see the triple stack, the Dow bearing the brunt of the losses today.
President Trump has fired his Homeland Security chief, Kristi Noem. We will talk about that.
U.S. gasoline prices are soaring to their highest level in years. The former Treasury Secretary, White House chief-of-staff OMB Director Jack
Lew. How much can the U.S. economy take before it suffers badly or even suffers at all?
And President Trump reportedly says he must be involved in choosing Iran's next leader. But what does that mean? You're going to hear in
this hour an update from the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth on military operations.
We are live in New York. It is Thursday. It is March the 5th. I am Richard Quest, and I mean business.
Good evening. The conflict in the Middle East is growing and the U.S. now is starting to see the effects and the economic pain. All major U.S.
averages were lower. The Dow saw the worst of it. It was off some 800 points. I will show you the Dow components in a moment or three, so you
can see exactly what was pushing it down, because bearing in mind, the Dow was off sharply, but the NASDAQ barely down at all, just off a
quarter of a percent. So you've got a bifurcated market that we will only really understand once we have the Dow 30 and we see exactly the
components of that. I will show you that. There we are.
Look at that. It is the banks, Goldman down sharply. You've got Caterpillar, Sherman. You've got some fairly hefty losses all in the
two, three, 3.5 percent and not as many anywhere near as gains with only Salesforce being at the top. So this is a broad based worry loss worry
market rather than sort of a one off and one we are done, but not tech. Tech is managing to withstand against all of this. In fact, you can see
because of Salesforce and IBM, Microsoft, Amazon -- actually tech led the way on the Dow and that's why you're seeing what happened with the
NASDAQ.
So, to the price of gas, which is up nine percent over the past week, $3.25 a gallon in most of the United States across April -- into April.
Oil supplies prices are up sharply, Brent Crude hasn't been this high since the summer two years ago.
And increasing anxiety for some in the administration as it tries to sell the war. The White House says its entire energy team has a game to
keep oil prices stable, pointing to efforts to provide insurance coverage, a military escort, if needed to support shipping in the Middle
East. The problem there is no one knows how that's going to work. We haven't seen any plans and the market is basically saying, show us the
details and we will give you a market reaction.
How long will this conflict will go on with the midterm elections approaching?
Jack Lew is the Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. More than that, he was the U.S.
Ambassador to Israel, of course chief-of-staff to President Obama, Director of OMB, and of course, Treasury Secretary.
Mr. Secretary, Jack Lew joins me now.
A simple question, when we have, Jack Lew, when we have -- first of all, very good to see you -- when we have oil at $80.00-plus a barrel and a
sort of open ended war underway, how much do you think the U.S. economy can withstand of that sort of pressure?
JACK LEW, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: It is good to be with you, Richard. I think the question
that everyone wishes they knew the answer to was how long this goes on and how bad it gets. It is not the slightest bit surprising that five
days into a fairly major regional conflict that there is a lot of nervousness and markets are going up and down, not at the same time. I
don't think that is something that indicates long term threats to the U.S. economy.
I don't know if the impact on energy prices, is going to be something that's measured in weeks or months or longer.
[16:05:10]
So there is so much that's unknown. You know, we all know that energy prices, if they go up and stay up have an impact on inflation and
growth, and if oil prices keep going up, if they hit $100.00 barrel you know, you're going to see some loss of growth and an increase in
inflation, that would be very unpopular. But the U.S. economy is in decent shape going into this, so it won't turn it around necessarily.
Is it politically a very big challenge because you mentioned in your introduction, you know, gasoline prices going up to $3.25, you know,
that's a roughly 10 percent increase in a week.
It is not going to necessarily change people's standard of living right away, but it is going to be very unpopular.
QUEST: Right. Are you surprised at the equity markets? Except for today, we were over a thousand points lower. We came off the lows, but are you
surprised that they haven't had more of a reaction in the initial stages of this war?
Bearing in mind, obviously the wider economics of this, I suppose holding their own for the moment might be a way to describe it.
LEW: Yes. I mean, look, they've gone up and down. We will see what they do tomorrow. I mean, if you look over these last five days, it been
losses with some recoveries and losses again. So, I think that's an expression of nervousness.
You know, there are separate things going on in the economy. There are some jitters about A.I. and technology last week, that is probably
working its way through the system right now, as everyone is focused on Iran. Look, I think fundamentally you know, the question is, what is the
plan? The war clearly has gone very quickly to a pretty high level, the amount of damage.
You look at the issue of the Strait of Hormuz and whether or not it will or won't remain open. We don't know what capacities Iran still has to do
physical damage that would cause a long term blockage. We don't know -- you know, whether the plans to keep the Straits open work. I know my
initial questions about that are, are we really going to offer U.S. insurance protection to oil tankers that are taking oil to China? And
are we going to send U.S. naval protection for those?
So, it is very complicated. It is not like the oil going through the Strait all comes here.
QUEST: Last night on this program, we were talking about the War Powers Act and all of that. To a certain extent, that's somewhat of a red
herring because the thing is now underway. But it raises the question of whether the failure to put together a wider alliance that famous phrase
that you'll be well familiar with, Coalition of the Willing is really damaging.
At the moment, it is basically U.S. and Israel with everybody else being dragged along like the U.K. for some bases when necessary. Should there
have been more prep before this?
LEW: Starting with the domestic part of that? It is a hugely important question, Richard.
You know, our Constitution gives War Making Powers to the Congress. Its Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution. Having members of Congress not
even understanding what the goals of the war are when it is a war that was chosen in time and intensity, it wasn't imposed on us by external
events, it is not good.
So the fact that that vote is passed doesn't change the fact that Congress has not been included in this process and more importantly,
that the American people don't understand what the goals and the end state that's being desired is and the consequences that could come from
it.
So, I think that's a hugely important issue that is not particularly unique here. It is just more pronounced because of the nature of the
decision and the kinetic action.
On the international front, I think going into this without more pre- arranged support from allies is problematic. I think Iran has made it actually less problematic by attacking so many of the Gulf states and
European and E.U. interests in the region that it has kind of forced others to come in. I don't think it is a good thing for the United
States to be seen as going it alone.
[16:10:12]
QUEST: To some extent, Bibi Netanyahu -- Benjamin Netanyahu is getting a lot of what he has always wanted in this sense and I wonder, as a former
Ambassador to Israel, do you see that -- well, when I say, you know, the U.S. has been led into this, obviously it hasn't directly. But Netanyahu
is getting more out of this in a sense, than Donald Trump does with the U.S. economy.
LEW: So, Richard, I don't know how to answer that because I haven't heard a clear explanation from our administration as to exactly what the
reason for the timing of this was and the urgency and some things have been said and reversed rather quickly.
You know, no one is going to disagree that the leadership in Iran had done evil things. I remember well when they killed Americans at the
Beirut Airport and when they killed U.S. sailors on the USS Cole, I met with the families of those sailors in The White House. So I deeply
understand the evil that was projected by that regime.
At the same time, when the United States goes to war, usually it takes into consideration the full regional consequence, the global
consequence, the impact on the United States, and most importantly, what it is trying to accomplish, and not having a clear statement of that
makes it very hard to know where this is going.
And now, with various theories being developed about regime change, things that I know in the days when I was getting briefings were
considered unlikely, now seem to be discussed as if they are realistic options.
QUEST: Finally, I just want to touch on this. The tone, now, whether it was the Defense Secretary yesterday talking quiet death of missiles of
this, or whether it is The White House putting out that video with Call to Duty in the video like a video game. The chest beating, the bravado,
braggadocio that is coming out. This is very different. This is almost warrior spirit, which I guess, the administration would say exactly is
what is necessary.
How do you feel about that?
LEW: Look, war is a literally a deadly business. It takes a huge toll in terms of human life and national treasure. It is something that the
decisions ought to be made with gravity and not treated as something that is other than what it is. It is not a reason that you don't go to
war, it is the reason why you should be very clear headed about why you're going to war, what you're trying to accomplish.
I am not even saying that that case couldn't be made here. I just haven't heard it made clearly, which means it is very hard to convince
the American people and the world what you're trying to accomplish.
I hope that they do a better job explaining what the goals are. And I hope that the success of the operation leads to a more stable Iran. But
that's not been mapped out so that it is visible right now.
QUEST: The last question, actually, there is one last one, always the last one. What's your biggest fear here? Because you've been in the
Situation Room, you've been in the Oval Office. You've seen how things get out-of-control and exogenous events, unexpected events.
So as you survey the area, what's your biggest fear?
LEW: Richard, as I participated in discussions over the years about the possibility of a war with Iran, the question was never should we stop
them from having a nuclear weapon? Everyone agreed we would, and I worked for two presidents who developed the munitions to be able to
accomplish that.
The question wasn't, are they doing evil things? And would it be better for the world if we could stop them? The question was, can we get in and
out without doing more damage than we are willing to bear? And that is a question that we -- you know, we used to weigh heavily, a regional war,
long-term impact.
My biggest concern is that those things haven't been fully thought through. I hope they have.
QUEST: Mr. Secretary, I am grateful, sir. We will talk again as this progresses and thank you for taking the time to have a good discussion
with us this evening. Good to see you, sir.
LEW: Good to see you, Richard.
QUEST: Now, President Trump has fired the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It is the first major shakeup in this second term.
Secretary Noem had attracted controversy as the face of President Trump's deportation efforts.
[16:15:10]
The frustration with her had been building in The White House. She testified in front of Congress twice this week, and the administration
was not happy with some of her responses.
President Trump says Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin will replace her at the end of the month. The Senator had little to say when asked about
the news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): No, you know, the President and I still have got to communicate. So we will talk about it moving forward. But I
appreciate it, guys.
REPORTER: How do you feel about this?
MULLIN: Yes, the President and I have already talked, obviously, the statement went out. But we need to -- we need to talk with the President
and we are going to get on the same page and do what things we need to do.
REPORTER: Do you want the job?
REPORTER: -- to come, Senator?
REPORTER: When did you find out, sir?
MULLIN: A little bit before you guys did.
REPORTER: Do you want the job?
REPORTER: Any changes?
REPORTER: Senator, did you expect this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Kristen Holmes is at The White House, never a dull day, Kristen. Never a dull day. But you weren't expecting this when you woke up this
morning and had your first cup of coffee.
Look, very different animal here, in a sense, already, we are hoping to get Chuck Schumer on board. We are hoping to get bipartisan. We are
hoping to get this. He is well-known, well-liked.
What's going on here?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, when it comes to the Senator, it is usually easier to get them confirmed just
because they have relationships on both sides of the aisle, they're up on Capitol Hill. So, that's probably where some of this estimation from
The White House is coming in.
But it is a remarkable moment. The fact that President Trump has had his first big firing, his first big shakeup of the Cabinet in the second
term, and of course, we know that is intentional, that he and Susie Wiles, the chief-of-staff did not want this administration, this second
term, to look like the first term in which it was a revolving door where people were getting fired on Twitter.
And I am told that Noem learned of this while she was arriving to the event in Nashville, where she was giving -- that's what you see right
there, this keynote address, and that she learned from President Trump, that he called her directly to tell her about the decision that he had
made and inform her and then she went and gave the speech, and she didn't reference it once, only to tweet about it later and thanked him.
She is going to get another job, it is called the Special Envoy of the Shield of Americas. We have no idea what that entails. It certainly
looks as though they're giving her an off ramp instead of just a straight up firing, but we were told that President Trump had grown
increasingly frustrated with her, that it wasn't just what we had seen in Minneapolis, although the administration was mad about her reaction
to that, to those shootings of Americans, they had moved her away from the situation in Minneapolis. They had put Border Czar, Tom Homan in
instead.
We know that she had fought with a number of other officials within DHS, that that had rankled people and wrinkled people within the
administration. But we are also told that a big moment that served as a catalyst for this, Richard, was her Senate Judiciary hearing, which
you're seeing right there.
During this hearing, she had a confrontation with a number of senators, in particular a Republican, John Kennedy, who went after her for this
$200 million ad campaign that essentially just featured her talking to people who are in this country illegally, telling them to self-deport.
And he asked her if President Trump had signed off on that, and she said yes. We are told that this infuriated President Trump, who said he did
not sign off on it. Actually, he talked to a reporter on the phone today and said that on the record. But then he started calling lawmakers on
Capitol Hill, floating different names, Mullin was one of them, asking what these various lawmakers thought of Mullin, having conversations if
he could do the job and it became very clear to these lawmakers that he was very, very close to firing Kristi Noem, which, of course he did
today.
QUEST: So, she was one of the most controversial, certainly the most colorful of the administration and, you know one perhaps unkindly,
people are saying, Mr. Trump didn't like the fact that she was taking so much of the oxygen from the room.
HOLMES: That's always an issue, but I think instead, in this case it actually might be that because she took the oxygen, she is also now
taking the fall. One of the things that we've heard from President Trump over and over again, both publicly, and we know that he is doing this
privately as well, is this complaining about the messaging around immigration and particularly that the messaging doesn't focus on the
good that they've done, but only is defensive, talking about the tactics.
And President Trump and the administration do appear poised to blame the shift in immigration from Americans, we've seen the polling, they say
they don't like -- a majority of Americans say they don't like the tactics they're seeing from ICE on the ground, a shift blamed from that
onto Kristi Noem that essentially she wasn't delivering the message clear enough.
Again, not that it is about the policies, but it is just about the messaging and it certainly appears as though she is going to go down for
that as well, something that President Trump has been very explicitly angry about.
[16:20:02]
QUEST: If I had said to you at breakfast this morning before you had had coffee that Kristi Noem would be fired, what would you say?
HOLMES: I would have probably, said, really? Okay.
QUEST: It just shows you, who knows what we will be talking about tomorrow, but it is good to see you at The White House. Thank you very
much.
HOLMES: It is good to see you.
QUEST: I will buy the coffees next time.
It is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. It is a busy day. My goodness!
We will have more after the break. I promise you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Right now our correspondent friend, Fred Pleitgen and his photo journalist and producer, Claudia Otto are making the long drive to
Tehran. We are the first U.S. network who is in Tehran -- well in Iran since the start of the war. It is important to note that CNN is
operating in the country, in Iran only with permission from the government.
Here is Fred's latest report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are making fairly good progress towards Tehran. It is a very, very long drive,
though. Some things that we are seeing, we already went past one place where apparently there had just been an airstrike. There was thick black
smoke billowing over one place, so it seemed like a fairly fresh airstrike.
Also, some destroyed buildings that we saw from our vantage point as we were driving past. The other thing that I would also say is that there
are definitely more checkpoints than usual. We did see checkpoints with fairly heavily armed security personnel. Other than that, though, it
seems as though things are going on and we certainly don't see any sign of order collapsing here.
Taking a quick break for a coffee along the way. We've been driving for several hours. Theres a couple of things that we've noticed. Number one
is that, first of all, all the shops are open, all the shops are really well stocked, even with fresh things like for instance, fruits and
vegetables. Coffee obviously also available as well.
And then also the gas stations. Theres no long lines at gas stations. Fuel seems readily available and you just don't see any sort of degree
of panic anywhere.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Fred Pleitgen reporting there.
Countries like South Korea, which relies heavily on Middle East oil, a growing concern, one lawmaker says in Seoul. Seven tankers destined for
his country are unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Look at this, remember we talked about it yesterday. It shows how dramatically the flow of ships has slowed to the conflict, and those red
areas where the ships are at anchor or are waiting for loads or whatever, they're growing in some cases. This isn't going to change
anytime soon.
[16:25:10]
Iran has threatened to attack ships trying to sail through the Strait. Two tankers were struck on Thursday in the northern part of the Persian
Gulf.
For LNG situation, massive problems. Qatar has halted the LNG production at its major base. It supplies nearly 20 percent of the world's supply,
exporting 83 million tons last year and that of course, went to Europe, Asia and Australia.
I remember, of course Australia is -- sorry, Europe needs it because it is not getting stuff from Russia. U.S. production is strained, trying to
pick up the slack, bearing in mind they don't have the -- they haven't built the terminals, let alone have enough tankers and shipping to get
the stuff that they've got already there.
Qatar's LNG trade partners are looking elsewhere. Muthu Chezhian is the chief executive of Amigo LNG. Good to see you.
Very kind of you to join us.
How bad is this situation in your view tonight? How sort of tight is the LNG market?
MUTHU CHEZHIAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AMIGO LNG: Hello, Richard. Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me here.
The situation is pretty dire. You're talking about the world's largest, single largest producer calling for force majeure and almost 88 million
tons per annum goes out from that region and almost 85 percent of that goes towards Asia, around nine percent goes towards the European market,
and that means you're critically cutting down a critical artery.
It has not happened ever before and the rest of the world doesn't have enough supplementary LNG to fill in this market.
QUEST: That was my next question. Is there -- is this just a case of, well you can't get it there, but if you pay more, you'll be able to get
it over there.
CHEZHIAN: LNG is kind of a -- the supply chain is very tight out here. You need to have specialized ships. You need to have terminals. The
terminals need to have a lot of storage to make it happen.
So even if someone is able to get extra cargoes and most of those cargoes in LNG are signed up for 15 years, 20 years, we call it long
term LNG sales and purchase agreements. And almost across the world, oil producing facilities in the world, I would say like 85 to 95 percent of
that is signed up on long term basis. So very little volume, five to 10 percent is typically kept for trading, a midterm trading or short spot
trading.
So one thing is to secure the cargo then is to find a ship which is available and ultimately, storage. How much can you store at your local
facility?
So, it is a combination of multiple problems, and there are not that many ships in the world either, probably 700 ships which are operational
right now. There are 300 new ships which are placed in order, but this is going to take another three years for these new ships to come into
place.
QUEST: How long can you store the stuff for? Whether it be in tankers on the ground or, you know onshore, waiting to pump offshore? So after it
comes out of the ground and it has been refined and it has been processed, how long have you got before you've got to get it on a ship
and get it to its destination before either it needs retreating or it becomes useless?
CHEZHIAN: Okay, when the LNG gets loaded to the ship, I mean, as a project developer, as a donor, what we tend to do is we need to get it
out as soon as we can. It is like having a refrigerated cargo in your backyard. You don't want to do that. You want to get it out as soon as
you can.
And the ships, once it gets into the ships, tanked, there is a significant charter fee for these ships and stocked and all, a few weeks
ago, the charter fee was about $40,000.00 to $45,000.00 a day. The last few days we are seeing $200,000.00 per day charter rates. So, the
shipping cost becomes exorbitant.
You can't store it forever because the LNG is compressed, almost liquefied to one by 600 in terms of volume, and it is stored at minus
162 degree Celsius, which makes it -- I mean, the natural tendency is to evaporate or get back to ambient temperature.
So, when you put it into a closed tank, whatever type of tank it may be, it could be a full containment or a ship tank. It finds a way to
extract. I mean, it tends to evaporate, and that's called boil of gas and you lose 0.15 percent every day. On top of it, you're paying
$150,000.00 to $200,000.00. The latest numbers I've seen is about $250,000.00 to $300,000.00 daily tanks multiple as what was there two
weeks ago.
So if your ship is stranded for ten days, you're talking about two to three million of cost and then you're starting to lose 1.5 percent over
a ten-day period.
QUEST: Good grief!
CHEZHIAN: That's not good economics.
QUEST: So assuming all these long term contracts that you've been telling me about, at what point are the suppliers, both the shippers and
the extractors and the refiners, at what point are they ringing up the countries or the end users and the purchasers and saying, I am sorry,
that load that we were going to deliver so you could keep the lights on in Singapore or wherever it might be in the world. I am sorry, that load
is not going to be delivered, you will have to think about something else.
[16:30:25]
CHEZHIAN: OK, so the good thing about LNG contracts of let's say our company, Amigo LNG in Mexico, has an agreement with a long term off
taker in Southeast Asia. The contracts cannot be violated. So we have to supply those long term contracts. It's only the residual volumes which
become important right now. So it's the buyers who are calling the producers and asking for how much volumes are available.
In the last three days, two large, ultra large energy companies have reached out. And for alternative markets to say, where else can I source
this LNG? If this situation is going to arise again, where do I create my energy security? So it's more the buyers who are raising the
question,
QUEST: Right.
CHEZHIAN: And regions outside the Middle East are getting to be more important. Right now.
QUEST: We will talk more, sir, as this goes on. It will go as -- if it gets worse, then we'll need you to help us understand it. Thank you for
-- look. I don't think, it's not lost on me, sir, that you have got up very early in Singapore to speak to us this morning. I can see it's half
past 5:00 in the morning, and I'm very grateful that you can go now and have your breakfast. Thank you, sir, for taking the time. Good to talk
to you.
CHEZHIAN: Thanks as well, Richard. Appreciate it.
QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Thank you.
European countries are stepping up their defenses. They don't want to get dragged in. They have certain commitments. They've got to take
defensive postures. And now what comes next? QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:35:00]
QUEST: I'm Richard Quest. Together we'll talk more. We're going to -- we're expecting an update on the Iran conflict from the U.S. Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth. We'll take that and we'll bring it to you in a moment. We'll tell you why clips from a "Call of Duty" video game
featured in a video montage posted by the White House. And we'll deal with it all after the headlines, because this is CNN and on this
network, the news comes first.
President Trump has fired the Homeland Security Secretary Christine Noem. She was in charge of the administration's controversial
immigration crackdown. Noem came under intense scrutiny following the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal
agents. Mr. Trump says she'll be replaced by the Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin.
More signs today of how the conflict in Iran is expanding across the region. Bahrain says an Iranian missile struck one of its oil refineries
and Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry says Iranian drones damaged an airport terminal building. Tehran has denied launching those drones.
President Trump says he should have a say in picking Iran's next supreme leader. In a series of interviews, Mr. Trump has dismissed the
possibility of the Ayatollah Khamenei's second son ruling Iran, calling him a lightweight.
The White House and Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Far ahead of schedule and at levels that people have never seen before, actually. We're destroying
more of Iran's missile and drone capability every single hour, knocking them out like nobody thought was possible. As soon as they set off a
missile within four minutes, the launcher gets hit. They don't know what's happening, but we have the greatest military anywhere in the
world. Their Navy is gone. 24 ships in three days. That's a lot of ships.
Their anti-aircraft weapons are gone so they have no air force. They have no air defense. All of their airplanes are gone. Their
communications are gone. Missiles are gone. Launches are gone about 60 percent and 64 percent respectively. Other than that, they're doing
quite well. I said, what's left? But they're tough and they want to fight and they're calling. They're saying, how do we make a deal? I said
you're being a little bit late. And we want to fight now more than they do.
We've had 47 years, depending on the way you count it. But 47 years of horror with this group. And you know, when you see somebody walking down
the street without their legs, without the arms, whose faces so badly affected and hurt, it mostly came from 95 percent Soleimani and Iran.
And we -- other presidents lived with it. I didn't live with it. And so our people are doing a great job. Again the greatest military anyone has
seen.
Thank you. Thank you very much. And 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 someone has to put up with it. He said you have to do this now? I said, I have to do it, Scott. Right? But it's
been very strong. And everybody, including Scott, everybody feels we had really no choice. It was going to -- they were going to hit us if we
didn't hit them because they're crazy. And in the long term, the actions we're taken will dramatically increase the stability of the region and
oil prices and stock markets and everything else.
You know, we set the all-time record in history with the Dow going to 50,000. Dow is at 50,000. It was supposed to be, maybe if we were lucky
within by the end of my presidency in four years. And we did it in my first year. We did the S&P 500. We did that in a period of less than a
year. And that was even tougher than the Dow they said. So it wasn't going to happen. But we have a great country. We have a country that's
never done this well.
[16:40:02]
We've had tremendous success in so many different ways. I built the military and rebuilt it in my first term and we're using it more than
I'd like to use it, to be honest with you. But when we use it, we found out it certainly did work. When we look at Venezuela, when we look at
the first attack, "Midnight Hammer," in Iran which really set the stage for what we're doing right now, it's been pretty amazing.
And I'm once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police, to lay down their arms. They're only
going to be killed. And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country. You're going to have a chance
after all these years to take back your country, except immunity, we'll give you immunity and we'll be giving you really the right side of
history.
Because that's what it is. So you'll be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you'll face absolutely guaranteed death. And I don't want
to see that. They don't want to see it, either. We also urge Iranian diplomats around the world to request asylum and to help us shape a new
and better Iran with great potential. It's a country with great potential. A much better future for Iran. It's now beginning. It's going
to be, I think, a great future.
And the United States will ensure that whoever leads the country next, Iran will not threaten America or its neighbors, Israel, anybody. If you
look at what happened, they had missiles aimed at all of these other countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, many others that weren't really
involved very much, and they had missiles aimed. Well, they were aimed there long before this ever started. They were going after the entire
Middle East and then we came along. We blew up their party.
So we have phenomenal people. I want to thank all of the people that have been involved.
Marco, you've been doing a fantastic job and you've been doing a fantastic job on a place called Cuba.
All right? And A-rod, A-rod came in before, I said, hey, do you want to come up to a little award? He's gone to plenty of award ceremonies,
thank you, A-Rod, big fan. But what's happening with Cuba is amazing and we think that we want to finish this one first, but that will be just a
question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba, hopefully not to stay.
We want you back and we don't want to lose you. We don't want to make it so nice that they stay. But some people probably do want to stay. They
love Cuba so much. I hear it all the time. That was another one that wasn't supposed to happen. Venezuela is going great. It's been
stabilized. We have a wonderful person as your president-elect, Delcy Rodriguez, and she and her staff have been doing a fantastic job working
with us.
We're taking out hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, and it's going to Houston and various other places where it's being refined. And we're
sending them back far more money than they've made in many years. And actually, very shortly it will be more money than they've ever made. And
Venezuela is working. So we've had a lot of, a lot of countries in places that truly love, you would say football. I would say soccer.
But these are all countries that love football-slash-soccer. And so I think the group likes it. And if you'd like, you could say, I know I'm a
very exciting speaker, but you can sit down if you'd like, OK? I'm looking at everybody standing, I'm saying let's sit down because we're
here to honor these great champions, and we want to take our time, right?
Let's get to the reason that we're here. And it's a beautiful reason because we're honoring truly talented --
QUEST: Right. So, President Trump there talking. Interestingly, from what -- he's actually with the MLS soccer players. He says on the
question of Iran, he says they want to now make a deal, but we want to fight more than they do, which clearly indicates that there's no -- he
describes what's taking place on the economic front, because, you know, of course, talking about business, economics and the oil price, he
describes it as a little detour, talking about Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, that they had to do this one, pushing up the price
of oil. But we had to do it now, he said. We had to hit them before they hit us.
Two other notes. He called upon the Iranian officials to accept immunity. We will give you immunity, total immunity, otherwise face
guaranteed death. And speaking to Iranian diplomats around the world, he said seek asylum, Iranian diplomats, come and seek asylum and help
rebuild the new country of Iran afterwards.
[16:45:14]
So Nic Robertson is with me. Does not for one moment -- you're in Riyadh. We want to fight more than they do. The president, this little
detour as he describes it, they're not going to stop, are they, the U.S. now?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And it was interesting as well, because he made that comment about the Iranians
because he mentioned how 60 percent of the missiles had been destroyed, 64 percent of the missile launchers. And he said, well, why? Why? Well,
they're tough. They want to keep fighting.
I took away from that the president is almost sort of negotiating over the airwaves, if you will. He's really telling the Iranians to
capitulate, you know, and if we think about what our own Fred Pleitgen is reporting on his way into -- on his way into the capital, Tehran, on
his drive from the border, he's seeing stores that are full. He's seeing checkpoints that are not too jumpy, but they're serious checkpoints.
He's seeing life going on as normal.
The presidents talking to the leadership here as if they're almost on their knees and that they should surrender themselves, asylum for the
diplomats. Put down your guns is what he said for the IRGC, for the police, for the military. You know it seems very unconventional, let me
say that, and it seems to fly in the face of the reality of what's happening in the region. And it seems to signal that what we seem to
already understand, that there are no real back-channel talks going on.
The president here is speaking as if the Iranian leadership is almost done in. They haven't created that impression so far.
QUEST: Right. But, Nic, the president is right when he talks about the sheer might of U.S. forces and the ability to keep going and bombing,
you know, an almost never ending array of missiles that -- and various armaments that can be deployed against Iran. Admittedly, Iran can attack
those tankers in the Gulf, in the Strait, and that has its effect. So where does this go?
ROBERTSON: It continues as it is. Look, I think realistically, we have over the past couple of days seen a diminution in the amount of missiles
that Iran has fired. Nevertheless, cruise missiles, drones were intercepted here. An oil refinery in Bahrain was set on fire today.
There is a school of thought that believes that Iran's principal military leadership is still pretty much intact, that they are in deep
bunkers in mountains along with their sort of most sophisticated ballistic missiles, which have really not been used in profusion yet,
that Iran still has cards to play.
It has proxies in the region who are sending up drones and sending up missiles be it from Iraq and other places. This has a ways to go.
Absolutely the U.S. can keep bombing, but I'm reminded here, Richard, of what the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said earlier this week that
history teaches us the lesson that, number one, that you need international legitimacy to go to war. But number two, you cannot get
regime change by airstrikes alone.
Iran is a vast country. I've been involved and seen enough wars close up to know what bombing looks like. And then when you get in on the ground
after these months or whatever it is of bombing, you actually find very little has been damaged. It's very hard to change regimes regardless of
the weaponry at disposal.
QUEST: One more, I just want to talk about, and I need to get your views on. Russia. Where is Russia in all of this? Iran was, of course, I mean,
Russians helped there. Sorry, the Iranians helped Russians with drones vis a vis Ukraine. So now where are they in all of this, Russia?
ROBERTSON: They're out of the spotlight which gives Putin an opportunity to continue his war in Ukraine because he will surmise, and probably
correctly, that there's going to be less munitions, particularly air defense munitions sloshing around the U.S. arsenal, sloshing around the
European ammo dumps that sustain and have sustained over the last four years. The Ukrainians in their fight against Russia, it's the air
defenses that have saved the cities, saved the citizens and as we've seen how much the energy situation in Ukraine has been hammered by
Russia focusing its airstrikes on that.
[16:50:07]
So I think over the long run Putin is going to look at this and say, there's some advantage for me on this. They're also going to say the
price of oil is going up. I have oil, I sell oil on the international markets. More money for my oil means more weapons than I can buy and
manufacture. So in a way, it breathes a little life, if you will, into his ability to fight longer. I don't think he will be disappointed about
what is happening in this region at the moment.
QUEST: I knew you would be able to help me on that one. I'm grateful.
Nic Robertson, in Riyadh tonight. Thank you, sir.
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this Thursday. The White House video montage blends footage from the video game "Call of Duty" with images of U.S.
military strikes. There are many millions of views. Some say it's in bad taste, others say it's appealing to exactly the right group that the
White House wants to appeal to.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The sinking of an Iranian warship appeared in this video that was posted by the White House.
Now you may notice the montage also uses clips from the video game "Call of Duty." It then intercuts it with real world footage of the U.S.
attack on the Iranian targets, and more than 46 million views has taken place.
Brian Stelter is with me.
Brian, I asked the former Treasury secretary Jack Lew about this exact thing because people are criticizing it, and he says two things.
Firstly, he said war is a deadly business, but he said it's also a serious business. I guess that's the problem with this video.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, and I've even seen some video game bloggers today saying the same thing. I used to run a video
game Web site. I follow a lot of these sites just for fun, and I've been struck by the criticism coming actually from video game developers, from
columnists, from people who live in this business because it is a business, even though it's an entertainment industry.
Video gaming is a big business, and we've heard from many of those columnists and developers today saying this is inappropriate. This is
wrong for the White House to do. So there's been a lot of criticism.
[16:55:03]
But, Richard, we know the White House also feeds off that criticism and welcomes that criticism. And more broadly, I think what we're seeing
from the White House is an attempt to sway public opinion about the war. Already polls in the U.S. show that most Americans are opposed to the
war. And if you look at Google trends for the word Trump or Iran to see what Americans are searching for, here are some of the questions you'll
see bubble up on the rising trends.
Why did Trump bomb Iran? Why are we at war with Iran? Has Iran attacked the U.S.? This is like a pulse check for the American public. People
have a lot of questions. Many people, most people have not been persuaded by Trump's muddled and sometimes contradictory claims. So I
think what we're seeing from the Trump White House are a variety of attempts to influence public sentiment.
And that's why you get a video with "Call of Duty" footage, which is, yes, shocking, but maybe it's a way to get through to people.
QUEST: Right. But is this going through for a particular person? Is this going basically to young men who are -- who were the --
STELTER: Yes. In the same way -- definitely. Yes.
QUEST: It's appealing to that --
STELTER: I was going to say, Richard, it's the same content we've seen involving ICE raids and immigration enforcement in the U.S. There's been
this attempt to use some memes, popular video game messages, in order to promote Trump's immigration agenda. So now we're seeing that applied in
a different format to the war in Iran.
We've also seen the Pentagon be really aggressive on social media, trying to debunk misinformation, trying to respond to rumors. For
example, just in the last hour, rumor about a fighter jet in Iraq. So we've seen an aggressive attempt by the Trump administration on social
media sometimes. And really, I think constructive ways trying to debunk disinformation. But in this case, with this video of "Call of Duty," in
a way that's very, very controversial, and I think very polarizing. And again, that might be the point, Richard.
QUEST: I think that's exactly the point.
Brian Stelter, I'm grateful for you and your time. Good to see you, sir.
This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I will have a "Profitable Moment" for you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment," amidst the White House -- the president's comments was a little aside that he said. He said, he looked
over to Scott Bessent and he said, I know, Scott. Higher oil prices. Scott, said to me, did you have to do it now, he said, and then
described this as a little detour.
What he called him about, of course, is higher oil prices, $80 a barrel feeding through to the highest gas prices in America for the best part
of a year with the prospect of more to come if this goes longer. And that is going to be the telling point. Can the president get oil prices
down again whether through the strategic reserve or however, before serious economic damage is done? That depends on how long it goes and so
forth and so on.
And so we have a little detour, as he put it, and no real idea of how long that will take. Meanwhile, the economic damage, or at least the
economic pressure cooler continues to build.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.
I'm on my way to London tomorrow. I'll see you there next week.
END
