Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: My fellow Americans, good evening.
Speaker 3: Let me be President. Donald Trump addressed the American public
Speaker 3: last night in his first primetime address since the US
Speaker 3: and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February twenty eighth.
Speaker 2: Armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield,
Speaker 2: victories like few people have ever seen before.
Speaker 3: What did we learn that was new?
Speaker 1: Honestly, we didn't learn a lot of new things.
Speaker 3: Bloomberg, Washington and White House correspondent Jeff Mason says Trump
Speaker 3: stopped short of answering the most pressing questions about the war,
Speaker 3: including when and how it would end.
Speaker 1: He wanted to reiterate that he intends to end the
Speaker 1: war within two to three weeks, but he also delivered
Speaker 1: some mixed messages about that which has been his mo
Speaker 1: for the last four and a half weeks about this war,
Speaker 1: by saying that the United States was going to continue
Speaker 1: doing some major attacks and also lifting threats on Iran
Speaker 1: if it did not agree to a deal in the
Speaker 1: coming days or weeks.
Speaker 3: The war with Iran has choked global fuel supplies and
Speaker 3: royal markets, and as the conflict has widened. Thousands of
Speaker 3: people have been killed and injured in Iran and across
Speaker 3: the Middle East. CNN and Fox polling shows the majority
Speaker 3: of Americans disapprove of the war and Trump's handling of it.
Speaker 3: Jeff says amid the turmoil, Trump's speech was an opportunity
Speaker 3: to sell the war and the US's continued involvement to
Speaker 3: the American people and to the markets.
Speaker 2: When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally.
Speaker 2: It'll just open up naturally. They're going to want to
Speaker 2: be able to sell oil because that's all they have
Speaker 2: to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing, and
Speaker 2: the gas prices will will rapidly come back down. Stock
Speaker 2: prices will rapidly go back up.
Speaker 1: And it was a sales pitch. Whether or not that
Speaker 1: sales pitch worked is another question.
Speaker 3: Right, how did that sales pitch go over?
Speaker 1: Markets are not impressed. The stock markets dropped and oil
Speaker 1: prices have gone up, which my guess is is the
Speaker 1: opposite of what President Trump thought was going to happen.
Speaker 1: I think he was looking to goose the markets a
Speaker 1: little bit by giving some more detail or clarity about
Speaker 1: the end of the war and he didn't really give
Speaker 1: more detailer clarity. Instead, he gave additional mixed messages.
Speaker 3: I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from
Speaker 3: Bloomberg News today. On the show, Trump's latest attempt to
Speaker 3: pitch the Iran war to the American people and call
Speaker 3: markets and why it's not working.
Speaker 2: My first reference was always the path of diplomacy. Yet
Speaker 2: the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and
Speaker 2: rejected every attempt at an agreement for this reason.
Speaker 3: So, Jeff, I want to go through some of the
Speaker 3: things that President Donald Trump said and some of the
Speaker 3: things he didn't say in his speech last night. Trump
Speaker 3: and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. I've sent a lot of
Speaker 3: messages over the course of the war, sometimes contradictory, often
Speaker 3: shifting about US objectives and intentions. So what specifics did
Speaker 3: we get about the administration's goals in Iran at this point?
Speaker 1: Your all goal that the President articulated and has articulated
Speaker 1: is a guarantee of some kind or an ability to
Speaker 1: say that Iran will not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 1: There's a question mark over that he is saying that
Speaker 1: that's an objective that they are achieving or have achieved,
Speaker 1: but there are some who are concerned that they haven't
Speaker 1: achieved that, and some conservatives in particular who are supportive
Speaker 1: of the war or are concerned that maybe he is
Speaker 1: prematurely pulling out if in fact he does pull out
Speaker 1: in two to three weeks. Otherwise, he listed his view
Speaker 1: of what he sees as a broad military success in
Speaker 1: terms of decimating aspects of the Iranian military and its leadership.
Speaker 3: Right, he said, while regime change was not our goal,
Speaker 3: the regime has changed. What did you make of that
Speaker 3: mixed message?
Speaker 1: Again, because they did talk about regime change early on,
Speaker 1: and you could really argue that the regime change has
Speaker 1: not occurred, even though the President in the last few
Speaker 1: days and along with Secretary Hegseth, have specifically said the
Speaker 1: regime has changed, well has it? Because the new Supreme
Speaker 1: Leader or Ayatola, is the son of the previous one
Speaker 1: who was killed on the first day of strikes, still
Speaker 1: very conservative, still very very anti US. So the President
Speaker 1: says that there is a more reasonable set of leaders
Speaker 1: that the US negotiators are now talking to. We'll see
Speaker 1: the evidence would suggest the contrary.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about timeline a little bit more,
Speaker 3: because the President indicated that the war will last another
Speaker 3: two to three weeks. He says, we're nearing the end.
Speaker 3: What do we know about the actual off ramp here?
Speaker 1: Well, a couple things. So I've covered the president for
Speaker 1: a long time, and one of his habits rhetorically is
Speaker 1: to say things like I'll let you know in two weeks,
Speaker 1: or we'll do this in two or three weeks. So
Speaker 1: you have to take that into account. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say that that means he's not going to
Speaker 1: stop in two to three weeks, but I don't think
Speaker 1: markets are convinced of that. And I spoke to a
Speaker 1: source yesterday who used to work for Trump who also
Speaker 1: have said to me, are you taking that deadline seriously?
Speaker 1: And he raised some skepticism because of the fact that
Speaker 1: the president does this, also because of the fact that
Speaker 1: the President could be being strategic in saying that by
Speaker 1: wanting to essentially create a false narrative for Iran or
Speaker 1: a headfake to suggest, Okay, the US is about to
Speaker 1: wrap up and then not do that again, those are
Speaker 1: just question marks. The other bit of mixed messaging is
Speaker 1: the fact that he promised to really up the ante
Speaker 1: in terms of the military strikes in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: And he also sort of contradicted himself and that he
Speaker 1: said in the Oval on Tuesday that a deal was
Speaker 1: not necessary with Iran for the US to leave, and
Speaker 1: then last night said if they don't agree to a deal,
Speaker 1: then I'm going to destroy all of these things.
Speaker 2: If there is no deal, we are going to hit
Speaker 2: each and every one of their electric generating plans very hard,
Speaker 2: and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even
Speaker 2: though that's the easiest target of all because it would
Speaker 2: not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding.
Speaker 2: But we could hit it and it would be gone.
Speaker 1: So that could be seen and I think is being
Speaker 1: seen by the markets as an escalation instead of a
Speaker 1: de escalation.
Speaker 3: Where do negotiations stand right now? How close could Iran
Speaker 3: and the US be to a deal? What is the
Speaker 3: state of talks there?
Speaker 1: There are more mixed messages. We know that President Trump's
Speaker 1: envoys Steve Woodcoff and Jared Kushner, his son in law,
Speaker 1: were involved in the negotiations with Iranian counterparts before the
Speaker 1: war and right kind of up till the start of
Speaker 1: the war, and that they were involved in some outreach
Speaker 1: after that. More recently, Vice President J. D. Vance is
Speaker 1: involved in sending some messages from President Trump to Iran.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, I can't give you an exact sense
Speaker 1: of how the talks are taking place. I know that
Speaker 1: Pakistan has offered to be a location for in person talks,
Speaker 1: but that has not happened yet to our knowledge. The
Speaker 1: talks are either through channels or by phone or secure lines.
Speaker 1: We know that there are some talks going on. At
Speaker 1: one point Iran deny that that was happening, But the
Speaker 1: question of who, beyond the names that I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: are involved and where it's going is kind of tough
Speaker 1: to tell.
Speaker 3: What else was missing from Trump's speech. I'm thinking about
Speaker 3: some of the other things Trump has been saying in
Speaker 3: recent weeks about NATO, about specific plans to open the
Speaker 3: Strait of Hormuz. What didn't Trump say that people were
Speaker 3: expecting or perhaps hoping that he would, well a couple things.
Speaker 1: Number One, you asked me earlier about the off ramp.
Speaker 1: He really didn't specify how that off ramp is going
Speaker 1: to occur. He did give the two to three week timeframe,
Speaker 1: but he didn't say the definitely done. Then we're pulling back.
Speaker 1: So I think that was one thing that generated questions.
Speaker 1: You mentioned NATO, and you were right too. He has
Speaker 1: been very critical of NATO allies, particularly Great Britain, for
Speaker 1: not stepping up to help the United States secure the
Speaker 1: Strait of Horror Moves, and there was some expectation that
Speaker 1: he might have lashed out at specific countries or at
Speaker 1: NATO itself. He didn't do that. He did say that
Speaker 1: countries that rely on energy coming through the Strait of
Speaker 1: Horror Moves should plan to go secure it themselves once
Speaker 1: the United States has gone. So what is the plan
Speaker 1: for the Strait of Horror Moves? Is it just to
Speaker 1: leave it? Which is again the opposite of what President
Speaker 1: Trumpet said at one point. At one point he said
Speaker 1: that he would run the Strait of Horror Moves himself
Speaker 1: along with the Yyahtola. So I would say the ambiguity
Speaker 1: about the Strait of Horror Moves, the lack of direct
Speaker 1: criticism of NATO, and the lack of clear details on
Speaker 1: what an off ramp looks like, we're all things that
Speaker 1: were left unsaid or at least not spelled out.
Speaker 3: How that ambiguity is landing with allies, markets and voters
Speaker 3: that's next. Since the Iran War started a month ago,
Speaker 3: energy costs have become a major issue for the global
Speaker 3: economy and for households around the world. This week, the
Speaker 3: average price of gasoline in the US climbed above four
Speaker 3: dollars a gallon for the first time since twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine, and
Speaker 3: on Thursday, the price of dated Brent crude topped one
Speaker 3: hundred and forty dollars a barrel, its highest level since
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight. I asked Bloomberg White House in
Speaker 3: Washington correspondent Jeff Mason how President Trump address the energy
Speaker 3: crisis caused by this war in his primetime speech.
Speaker 1: Well, the President did acknowledge gasoline prices have gone up,
Speaker 1: and I think that was very deliberate. That was at
Speaker 1: least a nod to the people in his base and
Speaker 1: others who are concerned about high energy prices. But he
Speaker 1: was also, while acknowledging it, slightly dismissive of it.
Speaker 2: The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormones
Speaker 2: Strait and won't be taken any in the future. We
Speaker 2: don't need it, we haven't needed it.
Speaker 1: And we don't need it. And he has said previously
Speaker 1: before that the energy prices, gasoline prices will just come
Speaker 1: right back down as soon as the United States ends
Speaker 1: this war, and that's just not clear if that's going
Speaker 1: to happen, including because of the ambiguity over the Strait
Speaker 1: of Hormones. He may be correct that the United States
Speaker 1: doesn't rely on energy sources through that strait as much
Speaker 1: as some of US allies do. And yet the United
Speaker 1: States has obviously interconnected with the global economy, and so
Speaker 1: if other countries are suffering because of Iran's control of
Speaker 1: the Strait of Horror moves after this war, that's going
Speaker 1: to have an impact on the United States too.
Speaker 3: How did oil markets react to Trump's speech? What was
Speaker 3: said and what wasn't said.
Speaker 1: So the oil prices have gone up, and he I
Speaker 1: think was expecting that if he doubled down essentially in
Speaker 1: his remarks about this two to three week timeframe, that
Speaker 1: that would signal that he's got an off ramp, but
Speaker 1: in a very Trumpian way, because he also talked about
Speaker 1: what were essentially escalatory measures and additional threats. That hasn't
Speaker 1: gone over well with the markets who are looking for
Speaker 1: a clear indication that not only is the US going
Speaker 1: to leave, but it's going to stop the hostilities. I
Speaker 1: would also say, since you brought up ghasoline prices, that
Speaker 1: it's important to note how politically risky that is for him.
Speaker 1: We're in the spring, the midterm elections are in November.
Speaker 1: It seems like a long time, but it's not. And
Speaker 1: if those prices stay around four dollars, tick up more,
Speaker 1: or even only tick down a little bit, that's something
Speaker 1: that voters may very well remember and take him to
Speaker 1: account for when they go to the polls.
Speaker 3: Through all of this, diplomatic efforts to reopen shipping through
Speaker 3: the Strait of Hermus seem to be underway Today Thursday,
Speaker 3: Iranian state media reported that Iran and o'man are drafting
Speaker 3: a plan to monitor traffic through the Strait of Hermus,
Speaker 3: and European leaders are meeting Thursday to discuss how to
Speaker 3: get oil flowing through the strait. Again, do we have
Speaker 3: any idea what these European leaders are planning.
Speaker 1: What I think that meeting shows is that the Europeans
Speaker 1: are taking it seriously. That when Trump says you got
Speaker 1: to do this on your own, certainly European leaders have
Speaker 1: had multiple wake up calls from the Trump administration during
Speaker 1: this second term. Also during the first term, but then
Speaker 1: they had a president in the middle there, Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: who was much more of a European and a transatlanticist.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is not. And when he says you guys
Speaker 1: will have to handle this yourself, they're taking him seriously.
Speaker 3: I'm curious of how this war is playing with voters,
Speaker 3: especially as the midterms loom, and especially within Trump's base.
Speaker 3: Last week you were reporting at the Conservative Political Action
Speaker 3: conference Seapack. Can you walk us through what people were
Speaker 3: telling you and whether last night's speech addressed any of
Speaker 3: the anxiousness around the US's involvement in this war.
Speaker 1: Well, I would start by saying that the American public
Speaker 1: broadly opposes the war, and that is pretty clear that
Speaker 1: the majority of Americans are not happy about the intervention
Speaker 1: by the United States and Israel into Iran, and particularly
Speaker 1: the ramifications which have included the higher gasoline prices. Within
Speaker 1: the Maga universe, which is President Trump's base, there is
Speaker 1: still a lot of support, and that is largely because
Speaker 1: a good chunk of the megabase will support President Trump
Speaker 1: with virtually anything he does or says, there have been
Speaker 1: signs of divisions, and I don't want to overplay or
Speaker 1: underplay those. The signs of divisions have come from sort
Speaker 1: of the top of the MAGA world of higher profile
Speaker 1: people such as Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly. Even a congresswoman
Speaker 1: like Nancy Mace has been pretty critical in the last
Speaker 1: week or so and said that if the President wanted
Speaker 1: to send ground troops in, for example, then he needed
Speaker 1: to come to Congress and get that approved. But the
Speaker 1: grass roots, and those are just the regular voters who
Speaker 1: I met with at Seapac last week were nearly all
Speaker 1: supportive of the war and of the president. I did
Speaker 1: speak to one person who disagreed and believed that President Trump,
Speaker 1: as a candidate said he would not start new wars.
Speaker 1: And this man also told me he thought Republicans were
Speaker 1: going to face a shalaking in November.
Speaker 3: I mean, going to war with Iran is incredibly politically
Speaker 3: risky for the reasons that you've laid out, not to
Speaker 3: mention all the other consequences of war, both economic human.
Speaker 3: Are we getting any more clarity and like, what is
Speaker 3: driving him to continue this war in Iran? Well?
Speaker 1: What he has said at least for the start of
Speaker 1: the war was that they saw window to do this,
Speaker 1: and that negotiations led them to the conclusion that Iran
Speaker 1: was not serious about giving up its ballistic missile program
Speaker 1: or giving up its pursuit of nuclear weapons. And the
Speaker 1: president likes to see himself as a historic figure. He
Speaker 1: is a historic figure, and he likes to portray himself
Speaker 1: as someone who will do things that others should have done.
Speaker 1: And you've heard him say that multiple times about this war,
Speaker 1: that previous presidents should have done this and they didn't.
Speaker 1: Now he's doing it. And you've even had some in Europe,
Speaker 1: while being reticent to step in and help with the
Speaker 1: straight of hor Moose, still conceding that what Trump was doing,
Speaker 1: what the United States is doing to Iran does help
Speaker 1: protect them because Europe is closer and if Iran were
Speaker 1: to get a nuclear weapon could be at risk. But
Speaker 1: that's sort of the meta view of what's motivating the president.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of what went into his thought
Speaker 1: process for starting the war, and now politics surely seems
Speaker 1: to be part of the thought process for getting out.
Speaker 3: This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.
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