Energy, Iran, and the Stakes of America’s Global Leadership
Sean Hannity, Tim Stewart, and Daniel Turner dissect rising energy costs, asserting Americans pay less per gallon than under Biden despite accusations of strategic reserve depletion for political gain. They analyze the Pentagon's high-tech deployments to reopen the Strait of Hormuz alongside Trump's release of 172 million barrels, while criticizing Democratic administrations for financing Iran's nuclear program. The episode concludes by framing Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons as a modern-day Holocaust threat, arguing that U.S. global leadership hinges on confronting this terror network rather than relying on Middle Eastern oil. [Automatically generated summary]
If you want to be a part of the program, just a side note, year over year, since Donald Trump's been president, even with the spiking price of oil and skittishness, predictably, by the way, in the markets, we are still paying about $0.06 a gallon less than what we were paying under Biden.
Now, if you remember, you know, Biden depleted the strategic petroleum reserves in part because gas prices were on average over $5 a gallon just before the midterm elections.
And then he just raided the petroleum reserve to drive down prices to help his effort in the 2022 midterms, which is pretty disgusting.
And then he never replenished it.
Now, the Pentagon is paying very close attention to this.
They're now using high-tech next-generation attack aircraft to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. deploying this aircraft to the Middle East.
And that is enhanced precision firepower for its fighters to keep open the Strait of Hormuz.
That's going to be vital.
The president announced the U.S. will be in tapping America's strategic petroleum reserves and will add 172 million barrels of oil of U.S. supplies.
And this, by the way, as the new supreme leader, we don't know if he's dead or alive, but anyway, supposedly is vowing to avenge Iranian casualties and keep the Strait of Hormuz blocked in a statement.
God only knows who did it.
And they are definitely trying to divide the country and make this a financial issue impacting the American people.
Now, the president did tout a $300 billion Texas refinery.
We have not built a new refinery in this country, and we have talked about this for years in over 50 years.
This is going to be a $300 billion facility in Brownsville, Texas, which is smart of the president to do that.
And yeah, of course, the Iranians are going to be looking to go after tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, but they have been so devastated in terms of the military might of the U.S. that that's going to be hard to do.
And anyway, so the House GOP now urging the president to choke off Iran's allies' oil profits.
Now, there's a lot of misunderstanding, too.
David Asman pointed this out on TV last night.
And that is that, for example, look at the Saudis as Exhibit A.
They already have a system, a pipeline system that allows them to literally avoid the strait completely.
And they're doing such.
Also, we've increased American oil production.
We are a net exporter of energy now, thanks to President Trump, and that's only going to grow in the next three years.
This war will come to an end, hopefully sooner than later.
It is ironic to see that Gavin Newsom.
Now, remember, while the rest of the country, some states have been paying under $2 a gallon for gasoline since Donald Trump got back in office, most states, over nearly 40 of them, have been paying under $3 a gallon for gasoline, which is amazing pricing, especially after the Biden years.
And if you look at the state that has the number one income tax, number one sales tax, number one gas tax, the highest gas prices in the country, there's Gavin out there saying Americans will pay $1.5 billion more at the gas pump just this week because of Donald Trump's war with Iran.
I'm not sure what kind of calculator he's using, but Mr. Full-time Trump stalker and full-time ex-poster and full-time podcaster and full-time author and full-time world traveler, Davos in Munich.
No-show governor Gavin is, you know, the fact that he's making any comments on this topic is a joke.
Now, the U.S. Oil and Gas Association pointed out all the moves that the president is trying to make, and they announced tapping the Real Strategic Reserve.
It holds up to 30 billion barrels in the Gulf of America.
This never happened under any administration.
And anyway, so it's just getting interesting to watch.
Now, they also posted that to the governor that magnesium citrate, which is a saline laxative used before major surgery, like a colonoscopy, although that's not major surgery.
Unfortunately, I've had four of those experiences in my life.
I'm not sure if you've had that yet, but it's available without a scratch that.
I never said that.
Just erase it from your mind.
It's available without a prescription, both as a generic and under various brand names.
We suggest you stop at Walgreens, pick some up on the way home, because you're absolutely full of Adam Schiff.
Anyway, here to weigh in on all of this, we have Tim Stewart.
He's the president of the U.S. Petroleum and Gas Group and also Daniel Turner, founder, executive director of Power of the Future, a national nonprofit advocating for American energy jobs, which are high-paying career jobs for a lot of people, and they're all coming online this year, many of them.
Welcome both of you to the program.
Tim, it's the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, I noticed, you know, that has been battling Gavin Newsom.
It looks like you're having a lot of fun doing it.
I don't know what it is, Sean.
There's just something about a post from Gavin Newsom that kind of just sets me off.
And I probably will take full credit for anybody being unhappy and they can complain to me directly and I'll duly ignore them.
But let me tell you, the governor is just way out of his league right here.
And to your point, I think he's doing everything but his job.
The most interesting and frightful thing is California is now about ready to cross a threshold where the costs and the fees and the taxes that a California person pays to put gas in their car will exceed the actual cost of the gallon of gasoline itself.
And that's not the only gas industry.
That's California and California government from Gavin Newsom.
And so he probably ought not be weighing in on this one, in my opinion.
I mean, it's kind of amazing.
It's sort of like on tobacco products.
The government makes more money on tobacco than the tobacco companies.
I mean, that's exactly the same thing.
Daniel Turner, I think this war is going to be short-lived.
I pray that it is.
The sooner it ends, the better.
But obviously, I think the president is committed to its proper completion.
Certainly the new Supreme Leader, the son of the old Supreme Leader, who's now injured.
We don't even know if he's alive, is not going to fit the bill in Donald Trump's mind as the next round of leadership there or the succession that they're looking at.
Not even his own father wanted him in that position.
So I think that we're going to see a lot happening.
But there might be a disruption in the free flow of oil at market prices.
And with that said, I think that we have a lot of options available to us in the short term.
We do, and we don't have a supply problem.
I don't want to see Americans pay more at the pump.
I don't want to see Americans pay more for the cost of anything.
But I do want to see Americans live without the fear of Islamic terrorism.
And I'm 51, Sean.
Entire life.
Basically, we've been dealing with the Ayatollah and and multiple attacks on America from Cobalt Towers and the, the Beirut embassy in 1983 and the Uss COAL.
And I even attribute those guys in New York City a couple days ago who threw an Ied Uh at a bunch of Christian protesters.
Right, that's all funded by radical Islam, and Iran is the number one funder of radical Islam, and Iran gets that money from oil and gas.
And president Trump is right to say, if we can dominate this industry for good, then we can bring peace and stability to all the world, and I think all Trump supporters believe that that's the right way to go.
Well, I don't think we really have any choice.
Tim, what do you see as the Short-term solution, because I agree with Daniel that I don't think we have a Short-term problem the way that the markets are reacting no, I think you're right.
I mean, I think it the world's paying the price for over reliance on, on a volatile Middle East and frankly, you know Americans, the United States is in a great situation.
Uh, the?
U.S NAVY has taken out more Iranian mine lame boats than the Iranians actually laid mines themselves.
What we learned from all this is energy independence, like it's a national security issue more than anything, and you cannot be allowed let yourself allow for a foreign choke point to control the economy short term.
There are a couple things.
I I think that you know we talked that the administration talks about the release of the strategic petroleum reserve, which is good.
I mean that sends a message to the global uh uh, the global economy, that the United States is watching this one.
The most immediate things they could do is they're talking about waiving the Jones Act to allow for for transfer, the transfer of refined products from the Gulf refinery to the East Coast, for example.
There's some small steps that can send some real, clear market signals.
And again, it's the ability to to say that this the price climate can be stable in the United States and we're still producing is key, and that's because of the Trump energy policies that were in place put in place eight years ago.
Uh, we're very fortunate to be where we are.
I'd much rather be where we are than where the Europeans or the Asians are right now.
Yeah, I mean, let me ask you Daniel, this question.
I mean, we do have massive uh strategic petroleum reserves, but they weren't depleted greatly under Biden.
What are we looking at now.
What should we be at?
Yeah, we're several hundred million barrels below where we're supposed to be and the president started on day one refin, refilling the strategic reserves.
But even if he put a hundred thousand barrels a day into the reserves, that hundred thousand barrel taken out of the supply would have been uh, felt by pricing right.
So you have to take enough out of the market to refill the reserves without taking too much that you're starting to interfere with pricing.
But at a hundred thousand barrels a day and Biden drained close to 300 million.
We're talking years here.
So that's why you get so angry.
You know, and I and I appreciate when Tin said it he gets so angry when Gavin Newsom posts.
When I see Chuck Schumer post about the strategic reserves, you want to say, you watched Biden deplete hundreds of millions of barrels in weeks in order to keep you as the Senate majority leader in 2022 and you said nothing because it was politically expedient.
So you get really frustrated when Democrats are suddenly, you know, asking, where are the reserves?
Where are the reserves when their party Put us in a weak position because they wanted to keep the Senate?
I mean, that is the real sin of it all.
And then they made no effort to replenish this.
And it's remarkable to me.
And now we find ourselves in this situation.
I mean, it's sort of like Biden and Harris and Clinton and Obama.
And they all went out there and they said, Iran can't have nuclear weapons.
And their answer was to fly in cargo planes full of cash and other currency to the tune of billions of dollars.
And we all know what that money was spent on.
It was spent building out their nuclear program and their terror network.
And a lot of the reason that we have this great need for this cleanup now before these people become nuclear armed is because of the mess that they help finance and create.
Nobody really ever wants to talk about that, Daniel.
No, we're always playing cleanup for the mess that Democrats create, whether it's to our borders, whether it's to our energy industry, whether it's to our national security.
And, you know, I give President Trump a lot of credit for the other day, he joked that he does the stuff that no one else would be willing to do.
And he's absolutely right.
There's a lot of damage that's been done since the Obama years, the Biden years, and we are constantly playing cleanup because, and that's why we have to keep these people from ever getting power again.
Quick break more with Tim Stewart and Daniel Turner on the other side.
Then we'll hit the phones.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Also, we'll be checking in with Elika LeBon.
And then later, Yael Eckstein is going to join us from the IFCJ and much more.
They've been on the ground in Israel as they've been taking a lot of incoming, especially the last 48 hours straight ahead.
All right, we continue.
Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Petroleum and Gas Agency, and Daniel Turner, founder, executive director of Power of the Future.
What do you think, Tim, in terms of the stabilization of prices?
And let's look post-this U.S.-Israeli-Iran conflict.
What's going to happen to the price of energy after this conflict is over and the Strait of Hormuz is wide open and the world's oil supply is higher?
I mean, most Americans don't know that we right here in this country produce more energy than we could use on any one given day or any one given week or month, and that we're a net exporter now of energy.
Nobody seems to understand the facts on the ground.
We are energy independent and dominant.
And in that sense, I don't even think we should be impacted at all, except for our refinery limitations, which, again, we haven't built a refinery in 50 years.
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
And I think part of the challenge is the Panakins exist because they have access to immediate information on X or online, which didn't exist in 1973 or 1979.
The volatility is there.
It's tough.
It sucks.
From a producer's perspective, it's horrible.
We hate volatility, but it's the nature of the beast and it's the nature of our business.
But the one thing that everybody needs to remember is this, Sean, which is the crude will flow.
It will inevitably flow.
That is what it does.
And so the Saudis, as you mentioned, the Saudis have already adjusted.
We're going to learn from this particular circumstance.
Things will settle down.
Prices will settle down.
That is what always happens.
And we will learn from that.
But you mentioned the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The catalyst for that is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a band-aid when the reality is the real strategic petroleum reserve is underneath our feet to the tune of 30, 40, 50 billion barrels, either in the Gulf of America, be that in the Permian Basin, the UN Basin in Utah, or the Monterey Shale in California.
That's the real strategic petroleum reserve.
And ultimately, what you want is a Fortress North America concept where we don't have to care what happens in the Gulf at all in terms of the crude markets.
Trump Derangement Syndrome Explained00:05:45
But again.
Oh, I think that's good to know.
We'll give you the last word, Daniel.
Tim's absolutely right.
American energy dominance is good for world peace.
It's good for our economy.
It's good for our stability, and we need more and more energy, less reliance on China or any other nation for our energy independence.
We appreciate both of you.
Tim Stewart, president of U.S. Petroleum and Gas.
Daniel Turner, founder, executive director of Power of the Future, national nonprofit organization advocating for American energy jobs.
Thank you both, 800-941-Sean, our number.
If you want to be a part of the program, you know, Linda, I've talked about in years gone by, when Tim Russert was alive, there were a number of occasions where I would debate James Carville.
Tim Russert would moderate.
And the three of us had a great time.
We really had to.
It's so different now, though, Sean.
It is different.
Oh, no, he's lost his mind.
I mean, he's jumped the shark.
He's not the same person.
I don't know if he's just gone crazy.
But I remember those days.
I remember.
I remember how frequently he used to, but he used to come on the show all the time.
And he was such a nice guy.
Yeah, we're given these speeches.
They send like a private plane for the three of us.
We're on the plane.
Watching him drink bourbon was always fun, number one.
And he gets a couple drinks in deep, and it's just entertaining as hell.
And the three of us had a wonderful time.
Tim Russert was a wonderful man.
I can tell you that.
And he would call me at times and say, give me your conservative perspective.
Why do conservatives think this?
He wanted to know.
He was curious.
Peter Jennings did the same thing.
You know, the left-wing now, the mainstream legacy media now, they're nothing like what they used to be.
Anyway, so we had these great debates.
I tried to have him on TV one time, and he just was so out of his mind.
It was like, James, okay, calm down.
Anyway, this is him over the weekend about him having Trump derangement syndrome.
And we have a part two I'll get to in a second.
Look, you fat Trump.
If you listen to this, you listen good because what I'm getting ready to say is what a lot of people in this country speak for, who I speak for.
And I speak for a lot of people.
You hear me?
You fat.
This is what we believe.
You're right.
I got Trump derangement syndrome.
I hate the mother.
And you know what?
I don't want to get rid of it.
I don't want to get better.
I want to get worse.
I want to hate him more.
I pray to God in heaven, God reign the righteous reign of Trump derangement syndrome on me.
Pray for me, Lord.
I'm your vessel on this earth.
Pray for the people that listen to this.
We want more.
We want to hate the son of a so much that we can't see straight.
I think you're already at that point.
I do.
Here's a little bit more of what he said.
And I feel very sanctified.
I feel very encouraged.
I feel like that I'm doing the right thing and that I'll use any and all language at my disposal to share with you how deeply I detest Donald John Trump in a way that I didn't ever, I never, ever thought I could hate another human being with the passion and the depth that I hate Donald Trump.
Understand that.
And Lord, thank you for your intervention.
Thank you to make all of the people that attack me, some who love me, understand that I am executing thy will on this earth.
Thank you.
The Sermon on the Mount that doesn't have anything to do with, you know, hating Donald Trump at a level.
You know, he's using all this religious, you know, imagery and language around this hatred.
You love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself, and treat others the way you want to be treated.
I don't know.
Maybe I learned the wrong thing when I went to seminary school.
I feel so Reverend righty.
I'm like, are the chickens coming home to roost?
Are you going to say that next?
Eric is chickens coming home.
Roost.
But he screamed.
God bless America.
I mean, remember that whole, I was like, why are you screaming so much?
I'm like, this does not feel uplifting at all.
If anything, I want to go hide in the last pew so I can sneak out.
It's terrible.
Not to mention the fact this guy is spitting all over the place.
I'd just go for pure entertainment purposes and I'd run tape on the whole thing and that'd be an entire show.
It's a lot.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right.
Elijah is in Ohio.
And it says on my call screener that he's a nephew of an old friend of mine that I got to meet as a radio guy.
You know, all those great concert spots.
He's actually done some for like Freedom Concerts back in the day.
Coming soon to Madison Square Garden, Billy Joel, like you've never heard him before.
You know, those kind of concert spots, he's great at it.
Is that you really, are you the nephew of the John Schultz?
Yep.
Brian's his brother, and I'm Brian's son.
Yep.
Okay.
Funny story about your uncle.
We worked together in Huntsville, Alabama, and I watched him.
He had this dream, this goal to be Mark Morgan.
I think it was Mark Morgan.
And the guy that did great concert spots.
And he not only became it, it just he surpassed it.
And I watched him, you know, develop his style and his own unique way of doing it.
I mean, I think he's still doing it, isn't he?
Yeah, he's got a great Rodney Dangerfield impression, too.
I don't know if he's ever done that for you yet, but that always cracks me up.
Modern-Day Holocaust Threats00:05:47
What happened?
It says right here that you're a liberal.
What does that mean?
Oh, heck no.
Heck no.
I'm actually, I'm a conservative.
I'm more of the new generation conservative.
I've actually listened to your show for a while, probably since I was in middle school, and I'm 22 now.
But I just, I really want.
Did he tell you about all the fun we used to have when he was a DJ?
No, he didn't.
But he sent me a picture, I think, from 2018.
Oh, my gosh.
I look like a kid.
I was a kid.
Yeah.
But I really just wanted to, I wanted you to sell me on this war because I took a note from yesterday you had called Iran a death cult, which I really wanted you to sell me on because going back to last summer, remember, because we bombed Natans and Fordeau.
After that, Iran actually, they have retaliated, retaliated, I can't even say the word, retaliated.
Strikes, exactly.
And they had let Trump and the U.S. military know hours in advance, and then they launched the missile straight into the ocean.
And I guess I'm just kind of confused because if they're a death cult, I mean, you would think they wouldn't.
Well, you would have thought they would have learned something from Midnight Hammer, 14 bunker buster bombs that blew out their nuclear enrichment program completely.
The problem is, and I had Steve Witcoff, the Middle East envoy, he, Jared Kushner, were in the room.
They were negotiating, and the Iranians just came out with that they believe it's their inalienable right to continue to enrich uranium.
Then they also disclosed that they had 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium.
I know most people don't know a lot about uranium and enrichment, but from get to go from 60% enrichment to 90% weapons grade enrichment is about a week to 10 days.
That's it.
Meaning they would then have, based on my calculations in my head, somewhere between 10 and 11 bombs or the capability of building 10 or 11 bombs.
And, you know, they rejected the president's offer.
The president kept saying, I'd rather have a peace deal.
I don't want to do this.
Don't make me do it.
But he was building up our military presence there in case they didn't go for a deal.
They didn't go for that deal.
But Witkoff even acknowledged that they offered, you know, below 20% enrichment, which can be used for civilian purposes and energy purposes.
However, and that we would give it to them, you know, ready to go for free in perpetuity, and they turned that offer down.
And the president was very clear that radical Islamists, the number one state sponsor of terror that has been responsible for the death of many Americans and many in that region of the world, that chance death to Israel, death to America.
They can't have nuclear weapons.
And the president said it's about the future.
It's about your generation.
It's about my kids.
It's about maybe one day I'll have grandkids.
I hope not soon.
Right.
But you know, and we have to decide, is this a real clear present danger emerging threat?
Are we willing to live with basically to be blackmailed by the Iranians as they foment more terror, which is all they have done?
Or do we take out the threat now?
In other words, through the prism of history, if I said to you, yeah, Adolf Hitler wants to slaughter, you know, innocent men, women, and children and kill 6 million Jews and kill Catholics and kill gays and lesbians, and we had a chance to take out Hitler before he did all that, you'd say that would be a wise thing to do, right?
Well, that's a different subject.
No, it's not really a different subject because we have to learn the lessons of history.
But the two things you got to remember is because Iran, they wanted sanctions relief, right?
Because they produce a lot of oil and they weren't willing to give them sanctions relief.
They were willing to give up their nuclear enrichment program and they were within 10 days of having enough weapons-grade enriched uranium to build out bombs.
And the president, that was his line in the sand.
I think he was learning the lessons of history, and I think he made the right call.
I don't want to put men and women in harm's way.
However, we have to understand what the future may hold if they became a nuclear power.
And that would be the threat, in my view, of a modern-day Holocaust.
I'm not going to convince people that just have made up their mind otherwise, but I don't care what they think.
I think they're ignorant, and I think they're stupid, ignorant of history, and just they don't have the wisdom and insight to see that this is preemptive and smart.
Well, Khomeini, the originator of the Iranian revolution, he had said many, many years before I was even born that the creation of a nuclear bomb goes against their religion.
Well, they've been pursuing it with a vengeance.
You're talking about the Ayatollah Khomeini who came in power in 1979.
Look, but he also said death to America, death to Israel when he came into power.
So when people say that, my advice is to listen.
If I said, you know, and I never would, I'm going to your house, Elijah, and I'm going to kill you and your family.
Would you take it seriously?
Well, not necessarily because from the Iranians, like, no, I don't see them as a threat.
However, how could you not see them as a threat when all they've been doing is fomenting terror in the region for decades?
How could you not see it?
They're a threat.
That sounds like another country in the Middle East that bombed the U.S.
Well, it's not another.
Israel Project as Future Danger00:02:52
Well, it is another country, but frankly, it wasn't just Israel that was happy after Midnight Hammer, and that's happy now.
I mean, when the U.N. has a record 135 countries on record, you know, joining a resolution condemning Iran, that's never happened before.
And China and Russia completely staying out of it.
That was a pretty spectacular moment.
Look, tell me why you don't think they're a threat.
Because I think Israel and their greater Israel project, in the long run, is going to be much more of a threat.
Because if they expand their territory, like they have said openly they want to do, they're going to control, obviously, the Mediterranean Sea, all the trade that's going through there, part of the Red Sea.
They're going to become a real rival against the United States.
Like, we send them billions in aid, which I'm not okay with.
We've been doing that for years.
But what's going to happen when Israel, who, you know, you're a Catholic, correct?
Well, I was raised Catholic, but I'm a non-denominational Christian.
Okay, that's fair.
My dad has, you know, and multiple family members, they've been to Israel.
And you know what happens?
I've been there many times.
When they wear their cross necklaces, they get spit on.
That doesn't sound necessarily like somebody that's too friendly.
Well, I mean, I'm not going to dispute whatever experience they may have had.
I can tell you, as a well-known Christian that has been to Israel a ton of times, Linda, you were on one of those trips, and Sweet Baby James was with us.
And I'm just telling you, right now, we went into where the wall is in Israel.
What happened, Linda, when I showed up there?
They cheered.
It's like John Bon Jovi walked there.
It was crazy.
And, you know, only because they're very aware of American thought.
They get Fox News.
And how were we treated at the radio station?
102.7, is it?
Yeah, no, 102.1 Tel Aviv.
102.1.
And Boycatz was running it then and Shlomo, and they were incredible and super kind.
And to that point, Sean, when we got the tour from Dory Gold at the time, we walked through.
They have a Muslim section.
They have a Christian section.
They have an Orthodox Catholic Church.
I mean, there were so many people in the world.
They have a Christian sector, Armenian sector.
We went through all.
And I can tell you that the pilgrimage that so many Christians take to the Holy Land would blow your mind.
Listen, I've got to run, Elijah.
I do appreciate you.
Do me a favor.
Please tell John to get in touch with us.
You have the number.
I will.
And send my best to him.
He's a great guy.
I'm very proud of him.
He works so hard to get where he is, and he's great at what he does.