Sean Hannity Show's Iran Blockade Pressure segment details a CENTCOM naval blockade threatening force against non-compliant vessels, claiming to halt 90% of Iran's economy and wipe out $435 million daily. While oil sits at $87 per barrel, the host asserts President Trump's threats forced China to cease arms shipments and predicts an extraction force will seize 60% enriched uranium by next week. Ultimately, this aggressive strategy aims to permanently destroy the Iranian regime through economic strangulation rather than negotiation. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Iranian Ports Under Blockade00:14:58
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It's 800 941 Sean if you want to join us.
By the way, this is now the.
I'm looking at this.
This just.
The White House just sent this out.
Did you see this, Linda?
I just sent it to you.
Take a look at this.
All right.
Oh, I'm seeing it now.
Yeah.
All right, let me see what it says.
New audio, if you can grab this quickly.
U.S. forces give a final warning to all ships that may try and get past the American naval blockade in the Middle East.
CENTCOM releasing a very powerful message that it is sending all of these vessels attempting to enter or to leave Iranian ports.
If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force.
The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance.
Let's play it.
Announced the formal blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas.
This is a legal action.
All vessels are advised to immediately return to port if leaving and discontinue transit to Iran if that is your next port of call.
Do not attempt to breach the blockade.
Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure transiting to or from an Iranian port.
Turn around and prepare to be boarded.
If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force.
The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance.
Okay, I guess that means game on.
Here's the good news of what's happening here.
A couple of things.
Just checking gas, the price of a barrel of oil as we come on the air, about $87.
What is it now?
$87 a barrel as we come on the air.
Nationwide gas prices have now been declining over the last week.
Look, it's still not where we want it to be.
We want to get it down to about $62, $3, $4, $5 a barrel, which is where it was before.
But while the rest of the media pretends not to notice, pump prices for unleaded regular have fallen $0.05 per gallon in the last week from $4.16 a gallon to $4.11 a gallon.
And don't forget, under Joe Biden, it was over $5 a gallon, but that's neither here nor there.
Everybody wants gas prices as low as possible.
I want them down as low as possible.
And I'm just going to go through how this is going to end.
I keep telling people right now, as far as I'm concerned, is the president giving the Iranians a taste of what is about to be the future of their economy.
Wall Street Journal had a piece today.
The Iranian economy is now in crisis mode because of the president's blockade with Iran's oil fields now expanding.
Expected to shut down within two weeks.
The economic damage is immediate and it threatens the regime the longer this goes on.
And this is a preview of coming attractions.
And as far as the president is giving them a small sliver and taste of what life is going to be like if he were to wipe out Karg Island, the president at any moment can wipe out the entire economy of the Iranian regime.
However, it's not going to.
It's going to take years for them to even begin to think about recovering from what the damage that could be done.
And probably in under an hour, Iran's regime has tried to make this war all about economics.
They're now getting their wish because the U.S. Navy now is quarantining Iranian ports, blocking ships from entering or exiting the Strait of Hormuz.
In spite of what you might be reading or hearing on other channels, it's not true.
Nobody's getting through.
The economic damage to the regime is immediate.
The pain will only grow the longer the blockade is sustained, or if the president kind of he's kind of given them an opportunity to see the light and feel the pain and then wake up and realize this is their permanent economy if they don't change because he's not going to stay there forever.
And the president even said today this war is coming to an end.
He's not going to stay there very long.
The economic damage is real and it could be permanent.
And that's where their choice comes in.
The best estimates we have from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies estimate the blockade is expected to wipe out $435 million in Iranian economic activity a day and force oil field shut ins within two weeks.
And if you look at economic modeling, the war's current economic damage to Iran already exceeds.
You know, 40% of its pre war GDP.
This relies on an international monetary fund estimate of 6.1% Iranian economic contraction in 2026.
But without oil, without exports, without surplus production, that means that Iran's oil storage capacity in about 13 days will be wiped out.
And then Iran will have to shut in their wells, which will cause severe damage.
It will cost them billions and billions in revenue.
And they concluded, quote, Iran's economic structure, heavily dependent on the Persian Gulf transit routes and energy exports, makes continued resistance economically impossible under the U.S. naval blockade.
Iran's entire economy will feel the collapse of oil exports.
It is their entire economy.
That includes, by the way, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which siphons about half the revenue.
Other export routes appear unable to compensate for the loss.
So, how will.
You know, Iran's economy, their banking system, how will any of it hold up?
The loss of imports is expected to deepen their supply shortages, exacerbate their inflation, which some estimate now up to like 100%.
The currency has lost more than 97% of its value, it would also likely suffer without the foreign exchange coming in.
And Iran's regime knows all too well that this is a threat to their survival.
Now, Common sense would dictate that, okay, I got it.
You win, we lose.
Sure, we'll let you have the 60% enriched uranium.
Okay, we're going to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and the free flow of oil at market prices, which means our oil gets to flow freely as well.
And that is, again, the foundation of their economy.
That would be the common sense approach to this.
The U.S. has now declared that Iran shipping has been completely halted.
U.S. military said early today that its blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented.
Preventing all of the country's trade by sea.
CENTCOM shared this statement from Commander Admiral Brad Cooper, Bradley Cooper, saying that Iran's sea trade has been completely stopped by a blockade.
An estimated 90% of Iran's economy is fueled by international trade by the Strait of Hormuz.
In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, we've been able to completely stop their economic trade that's going on.
We basically have shut down their economy.
And I'm calling this a preview of coming attractions.
Because again, probably in less than an hour, the president can wipe out their economy.
And the president, you know, to his credit, is showing great patience, especially when you think of the arrogance of what happened in this meeting in Islamabad when they came in saying that they want reparations and they want to control the Straighter Hormuz and they believe it's their inherent right to have nuclear weapons and they're not going to give up the enrichment.
Uranium and on and on and on, which was a non starter from the get go.
But I'll give you an example.
In the year before Iran's January uprising, the regime executed 1,600 people.
This gets to the whole issue of the Pope.
Maybe we'll get into this with Bill O'Reilly today.
We also have independent journalist Nick Shirley will join us, citizen journalist Nick Shirley.
But the Iranian authorities, by the way, executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, the highest number since 1989, according to Two international human rights groups.
A woman, by the way, the first in a while, is expected to be killed.
A lot of people have brought up the issue and the involvement potentially of China.
The president said today in a series of truth posts that China has agreed not to send weapons to Iran amid reports that it plans to give Tehran new air defense systems and new missile systems.
But the president also claimed that President Xi is very happy about the efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Because that's where they get a majority of their oil from.
And I'm sure any pressure from the Chinese would be helpful to the Chinese.
Forget about helping us.
But this is a day after officials in China slammed the blockade as dangerous and irresponsible.
Quote, China's very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
I'm doing it for them also and the world, Trump said on Truth Social.
This situation will never happen again.
They have agreed to not send weapons to Iran.
China, notably, they get.
45 to 50 percent of their crude imports through the Strait of Hormuz.
That's over a fifth of the world's seaborne oil traverses that the Strait of Hormuz has annually.
They're getting a big chunk of it.
That, like every other country, is the lifeblood of their economy.
And that's a big deal.
And this is now going to impact a lot of different people.
Now, other issues we can talk about today, but this is where we are.
President Trump sees the Iranian war, his words, not mine.
He says, I think it's close to being over.
Now, it's going to be over the hard way or the easy way.
That's the only question that really remains because they don't have any cards.
Remember when the president famously said to Zelensky in the Oval Office, You don't have any cards, you don't have any leverage.
We, in this situation, have all the leverage.
And the president outmaneuvered the Iranians.
They thought they would be clever and they thought they would say, Well, no, we're taking over the Strait of Hormuz.
We're going to stop the free flow of oil at market prices, and you can't stop us.
Okay, the only problem is right in the middle of that Strait of Hormuz is something called Karg Island, and that is the heart and soul of their entire economy.
So, in that sense, the president, again, at any moment, could just wipe it out.
Now, the president's negotiating team was praised by nuclear experts for walking away from the Pakistan talks.
Let me tell you what's going on behind the scenes.
The president himself has pretty much taken over the negotiations.
The president, I am told by my sources, is dealing directly with whoever these, quote, leaders are in Iran.
And let's just say the president is not being subtle.
Let's just say that when I heard the president speak today, it sounded like he had a bit of laryngitis.
That would tell me, indicate to me, there's a possibility that he probably got a little forceful on that phone call, on these phone calls that he's having with these people.
And he's laying out in no certain terms, as only Donald Trump would or Donald Trump could, what their options are, because they're out of options.
The options are either you cooperate, make a deal and survive, or I'm going to obliterate you.
What is your choice here?
There is no plan B.
It's not like they can go retrieve the 60% enriched uranium because we've got eyes on it, number one, and it's buried deep underground.
Now, there will be an extraction force.
That will include Americans and that will take possession of it.
They're certainly not going to give it to the Iranians.
But, you know, we'll see how this.
I don't know why, Linda.
I just have a sense that the Iranians might realize they're boxed in at this point.
I know there's no reason for me to believe that based on their prior behavior because they've never given an inclination that common sense would in any way take over their thinking.
They were warned before Israel, they were given 50 days before Israel first attacked them.
They were given plenty of notice before Midnight Hammer.
They were given an opportunity to negotiate before Epic Fury.
Pretty much everything of any value, militarily, et cetera, has been wiped out from them.
The one thing that remains is their ability to have an income and an economy.
And the president is now disrupting that almost to 100% of what their economy is.
And at that point, the president's saying, I'll do it permanently if you force me.
Now, even though they've shown no inclination to common sense, but I mean, look at the regime we're dealing with here.
You're dealing with Islamofascists.
You're dealing with people that will strap bombs on their own children and tell them to go kill innocent men, women, and children.
And that if you do that, you're going to be rewarded by Allah in heaven with 72 virgins.
You know, these are people that have no qualms about killing their own people to maintain power.
This is an Islamofascist death cult regime.
Now, I don't know why.
I just think that the odds of a negotiated settlement are up dramatically because of the effectiveness of this blockade and the fact that this blockade represents this preview of coming attractions for them.
So, you know, we'll see.
I think we will know probably by the end of the week, if I had to guess, probably no later than next week, how this is going to play out the hard way or the easy way.
You want to make a prediction, Linda?
I think that we won't know anything until he meets with Xi in Beijing because China is their everything and they're supplying them with everything they need.
And Iran is no friend to anybody but Allah.
It'll never get to that time frame because that's in May.
No way.
I know, but I don't know, Sean.
Boss, I'll take that bet.
You want to bet, Boss?
You want to take a bet?
Sure.
I bet you.
I bet you a jar of silver palate pasta sauce.
Swalwell Money and NATO Reckoning00:14:10
We have a lot of other news we're going to get to today.
Also, we'll check in with all things simple man Bill O'Reilly.
He'll weigh in on the battle between President Trump and the Pope.
Also, citizen journalist Nick Shirley will join us.
This poor kid has had death threats.
This poor kid, you know, they now have out in California the Stop Nick Shirley Act.
Stop an independent, young, ambitious journalist that exposes hundreds of millions in fraud.
How does that make any sense?
It doesn't.
And your call's coming up, 800-941-SHAWN is our number as we continue.
You'll hear what everyone really thinks in D.C.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
All right, so let me get to this issue of what's happening and what's not happening because the fake news media, I don't know why they do it.
They just can't really help themselves.
They're kind of trying to be reporting that, in fact, all these oil tankers are sneaking through.
They're not.
It's just CENTCOM has confirmed again and again.
U.S. destroyers have been interdicting.
Oil tankers that try to leave Iran with Iranian oil during this blockade since the blockade has started.
U.S. destroyer interdicted two oil tankers that were trying to leave Iran on Tuesday, yesterday, as part of the blockade.
The official is telling Reuters that the ships left one of the ports in the Gulf of Oman before being contacted by the U.S. warship through radio communication.
The official added that the tankers were among six vessels that U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM, said Tuesday obeyed orders.
From American forces to turn around and head back to the Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman.
More than 10,000 U.S. sailors, Marines, airmen, along with over a dozen warships, dozens of aircraft are executing the mission to blockade ships.
The Iranians can't make money.
This is the heart and soul of their economy, and it's impacting them already.
But anyway, U.S. forces have been enforcing this successfully from the get go.
Venezuelan crude imports, by the way, Are helping to ease U.S. fuel prices amid the war.
Chevron just announced, for example, according to CBS News, the company's head of global refining of Chevron said that the company is running its Mississippi refinery now at full capacity to process enough crude and boost output.
A tanker carrying 400,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude will supply that refinery for four days.
The oil imports are helping both bring revenue to Venezuela and helping Americans as well.
I mean, it's working on all sides.
But CENCOM continues to confirm that their guided missile destroyers are among the assets that are part of this blockade.
Now, CENCOM also did put some emphasis on the fact that the flight operations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are also in the Middle East.
We knew that an air wing plane captain signals during flight operations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, according to CENCOM.
Plane captains wearing brown shirts are responsible for the safety and the integrity of the aircraft.
Including pre and post flight preparation.
So, you know, it's basically all hands on deck, literally, in the Strait of Hormuz.
And Iran is weighing, you know, the Strait of Hormuz shipping pause, signaling de escalation.
Now, why would the Iranians, being so arrogant in Islamabad, now be talking about de escalation and an extension of the ceasefire?
Because they're realizing they're dead.
You know, producer prices, by the way, declined in spite of the Iranian war.
The seasonally adjusted producer price index, which is a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, increased just a half a percent for the month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The increase was considerably less than the Dow Jones consensus estimate of more than double that.
So that's good news.
But it's all this is going to take time.
Now the question is how much time will Donald Trump give them?
How much time would it take?
For whoever is in charge, this fourth, fifth tier level of leadership that has emerged out of Iran, how long will it take them to wise up and realize that they can't win at this point and that Donald Trump in an hour can wipe them out completely?
Now, it is pretty funny the president's post about President Xi.
I am not concerned about China.
And I think the president, when he says that he warned China against supplying weapons to Iran, I think he means it.
He said that he sent a letter to President Xi, and President Xi responded to the letter that he wrote because he had heard that China was trying to give weapons to the Iranians.
And he said, You're seeing it all over the place.
He said, I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that.
He wrote me a letter saying that he's not doing that.
In this interview with Maria Baraturomo, he said he threatened countries with an immediate 50% tariff if they supply the Iranians with anything.
And then the president went on and said, China's very happy that I'm permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.
And we also have minesweepers that have been clearing out any remaining mines that the Iranians had placed there.
Apparently, they're saying they don't even remember where they put them.
There's going to be a reckoning with NATO.
I don't know what form it's going to take on.
I can see anything, I can see a reconfiguration of our alliances, but not NATO in its current form.
I don't see how the U.S. could ever be in a defense agreement with Spain ever again.
I don't see how we reconcile with Macron and his government.
I'm not even sure.
Now, I know King Charles and Queen Camilla are coming to the White House for a state dinner, but I'm not really sure how we reconcile with Neville Chamberlain Starmur when it comes to our relationship with Great Britain.
And I'm not really sure what this means for the future of NATO.
And I don't really think it matters to us.
If anything, the monies that we've been spending, the two thirds of the budget that we pay for NATO defense, which is really European defense.
And then in our moment, fighting the number one state sponsor of terror, they couldn't send a ship to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open, which we really didn't even need.
And the president said he was pretty much testing NATO, and they failed spectacularly.
But I don't see any scenario where NATO can survive in its current configuration.
I just don't see it.
Now, the president has been battling the prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Maloney, and Maloney confirmed Italy suspended its defense cooperation agreement with Israel amid the Middle East tensions.
All right, if they want to somehow appease radical Islamists, they can do that.
I mean, this is one of the major issues causing massive decline.
On the continent of Europe in the first place.
And that is unfettered, illegal immigration without assimilation.
And again, that's resulted in Sharia courts in Great Britain.
That's resulted in no go zones.
And Donald Trump blasting every one of these so called NATO allies.
And France, by the way, should be as far away as possible from Lebanon peace talks, according to the Israeli ambassador, because they're more inclined to support Hezbollah, which is unbelievable.
We're going to get into today the latest on.
Now, he's, I guess, he's been accused of being a rapist, accused of being a serial rapist.
There are multiple allegations of rape against Mr. Fang Fang, Eric Swalwell.
Get this, though.
He apparently will get to keep, Linda, this is going to drive you up a wall.
He's going to get to keep his government pension and other congressional perks.
I'm not sure if you saw that today.
Swalwell will remain eligible.
For his pension, other benefits, despite his resignation.
This has got to stop.
If somebody has to resign over an issue and an accusation as severe as rape, why do they get to keep their pension?
You know, for so many years, and we'll get into this later in the program today, for so many years, there have been.
Now, sometimes you just don't know.
Like, for example, I guarantee, and this came up during the issue of the.
The 34 counts against Donald Trump, a legal NDA, nondisclosure agreement.
I bet you if we got into Alvin Bragg's office and the history of his office, I guarantee you that office, like every big corporation, probably has a mountain of paper regarding nondisclosure agreements.
And they happen a lot because people make threats that they're going to sue, and a company will make a mathematical calculation.
How much is it to defend against this allegation?
What are the negative consequences of all the press associated with the accusation?
And maybe the accusation is true and it's going to end up with a big settlement against them.
Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not true.
Sometimes, I mean, you could argue in some ways that this is a means of getting money out of people in certain occasions when people are innocent, but yet it is a way for people that are really truly victims to also get compensated when they have been severely wronged.
But.
In the case of Swallow, now we're talking about rapier.
And now he's an accused rapist, but he's going to get to keep his pension.
But so the sad thing is in Congress over the years, there have been allegations.
I don't know if they're true, I don't know if they're not true, but I know that this has gone on for a long period of time where the congressman, the senator, the elected official will come to some settlement with whoever the person is that was working in their office or working in the Capitol.
And that money is then paid for with either taxpayer dollars or with campaign dollars.
And my attitude is there's absolutely no justification for taxpayers to be putting the bill for an agreement that you're going into unless you want to tell the American people about it.
Because that's our money, that's not your money, that's donors' money, that's not your money.
By the way, it looks like Swalwell was known on Capitol Hill.
This was a Fox News report today.
He continues to face this reckoning over these multiple sexual assault allegations and past scandals, and his praise of Hunter Biden has now resurfaced.
Swalwell was also a big fan of Hunter's wealthy Hollywood sugar daddy, brother, lawyer, who donated tens of thousands of dollars to Swalwell's failed gubernatorial campaign.
You might remember that guy from years ago.
This guy, Kevin Morris, who was bankrolling Hunter's legal bills, lavish lifestyle, donated $29,900 to Swalwell's campaign in February.
Swalwell also reportedly helped orchestrate Hunter's surprise press conference outside the Capitol in December 23, while he defied the House Oversight Committee subpoenas to testify behind closed doors.
Anyway, Swalwell's billionaire sugar daddy also quit.
You know, the founder of Diamond Resorts, a guy by the name of Stephen Klubeck, who has backed Swalwell since 2017, has severed ties with both Swalwell and the Democratic Party.
I'm going to change my party affiliation.
I can't stand the Democratic Party anymore.
I'm done.
Benito.
Tell everyone I'm a libertarian.
F you, Democratic Party.
I'm now a libertarian.
He confirmed Swalwell would no longer be welcome at his California residence.
Anyway, this guy donated $23,400 from 2017 to 2017.
2023.
You have Hollywood big name Trump haters now have rushed to bankroll Swalwell.
This is getting pretty interesting.
But he loved rubbing elbows with Hollywood's woke elite.
And in return, they opened up their wallets.
You know, for example, A listers, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro.
Anyway, Sean Penn had given Swalwell's campaign $15,000.
You have Robert De Niro pitched in $10,000.
John Hamm and two and a half men actor John Cryer, they pitched in a bunch of money.
Kathy Griffin gave $10,000.
I mean, all these Hollywood people, I think to get their endorsement is like the kiss of death if you're running for office these days.
I don't think it helps at all.
Didn't help Kamala Harris in any way, shape, manner, or form.
Lack of Moral Clarity00:01:25
We've got Bill O'Reilly coming up, and I will tell you, I've gotten a ton of reaction to my comments about.
The Catholic Church, and I'm not against the Catholic Church.
I am upset that this Pope attacked the president that is taking on evil in our time and stopping the number one state sponsor of terror from having nuclear weapons.
And I'm upset that the Pope doesn't have the moral clarity that I think he should have in standing up to evil in our time.
And I'm kind of upset that the Pope had never spoken out about the Iranians slaughtered by the regime.
He never spoke out that I saw against what happened on October 7th.
I don't know why there's a lack of moral clarity.
I mean, are we supposed to just try to appease radical Islamists with this death cult, convert or die?
You get 72 virgins in heaven if you kill innocent men, women, and children mentality.
This is not a complicated moral dilemma for people, it's not a quandary.
you We'll talk about the Pope and President Trump with all things simple man Bill O'Reilly, citizen journalist Nick Shirley.
They're trying to silence him in California straight ahead.