Marco Rubio details Project Freedom, a defensive operation deploying over 100 aircraft and 15,000 troops to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz against Iranian mines causing $500 million daily losses. He asserts international law prohibits controlling such waterways while Operation Epic Fury sanctions drive 70% inflation in Iran, halting 90% of its trade despite their hidden 60% enriched uranium facilities. Rubio clarifies the blockade isn't an act of war but a dangerous precedent if allowed, noting ongoing nuclear negotiations and upcoming Vatican visits for religious freedom, ultimately arguing that empowering the Iranian populace against radical clerics is essential to preventing global hostage-taking by Tehran's regime. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Setting a Terrible Tone00:03:47
This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
Thanks to all of you for being with us.
Write down our toll free telephone number if you want to be a part of the program.
It's 800 941 Sean.
If you want to join us any moment, we expect the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who's going to be, I guess, giving a briefing.
It looks like it's going to be right where Caroline Levitt usually gives her briefing.
Congratulations to her, by the way.
She recently had her second baby.
By the way, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
Later in this program today, J.B. Pritzker.
Now, there's been three assassination attempts against Donald Trump.
Three.
And J.B. Pritzker is claiming Trump set the tone for political violence.
What, he's responsible for three assassination attempts and Nazi, fascist, racist Gestapo and all the rhetoric of the radical left, the legacy media mob has not contributed to this dehumanizing.
Violent atmosphere we now find ourselves living in, assassination culture we now find ourselves living in.
Is he going to blame, you know, Charlie Kirk next for being assassinated because Charlie Kirk has a different point of view and would have, you know, civil conversations with kids on college campuses?
It's unbelievable.
Now, we also have a tape of J.B. Pritzker, moron that he is, who wants to be president like Gavin Newsom.
In one tape, You know, we just put a montage together of him calling Trump a Nazi, comparing him to a Nazi six times.
And meanwhile, you know, he's setting the tone, and it's a terrible thing.
And it's terrible, and it shouldn't be this way.
Well, maybe he should stop saying he's a Nazi.
I think the environment look, our leaders set the tone in this country.
And I think that the president of the United States has set a tone where political violence is okay.
He's advocated it himself before.
It's a terrible thing.
I mean, he's experienced.
He's a target of it, too.
That's what I'm saying.
He's experienced.
He set the tone.
It's a terrible thing.
Let's listen to the governor set the tone.
Count, you know, every time he says, makes a comparison to a Nazi, just, you know, count.
I studied the Holocaust.
I helped to build a Holocaust museum.
This is what happened in the early days of the Nazi regime in Germany.
Everything that he has done has been tearing down constitutional democracy.
And that's what happened in Nazi Germany.
It doesn't take very long to tear apart.
A constitutional republic.
Indeed, the Nazis did it in 53 days.
And our democracy is almost as fragile.
And we're seeing it right now.
The dangers that we saw in Nazi Germany, especially in the earliest days of Nazi Germany, are the dangers that we need to react to now.
People have criticized me for talking about the Nazi regime.
It's the one I know most about because I helped to build the Holocaust.
It's Nazi, The tone is a terrible thing.
You're setting the tone, you idiot.
And as is pretty much every elected Democrat, unbelievable.
So on my podcast, and we'll play this later in the program, back to back, I've had now Dan Bongino and I've had Kash Patel.
We just dropped Kash Patel this morning.
Later, I will play for you.
And Dan Bongino said something that was amazing.
I think this is the most amazing untold story.
Defensive Military Operations00:15:13
That there are good people in the FBI that purposefully hid the evidence in those, quote, burn bags that they found.
You know the burn bags?
Kash Patel told me on the podcast.
The burn bags were in a safe room that nobody even knew existed, which means that somebody left it there on purpose.
This is what Bongino had told me.
And that they put it there on purpose so that eventually we would find it because that's all the evidence against all the corruption in the FBI.
Where do you hear this tape?
If you haven't watched the video podcast, you need to check it out.
You can get it on YouTube and wherever you get your video podcast.
But the two of them together, but.
I mean, cash just spells it out.
They weren't supposed to find it in the sense that it was put in a place purposefully hidden because all the people before him didn't want it to be seen.
They put it in a burn bag, which is classified information that is designed to be burned so nobody ever gets a hold of it, but they purposely saved it.
Linda, I know you're very interested in this story.
It looks like Eric, Mr. Fang Fang, Swalwell, Apparently, he was a bigger degenerate than we knew.
Apparently, he was sending nude photos and videos of him pleasuring himself through Snapchat and regularly slid into the DMs of random women, you know, all while he was married and the lurid details.
And apparently, I wonder, it's just disgusting.
Anyway, Marco Rubio is taken to the podium.
Let's listen in.
It dropped off.
People in this country.
Hello.
Thank you guys for having me today.
I'll be Filling in for Caroline today, obviously.
So I'll have a brief remarks here and then we'll get to your questions.
As you know, over the weekend, the President announced this Project Freedom, and the goal of it is to, frankly, if you want to talk about it, it's to rescue like almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries that are trapped inside of the Gulf and left for dead in the Persian Gulf by this Iranian regime.
You know, for more than two months now, these innocent sailors and commercial crew members have been stranded out at sea.
Because Iran is conducting something that's not just criminal.
It's criminal for sure, but it's desperate and destructive, this blockade of the Straits of Hormuz.
Nations from around the world, the overwhelming majority of whom are not even engaged in any military hostilities, are now at risk not just of losing their cargo, but the lives of their own citizens because of this blockade.
These ships, you know, you don't leave a ship out there for this long.
You start running out of food, you start running out of potable water, essential supplies, and they're at the mercy of this piracy.
What it is, it's piracy.
And not only that, but some of them have seen, you know, been open fire on and rained down senseless attacks on several civilian ships already.
So, frankly, the way to put it, these are innocent bystanders.
These are countries and ships and so forth that have nothing to do with any of this and nonetheless are being caught in the middle of it and being held hostage merely because Iran could do that, just because of just as the regime brutally slaughtered tens of thousands of their own citizens for the crime of peaceful protests, because they're unhappy with the quality of life or the lack of quality of life in Iran today.
And so they're sitting ducks.
They're isolated, they're starving, they're vulnerable, and at least 10 sailors have already died as a result of the civilian sailors.
So already many nations, privately and some publicly, have asked the United States to help free their ships and to restore freedom of navigation in the Straits of Hormuz and this critical artery of global trade.
And so President Trump, as he always does, stepped up and answered the calls for their help.
And he's directed the United States military to guide these stranded ships to safety, to provide a protective bubble under which they can operate and move.
Product and get themselves out of there and out of harm's way.
And this is the first step towards reopening the strait and bringing this regime's last ditch act of economic arson, bringing that to a close.
We're doing it not only because we were asked, but because we're the only ones who can.
Only we have the power to sort of take the steps that we've taken now.
Under this president, under President Trump, the United States will help our friends.
We're going to stand up to rogue regimes like the one in Tehran.
And we're going to be unashamed to use our power and our abilities to project military power in the service of our national interests above all else.
Now, what's really important for you to report and for everyone to understand is this is not an offensive operation, this is a defensive operation.
And what that means is very simple.
There's no shooting unless we're shot at first.
Okay, we're not attacking them.
We're not, but if they are attacking us or they're attacking a ship, you need to respond to that.
You're not going to let some fast boat come up on a ship and shoot it up.
We're going to respond to it, and we've been successful at it.
I don't know what the exact number is, but I know a number of those fast boats have now been targeted and will continue to be if they pose a threat to our forces.
We'll shoot down drones, we'll shoot down missiles, but it's defensive in nature.
This is defensive.
So if you hear stories about attacks and launching of firing back and forth, it's not back and forth.
We are only responding if attacked first.
This is a defensive operation.
And that's what's occurring here.
Just about the importance of the Straits for a moment, this is approximately a quarter of the world's oil trade, along with significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer that operate through the Straits of Hormuz.
The Iranian regime cannot be allowed to dictate who uses this vital waterway.
I don't think this is also being reported enough.
Maybe you are reporting.
I don't read everyone.
I don't have any damn outlets here.
I don't know who you all are.
I mean, I know who some of you are, but I don't know who all of you are.
But I will say this about it.
This is an international waterway.
This is an international waterway.
And international law is very clear, and I love it because everybody always talks about international law on this.
International law on this is very clear.
International waterways, no country can control them.
There is no international law that allows you to say, I'm going to put mines in an international body of water and I'm going to blow up ships that don't listen to us and try to go through.
That's what Iran is doing.
This is a criminal act, and someone needs to do something about it.
Something needs to be done.
It's completely illegal, completely illegitimate, and completely unacceptable.
And that's why the United States military is guiding stranded commercial ships safely through the strait.
And is working to restore freedom of navigation and putting an end to these efforts to hold the global economy hostage.
So far, as a proof of concept and as a proof of function, two U.S. flag merchant ships have successfully transferred the Strait of Hormuz in the first stages of this project, and they're now safely on their way.
The U.S. military is deploying the necessary assets to extend this defensive umbrella over commercial shipping.
But there should be no mistake.
And as I said this already, this is a defensive operation.
I want to reiterate that point.
This is important to understand.
If no shots are fired at these ships and no shots are fired at us, We're not firing shots, but if we're fired on, we will respond and we will respond with lethal efficiency.
The assets supporting this project, by the way, include guided missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea based aircraft, multi domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 of the finest military service members on the planet.
These forces have already destroyed, as I told you earlier, I thought it was six, it's seven Iranian fast boats that failed to heed our warnings.
And by fast boats, we're talking about, you know, some of these things look like Boston whalers, okay, so these are not like Navy ships, but nonetheless, They come fast at these boats, try to swarm them, try to harm them.
We're not going to let that happen.
So, seven of them now sit at the bottom of the sea, along with, by the way, the rest of Iran's navy.
That's where you can find their navy today.
And we're going to continue to systematically clear this passageway through the straits to restore freedom of navigation.
Now, while this project steadily progresses, Operation Epic Fury, economic fury, I'm sorry, continues to impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime and what remains of their already frail economy.
Today, inflation in Iran.
Is 70%, and their currency is in total and complete freefall.
U.S. sanctions enforcement is stepping up.
It's moving in lockstep with the naval blockade to degrade Iran's capacity to generate, to move, and repatriate revenue.
It directly targets the regime's primary revenue lifelines.
The blockade alone is costing Iran as much as $500 million a day in lost revenue.
90% of total Iranian trade has been halted, causing permanent damage to Iran's oil infrastructure as wells are forced to shut in.
Again, all of this is in response to their piracy.
It cannot be that you have these straits.
And they blow up any ship that moves, and the only ships they get to go through are theirs.
You can't have a situation in which the Straits are close to everyone else, but they benefit from the piracy.
That can't happen.
That's why the blockade is in place, and that's why these sanctions are crippling them.
Any foreign financial institution, by the way, Treasury is now identifying and cutting off every dollar of revenue that's flowing to this regime.
And so, look, any foreign financial institution or commercial actor that enables Iran's sanctions evasion is going to face secondary sanctions exposure and a loss of access to the U.S. financial system.
As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, The United States of America holds all the cards.
There is no scenario here in which, if they decide to join a ladder of escalation, they wind up getting the last say.
But our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be opened, back to the way it was.
Anyone can use it, no mines in the water, nobody paying tolls.
That's what we have to get back to, and that's the goal here.
Every day the conflict continues, however, our leverage on Iran will continue to increase, and their position will continue to weaken, especially as the blockade really begins to bite in conjunction with the sanctions.
So, look, the time's come for Iran to make a sensible choice.
And it's not easy for them to do that, obviously, because they have a fracture in their own leadership system.
And apart from that, I mean, the top people in that government are, to say the least, you know, they're insane in the brain.
And so we need to address that.
And it's difficult because it's hard to get past that in their system.
But it's important for them to make a sensible choice and the one that's right for their people.
The president, our president, has proven time and again that his preference is peace.
Must accept the reality of this situation and come to the negotiation table and accept terms that are good for them but ultimately good for the world.
The diplomatic path, if there's a real diplomatic path, I'm not always going to be one, but if there's a real diplomatic path and we continue to explore it, Steve and Jared are working on that very hard.
If there is one there, it could be one that leads them to reconstruction, to prosperity, and to stability and to not.
All right, we continue.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, giving a briefing on Operation Epic, well, Economic Epic Fury, if you will.
And that is opening the Strait and escorting ships in and out of the Strait of Hormuz.
We'll go back to that press conference.
We're stations along the Sean Hannity Show Network.
We're going to continue our coverage.
The world.
The alternative is growing isolation, economic collapse, and ultimately total defeat.
I know what the right choice is for Iran.
I hope that the people over there making decisions will make the right one.
The last point I would make, and it really is important for them to understand this, is they really shouldn't test the will of the United States, at least not under President Donald Trump.
He has proven time and again.
That he will back up what he says.
And if they test him, ultimately they will lose.
The hard way, the easy way, the long way, the short way, they will lose.
And with that, it's time for your questions.
So, Catherine, why don't we start with you first?
I'm Catherine Herrich.
I'm an independent journalist.
Secretary Rubio, have you seen any recent indications that Iran is willing to give up its nuclear weapons program that is credible, verifiable, and that would lead to an immediate de escalation?
Well, look, this is a longstanding problem for them, right?
I mean, they have always said they don't want a nuclear weapon.
That's because they've always said that, they just don't mean it.
And why do you say, well, how do you know they don't mean it?
Well, we don't mean it because they're doing all the things and historically have tried to do all the things that you do if you want a nuclear weapons program.
For example, they innovate and try to innovate long range delivery missiles that now, in some cases, are capable of reaching much of Europe.
They build these large underground centrifuges for enrichment activity.
There are countries in the world that are involved in the enrichment business, but these guys do it in mountains and in caves and in hiding.
They've always had secret components of their nuclear program undisclosed to the world.
And we know for a fact that they retain highly enriched uranium at 60%, that they did so.
And that has no civilian use, none, zero whatsoever.
So, they have an opportunity here to agree to something that will make it clear that they're not interested in a nuclear weapon.
One thing is to say we don't want a nuclear weapon.
Another thing is to do the things that prove you don't want a nuclear weapon.
By the way, if what Iran wants is a civilian nuclear program for power plants and stuff like that, there are a lot of countries in the world that have that, and they don't enrich.
They import the enriched material.
They could have that if that's what they wanted, but they're not acting like that's what they wanted.
They're acting like they want a military nuclear program.
That's unacceptable.
That's the process we're engaged in now to create.
That's the object of this diplomacy to come up with some level of understanding about what are the topics that they've agreed to negotiate on.
We don't have to have the actual agreement written out, and one day this is highly complex and highly technical.
But we have to have a diplomatic solution that is very clear about the topics that they are willing to negotiate on and the extent and the concessions they're willing to make at the front end in order to make those talks worthwhile.
That's what Stephen Jarrett and the whole team is working on, and I hope to have good news on it.
That's the outcome we would prefer.
That's the outcome we would have preferred a year ago.
That's the outcome I think most of us would have preferred a long time ago.
But that's not the option they've given us, given their activity.
All right, can I?
There's no way I can figure out who to call on.
I'm just going to press right in the middle, right there.
You right there.
Yeah.
In the back row.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I'll go to you next.
All right, go ahead.
Thank you, Secretary Rubio.
Keep going right.
Welcome to the White House.
What's that?
Are you talking to me, sir?
Yeah, to you.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
I have two questions on two separate issues that come up.
Do they get two questions for these?
Two questions.
There's a lot of people in here.
That is all under your umbrella.
All right, well, you answer.
You can ask me two questions, I'll give you one answer.
Thank you very much.
And I'll pick the one I like better.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
The first has to do with the blockade.
There are lawmakers from both parties who claim the blockade is an act of war.
What do you say to that?
And my second question has to do with the fuel embargo of Cuba.
How long, Mr. Secretary, will that last?
Okay, two things.
All right, good.
I'll answer both your questions because I like the second one too.
The first one on the blockade.
And so, why do we have a blockade?
We have a blockade because they shut down the Straits.
So, I don't know which members of Congress you're talking to, but here's what I would ask.
Them, I would ask everybody here.
It's very simple.
These guys have shut down the Straits of Hormuz.
This is what Iran is saying.
We will shut down the Straits.
No one can go through.
No country in the world can go through unless we allow you to go through and you have to pay us.
But our ships can go through, meaning the Iranian ships, as much as they want.
That's crazy.
Who would agree to that?
So, how are we going to have a situation where they get to close the Straits to everybody and the only people who are allowed to go through there 100% without paying anything are the Iranians?
If you do that, they'll keep the Straits closed forever.
Hezbollah and Regional Hostage00:08:16
They're trying to make this some new normal.
Under no circumstances can we ever allow them to normalize the fact that they get to blow up commercial ships and put mines in the water.
So the response to that is we're going to blockade your ships.
If everyone's ships are not getting out, your ships are not getting out either.
That's not an act of war.
That's a defensive measure.
It's a counter to what they have decided to do.
You know what is an act of war?
Putting mines in the water.
Why don't the members of Congress, whoever it is that's complaining about it, they should be all over that?
These guys put mines in the water.
Mining in the water is illegal, period, under any circumstances, and they've done it.
This is crazy stuff, but this is what they've done.
On Cuba, oil blockade on Cuba.
There's no oil blockade on Cuba per se.
Here's what's happening with Cuba, okay?
Cuba used to get free oil from Venezuela, used to give them a bunch of free oil.
They would take like 60% of that oil and resell it for cash.
It wouldn't even go to benefit the people.
So the only blockade that's happened is the Cubans have decided, I mean, the Venezuelans have decided, we're not giving you free oil anymore.
And you can only imagine nowadays, the way oil prices are, no one's giving away free oil, much less to a failed regime.
So the problem with Cuba is worse.
Their economic model doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
And the people who are in charge can't fix it.
And the reason that I can't fix it is not just because they're communists, that's bad enough, but they're incompetent communists.
The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent one.
And that's what, so incompetent communists run that country.
They don't know how to fix it.
They really don't.
And we have 90 miles from our shores a failed state that also happens to be friendly territory for some of our adversaries.
So it's an unacceptable status quo, and we'll be addressing it, but not today.
Okay.
All right, let's go to the front right there.
Secretary Rubio, Secretary Rubio.
You are going to the Vatican to meet with the Pope.
Is this an attempt to smooth things over with the Pope, given the rhetoric between President Trump and Puglia?
No, I mean, it's a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened.
No, look, there's a lot to talk about with the Vatican.
I'll give you one example.
The Pope just returned from a trip to Africa where the church is growing very vibrantly.
And we have shared concerns about religious freedom, religious.
Right.
We have Secretary of State Marco Rubio holding a press conference.
He kind of joked he was filling in for Caroline Levitt for stations along the Sean Hannity Show radio network.
We are going to continue our coverage through the break.
I know some of you may have to break away.
We will continue on the other side as well.
And we have a lot more coming up in today's program.
I'd love to talk to them about that.
The topic of Cuba, you know, we gave Cuba $6 million of humanitarian aid, but obviously they won't let us distribute it.
We distributed it through the church.
We'd like to do more.
We're willing to give more humanitarian aid to Cuba, by the way, distribute it through the church, but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do it.
They won't allow us to give their own people more humanitarian aid, and we're willing to do it through the church.
So there's a lot to talk about.
And the president recently said that the Pope is endangering a lot of Catholics as a result of his rhetoric around the Iran war.
Is that a sentiment you're talking about?
Well, I don't think that's an accurate description of what he said.
I think what the president basically said is that Iran.
Can't have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics and Christians and others for that matter.
It goes back to the central point.
I think the president, without trying to speak for him, but I think I can characterize it this way.
He doesn't understand why anybody, leave aside the Pope, the president and I for that matter, I think most people, I cannot understand why anyone would think that it's a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon.
Look what they're doing with the Straits right now.
They're holding the whole world hostage.
They have these sailors on commercial ships that are going to starve to death out there.
They don't care.
They don't care that this is melting down the economies around the world, even of their own allies.
This is what they're doing with the Straits.
What do you think they would do if they had a nuclear weapon?
They would hold the world hostage with that nuclear weapon.
That's what they would do.
They would do exactly to the world with a nuclear weapon what they're doing now with the Straits.
And I think the president's point is how anyone cannot see that as an unacceptable outcome and an unacceptable risk is beyond him.
It's puzzling.
And someone has to do something about it.
The difference between this president and the six presidents that preceded him were that he's the only one that's actually been willing to do something about it.
Everyone says Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, but you've got to do something about it at some point.
And he's been willing to address that threat.
And that's what he promised he would do when he got elected, by the way, is address threats like this.
I wish I knew your name.
Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary.
Can you put name tags on?
Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary.
Who are you with?
Who are you with?
I'm with Rudao Media Network.
Okay.
Mr. Secretary, the President has said multiple times that weapons were provided to the Kurdish groups to pass on the Iranian people.
However, Kurdish political parties and the regional government say they have not received such weapons.
Even some claimed.
These weapons remain in the U.S. base in the region.
Can you clarify who those weapons were given to and whether you intend to retrieve them or still want to pass to the Iranian people?
Yeah, look, ultimately, what the president is expressing, and I think has repeatedly, is he wished the Iranian people had, you know, look, he's heartbroken by these images.
You think about it.
You're an Iranian, okay?
You're unhappy that your economy doesn't work for you.
You don't have freedom.
You don't have an opportunity to express yourself.
You know, you've got friends that have been shot in the head because they're out protesting.
And he just, it's heartbreaking to him to see that these people are abused in this way and have no measures to take against their own government as a result of it.
By the way, this goes back, if you guys remember the protests in 2009 where they slaughtered people in the street.
This is a vicious regime, guys, okay?
These are people that hang people from cranes in the town square so everyone can see.
They continue these executions of people and have continued to do so for over a decade and a half now.
And so I think what the president is expressing is the desire that he wishes the Iranian people had an ability to fight back against some of these things that are happening to them.
And I would view that as distinct and separate from the specifics of this operation that was ongoing before it concluded, and certainly different from the operation that's going on now.
Right there in the.
Regarding Colombia, Mr. Secretary, we have.
Right behind you, not Colombia, right there.
Yes, ma'am.
Mr. Secretary, thank you so much.
On Lebanon, are we in a ceasefire or less fire?
And the second question do you think you would be able to achieve an agreement between Lebanon and Israel without risking a civil war in Lebanon?
What are you doing to.
No, I got it.
I got the question.
So, look, here's the challenge with Lebanon.
Okay?
There's no problem between the Lebanese government and the Israeli government.
Israel doesn't claim any land in Lebanon, it belongs to them.
By and large, I think a peace deal between Lebanon and Israel is imminently achievable and should be.
The problem with Israel and Lebanon is not Israel or Lebanon, it's Hezbollah.
Hezbollah operates from inside of Lebanese territory.
They terrorize and attack Israelis, but they also are inflicting tremendous damage on the Lebanese people.
The reason why Lebanon gets attacked by Israel is because of Hezbollah, because Hezbollah is hiding in some house, launching rockets against Israelis, and then they get hit.
So what you're seeing now is Israeli responses to either attacks or perceived threats.
And this is going to be This is not new.
This has been going on for a very long time.
What is our hope?
Our hope is to engage the Lebanese and Israeli governments under our mediation at the table to achieve this.
And that is having Lebanese armed forces and a Lebanese government, not just with the willingness, but with the capability to begin to challenge Hezbollah and disarm them.
Because the Lebanese people are also victims of Hezbollah.
And by the way, on the topic of Hezbollah and Lebanon, who is behind Hezbollah?
Why do they exist?
They're an agent of Iran.
If you go through that Middle East and you identify every problem, Hamas, Hezbollah, to some extent the Houthis, obviously, and others.
Behind every one of these groups is Tehran.
So, apart from the nuclear weapons, apart from all these other things, these guys are behind all the bad actors.
Hezbollah is a wing, it's an extension of Iranian desire to destabilize the region.
So, we're very committed to this process.
It's not going to be easy.
You're asking me a complex question.
You know this has been going on for a very long time.
It's not going to be easy.
We're going to do everything we can to make sure that both sides continue to talk so that progress can be made on some sort of permanent ceasefire that isn't constantly spoiled.
By Hezbollah and by Hezbollah violence.
I'm just winging it, guys, okay?
Right there, yes.
You mentioned the two U.S. ships that safely crossed the Strait of Hormuz.
Are other ships being told it's safer to get back to regular levels, or are we still going to see limits in place for the foreseeable future?
Convincing Americans on Red Flags00:16:06
For obvious reasons, I'm not going to broadcast who we're talking to or who we're telling them to move.
I mean, we want these operations to be safe, and I think as it unfolds and ships get through, we'll make those announcements after the fact just for operational security purposes.
But the goal here is pretty simple establish a zone of transit.
That is protected by a bubble, the United States, both naval and air assets, and then allow ships who want to move to move through there and get to market to begin to increase confidence in the ability to do so.
That doesn't happen in 12 hours.
It takes time to set up that bubble and gain that confidence, but that's the goal.
We have been in touch.
We've been in touch, I don't know, with a bunch of different liners about moving, and we're hoping to continue to improve the security situation, and we'll start to see some of that movement, and we'll announce it as it happens after the fact.
We're not going to be like broadcasting, hey, tomorrow at 12, Ship X is going to be coming through for obvious reasons, because that degrades the security.
But we feel confident we're going to be able to achieve that.
Look, it's not going to solve the whole Straits problem, it's going to solve a lot of it, but it's important to challenge what Iran is doing now.
Again, if you take anything away today, and I can't tell you what to write, but Iran cannot be allowed to normalize this control of the streets.
And every country in the world should be joining us and condemning it and doing something about it.
But the United States has stepped up and is trying to do something about it.
Regarding Colombia, Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry, we'll see if we get to Colombia today.
Go ahead.
You guys have an election now.
Why don't you wake up to your election?
Mr. Secretary, I'm Michael Ross with Daily Mail.
I was curious about your meeting with Southcom earlier.
There was a picture, a map of Cuba behind you.
What did you discuss with Southcom about Cuba?
And do you have any updates on the map?
I'm not going to tell you what I discussed with Southcom.
But it had to do something with Cuba.
No, I mean, Cuba's in Southcom, you know, it's the closest part.
And so the second point, I was there, our ambassadors were in from the whole Western Hemisphere.
I was addressing them, meeting the general who just took command of Southcom, and there happened to be a map of Cuba.
And I said, it'd be good if we took a picture in front of that map because it's like the closest thing in Southcom to the United States.
So there it is.
We have maps of other countries.
But, but, but, but, huh?
No, they didn't have that map.
In the red, right there in the red.
In the red, okay.
Cristina de Telemundo, Mr. Secret.
Can I ask you in Spanish or can I answer in Spanish?
Yeah, you can answer in Spanish.
You can ask me.
They'll have to translate for them what you asked me.
Well, I'll say it in English and if you can answer in both languages.
Today I took the webpage of the State Department and there's still a $25 million bounty on Diosdado Cabello, the Secretary of Interior, for drug.
Trafficking and narco terrorism.
I was wondering if that has been put on hold or if you're negotiating with President Delcy Rodriguez to turn him over.
Yeah, I don't have any updates for you on that.
The website is what it is and that's where it stands.
That policy hasn't changed.
But, guys, I mean, let's be mature here a little bit.
I'm not going to tell you about what we're talking about with the leader of these countries.
The politics of the United States on that.
The policy of the United States on that topic hasn't changed.
When it does, you know, obviously we'll inform you, but I don't have any news for you on that today.
Right there in the green.
I'll get to you.
Are you guys all the TV people?
Yeah.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Go.
I'm learning.
They gave me a little map.
I don't know where I put it of the people here.
Some of you had like red X's.
I'm kidding.
No, it's not true.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
The average price of gas in the country right now is $4.50.
Do you have a thought on how long Americans are supposed to kind of accept this?
Do you think it will affect Republicans' majorities in the midterm?
Well, I'm not going to speculate on the politics of it.
You can tell me, I mean, look, it's obviously being driven by global events.
That was true during the Russia Ukraine war as well, where you saw that come up.
Look, we don't benefit from the Straits as much as other countries.
I don't know if you've seen what the gas prices are like in other parts of the world that are really suffering big time.
So we're very fortunate that the United States, I believe, right now is like the world's largest net exporter of oil and natural gas as a result.
Not because of this war, but because we have this capacity.
So we've been insulated to some degree.
We're obviously still vulnerable to some extent to global prices.
But in the end, I mean, we're more insulated than other countries, even though that's not welcome news to Americans that are paying more at the pump, no doubt about it.
And it certainly is one of the circumstances of it.
There are people that we're predicting would be much higher at this point, but we're not taking that for granted.
Suffice it to say that this is, think about it this way.
Everybody needs to think about it this way.
If Iran had a nuclear weapon and they decided to close the Straits and make our gas prices like $9 a gallon or $8 a gallon, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it because they have a nuclear weapon.
And a nuclear armed Iran could do whatever the hell they want with the Straits, and there's nothing anyone would be able to do about it.
And that's one of the many reasons, apart from the massive loss of life in a nuclear strike, why Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
I mean, so this is an example of if they had a nuclear weapon, they closed the straits and they would tell the world, what are you going to do about it?
We have a nuclear weapon, we can attack you with it.
That's the world none of us want to leave behind.
It won't happen under this president's watch, but some future president and the future Americans will have to deal with this.
So, just one more example of why these guys can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.
Right there, in the black.
Right, you in the black, yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
No, right there, you.
You both are wearing black.
Thank you.
She's closer.
No, you don't have black, you have blue on it.
I'm colorblind, but I know blue and black.
Right there, yes, ma'am.
No, no, you.
The first one I called on.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you.
This is chaos, guys.
Go ahead.
Welcome to the White House.
You've long been a leading voice on human rights in China, including religious persecution and forced organ harvesting.
So, President Trump prepares to meet Xi Jinping next week.
Do you expect human rights concerns to be on the table?
Well, we always raise those issues, and they remain true.
And I think we've proven in some cases it's most effective to raise them in the appropriate setting.
But we always raise those issues.
They're important to us, among others, of course.
But those issues remain prominent in our view and in our conversation about these things.
And we'll continue to raise them in the appropriate forums.
All right, let's get to the fun.
These guys are going to get mad.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Thank you, Segment Kim, the Associated Press.
You mentioned earlier that some countries have privately and publicly indicated their willingness to help with Project Freedom.
Can you say how many have reached out to the U.S. with the offers of help and what kind of capabilities?
Well, I mean, thank you for your question.
That's a good question.
I mean, multiple countries have said we've got to do something about it and fix it.
Is it like dozens or single digits or more than 100?
I don't know.
I don't put a number on it.
I would just tell you that.
Here's what I would say about it.
The capabilities is the issue.
A lot of countries are left to do something about it.
They don't have a Navy.
Or they can't get there in time.
Others, you know, are less, you know, that some unfortunately do have a Navy are saying, oh, we'll be involved, but we'll be involved after it's over.
Well, after it's over, it's kind of like, you know, that makes sense.
So, you know, we'd like to have it.
Now, there may be some utility in a post, you know, closure mission.
I'm not downplaying that.
But I think that's been the challenge.
But there are other ways they can help, unique ways that they can help.
And I don't want to get into who these countries are for obvious reasons.
Because they are prepared to help us in certain ways, but maybe don't want that publicly disclosed for no other reason than it impacts foreign policy.
It could have some domestic ramifications.
But ultimately, I don't want to mislead you.
The primary responsibility for this project, Freedom, is on the United States because we're the only country that can project power in that part of the world the way we're doing now.
We're the only ones that can do it, and we're going to do it as a favor to the world.
Understand this.
This is a favor to the world because it's their ships that are stranded, it's their fuel supplies that are stranded.
By the way, it's their humanitarian aid.
Destined for different countries in the world that's stranded in the Persian Gulf right now.
It's the fertilizer that they need for their food and crops that's stranded in the Persian Gulf, not our fertilizer, their fertilizer.
So we want to be helpful, and that's why the President stepped forward, because we're the only ones that can.
Frankly, we're the only ones that can.
Mr. Secretary, on the rising oil and gas prices, the President has said that this is a small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon.
But 10 weeks in, are we any closer to getting rid of Iran's nuclear material?
Yeah, but look, here's the way to think about Iran, and this is what I described at the very beginning of this.
What was Iran's plan?
You have to understand what their plan was.
Their plan was they were going to build this conventional shield where they would have so many thousands of missiles and drones and rockets that they couldn't be attacked.
And behind that conventional shield that they were trying to build, they would then break out and do whatever they wanted with their nuclear program.
They no longer have that conventional shield.
We told you guys from the very beginning, and we're very consistent in this messaging the operation that has concluded was going to destroy their Navy.
They have no Navy left.
They don't.
Not a Navy.
They have small boats in Boston, Wheeler, but they don't have a Navy left.
They don't have an Air Force.
I challenge you when is the last time you read or heard about an Iranian jet flying anywhere?
They don't have an Air Force.
Their missile launching capability has been substantially degraded, and their industrial capability has been substantially degraded.
Base, their defense industrial base has been severely, severely damaged.
So, their ability to build a shield behind which they could hide their nuclear program was wiped out.
That's a very substantial achievement, and that was the purpose of this operation from day one.
Their nuclear material in order for this war to end.
Well, that's one of the topics that needs to be discussed.
I don't know about it, I think you're linking it.
The operation is over.
Epic Fury is a president notified Congress.
We're done with that stage of it.
Okay, we're now on to this project of freedom.
As far as a negotiation is concerned, I think the president's been clear that part of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment.
But what happens to this material that's buried deep somewhere that they still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out?
That has to be addressed.
And that's being addressed in the negotiation.
I'm not going to go further on what progress has been made on that topic because I don't want to endanger the negotiations.
But suffice it to say that the President and this entire team is aware of the centrality of that question.
And that will have to be addressed one way or the other.
Thank you.
Secretary, I have another two-part question for you.
First, are you taking part in those negotiations that you just detailed there?
And then, secondly, President Trump has made it clear that the U.S. doesn't rely on the Strait of Hormuz.
So, why should Americans even care about Project Freedom and these shipping tankers going through?
Well, I think on the second point is the one I want to address first, and that is why should Americans care and why it matters to us?
Because ultimately these things have an impact on the global economy, which ultimately has an impact on our economy in the long term.
That's number one.
Number two, because if we live in a world where A rogue state like this Iranian regime is allowed to claim as a new normal control over international shipping lanes.
It will not be long before you see that happen in multiple shipping lanes around the world.
I can identify for you six or seven vital shipping lanes around the world that some countries can decide guess what?
If Iran was able to do it, we're going to do it too.
We're not going to start charging tolls and it'll get closer and closer to us.
That's unacceptable.
We cannot live in a world that there's a lot of time and energy been invested behind the idea that international waters are free for the free flow of goods.
The stuff we make in this country and export has to go through international shipping lanes.
And for us to live in a world where a country can decide now we own the international shipping lane and you have to pay us if you want to use it, that is a normal that we will never be able to accept.
And that's what the Iranians are trying to get us to do.
So we're doing two things about it.
And we haven't talked about the second one enough.
The second thing we're doing is we're going to the UN.
Everybody loves the UN, right?
We're trying to go to the UN and we're saying, okay, countries of the world, condemn this.
Say that it is wrong for you to put mines there.
Shoot at commercial vessels.
Guys, that's what we're talking about here.
These guys are bombing commercial vessels.
They're not bombing naval vessels, they're bombing commercial tankers.
It's just outrageous.
That needs to stop and it needs to end.
And if he doesn't, then the world should be diplomatically and economically isolating Iran as well.
But if we live in a world where global shipping lanes can be taken over by countries, that'll have a direct impact on Americans in the short and the long term, and we can't let it start by Iran doing it.
And we're the only ones that can do anything about it.
Mr. Secretary, does the President intend to press Beijing on its Taiwan policy when he visits China next week?
I'm sure Taiwan will be a topic of conversation.
It always is.
As you know, we understand that the Chinese understand our position on that topic, we understand theirs, and I think both parties, again, without getting ahead of myself of what will happen in the talks, but I think both countries understand that it is neither one of our interests to see anything destabilized happen in that part of the world.
We don't need any destabilizing events to occur with regards to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo Pacific, and I think that's to the mutual benefit of both the United States and the Chinese.
From Lindell TV, thank you for taking my question today.
How does the State Department interpret the President's recent remarks when he said, The Iranian people need to have guns, and I think they are getting some guns?
What did he mean, and do those comments relate to any ongoing or potential U.S. actions like supplying those weapons?
Well, I think it goes back to the question I was asked a moment ago.
I think the President thinks it's heartbreaking.
That the Iranian people are abused by this regime the way they are.
In the end, I mean, this regime is not.
Guys, I know, I've said this, I think I said this in my hearing before the Senate when I got confirmed.
I don't know of any country in the world where there's a bigger difference between the people and the people who run the country.
This country is run by radical Shia clerics.
And that's not what Iran and the Iranian people are.
Now, they may be Shia, but they're not radicals and they're not clerics and they just want a normal life and a regular life and, in many ways, a very cosmopolitan country with an incredible history, incredible history, and incredible legacy and the like.
So there's just.
Huge divide between the people of Iran, whom we sympathize with, and who the president sympathizes with, because they're the ones suffering.
Look, the world is a victim of Iran, okay?
The world is a victim of Iran because they're terrorists, because of what they're doing now in the streets.
But the people of Iran are daily victims of the regime, and the president has deep sympathy for what they're going through.
And I think he's just expressing that sympathy and that frustration that they don't have the ability to do more to get rid of this regime that has crushed this country and isolated it from the world, which is a country that shouldn't be isolated from the world because its people are phenomenal.
All right.
I wish I had like a dice.
Go ahead.
No, right there, because I'm going to Italy.
He's Italian.
I know him.
He used to cover Capitol Hill.
You're Italian, right?
For many years.
For many years.
Daniel Competangelo, thank you, Mr. Secretary.
So I have two short questions for you.
Oh, the damn two questions.
First, as you head to the Vatican and Italy, how do you view the Pope's global role amid current geopolitical shifts?
And what are your objectives?
It's kind of going around at this point.
A pretty amazing press conference with the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
For those people that have been just spreading lies and misinformation and propaganda about what the purpose of America's involvement with Iran is and the necessity for it and what the president's motivation has been, at that point, you can't argue with dumb and stupid because.
Uranium regime, and he explained this in great detail.
If they ever had a nuclear weapon, forget about the Strait of Hormuz, they would be able to hold any international waterway they wanted hostage because that nuclear weapon or those nuclear weapons would hold the world hostage.
And this is what Steve Witkoff was saying when they were 12 days away from being able to enrich the 60% enriched uranium to weapons grade 90%.
And that is why every single source I've ever had said to me, Over and over again, the president had no choice but to act.
Common Sense Necessity00:01:10
Can I convince people that want to believe conspiracy theories?
Israel made him do it, BB made him do it, Fox News made him do it.
I can't convince them.
But if you understand common sense, this is the necessity.
All right, everybody, we will be right back.
Give us a call, 800-941-Sean.
By the way, there's more than that.
We actually have Jim Jordan coming up in mere moments.
I did hear the music, you know, just for the record.
By the way, Marco Rubio has been phenomenal in this entire press conference.
It was, you know, explaining if he had any doubt what was at stake with Iran.
I think he spelled it out as clearly as anybody has.