Valuetainment - “Trump's Playing POWER Politics” - Xi Meeting SCRAPPED As Trump Focuses On Iran War

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00:00:30.000 U.S. diesel prices soar to almost $5 as Iran war pinches global supply.

00:00:37.020 Rob, if you can pull up the AAA gas prices for the last 30 days while I'm reading this article, that'd be great.

00:00:43.000 U.S. diesel prices have jumped to more than a third, more than a third over the past month to almost $5 a gallon.

00:00:48.220 As the war in Iran, average diesel prices at the pump $4.99 on Monday, a 37% increase a month ago.

00:00:58.760 As the blockage of Strait of Hormuz chokes energy supplies, it marks the highest price for diesel, a fuel that is vital for industry.

00:01:05.660 Since the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, diesel costs rocket up and float back down, said Ed Herz, an energy economist at the University of Houston.

00:01:15.280 The only thing that Donald Trump's administration can do is finish this war.

00:01:20.620 The diesel surge is pushing up costs for motorists and farmers,

00:01:25.820 threatening to trigger spiraling costs for consumers across the world's largest economy

00:01:30.280 at a time when the president is battling an affordability crisis.

00:01:33.600 Tom.

00:01:34.240 So right now diesel is $5 a gallon and gas is about gasoline, regular automotive gas,

00:01:40.140 is creeping up now.

00:01:41.420 It's across $3.80 a gallon.

00:01:43.700 This is going to start having a pinch on the consumer.

00:01:46.760 For everybody that says it's going to be runaway inflation, that's not correct.

00:01:50.100 This will be a short-term inflationary catalyst.

00:01:55.220 However, frequently, when this is short-term, people that are paying for transport, product makers, produce makers,

00:02:03.020 they'll eat a short-term increase because they actually don't want to raise prices on the consumer right away

00:02:07.920 because that's how you lose market share.

00:02:09.560 You know what I mean, Pat?

00:02:10.060 You and I are making products at a company. Oh, diesel is up for a week. Let's raise the price.

00:02:14.920 You go, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's what if our competitor doesn't? We could lose market share.

00:02:18.680 Let's be more careful. So for the short run, you know, producers that are selling into retail are a little bit conservative, but not not forever.

00:02:27.540 But right now, five dollar diesel is not good. That's increasing the cost on producers and three dollars and 80 gas,

00:02:34.180 which pushes it up to $5.50

00:02:37.040 because the people that live in California

00:02:38.960 have almost $2 of localized taxes.

00:02:42.380 This is not good.

00:02:43.420 We need this war to be over

00:02:44.580 so that this can settle back down.

00:02:46.240 Jeff Snyder, thoughts?

00:02:47.140 Yeah, again, it's what Starmer said.

00:02:49.680 We want to help people's cost of living.

00:02:52.080 What's the best way to do it?

00:02:53.180 Is to end this conflict as quickly as possible

00:02:55.200 because Trump is correct.

00:02:57.280 If the Straits of Hormuz get open tomorrow,

00:02:59.760 oil prices are going to go down.

00:03:01.180 They're going to go right back

00:03:01.960 to where they were immediately,

00:03:02.980 Like the guy that you just quoted said.

00:03:05.480 But the oil prices, we saw this last summer.

00:03:08.600 And when there was a brief 12-day war in the conflict, oil prices shot up.

00:03:11.580 They didn't go as high as they are now, but they shot up, and then they went right back down again.

00:03:15.540 And, Tom, you're absolutely correct here.

00:03:18.540 It's a time issue.

00:03:20.320 If oil prices go back down and energy prices can go back down quickly, there will be limited downside in the economy.

00:03:27.200 Because in the initial stage, people do absorb the pressure.

00:03:29.400 However, the longer it goes, the more it does erode consumer spending.

00:03:33.780 It erodes a business's ability to maintain employment.

00:03:37.240 That's the true downside here.

00:03:39.040 Any oil shock case, the real issue is not really inflation so much as it is unemployment.

00:03:43.820 When you have energy prices that skyrocket this much and stay there for even just a couple months, think back to the 1990 example.

00:03:50.980 It only took a three-month oil shock to produce the 1990-91 recession.

00:03:55.140 So that's the downside case.

00:03:57.440 But if you're on this, I mean, I can't get over this thing with the U.K.

00:04:00.500 I mean, if you want to avoid that scenario, then why not contribute?

00:04:05.860 Why not just sit there and wait for it, even root for it,

00:04:08.700 because you're politically opposed to Trump.

00:04:11.100 If you want to help out the economy, you want to help out the Middle East,

00:04:14.200 the thing to do would be to participate at the absolute maximum level.

00:04:17.780 They don't like oil, though.

00:04:19.820 You know, the U.K. doesn't, they like expensive oil.

00:04:22.060 And then instead of them getting blamed for it, they could blame it on Trump.

00:04:24.820 So I think that's a part of why they like this.

00:04:26.620 It's politics. It's disgusting politics. 0.88

00:04:29.180 But the thing that's bugging me, though, is that everybody's saying, oh, the good thing is at least China's being hurt more than America's being hurt.

00:04:35.160 But it's widely acknowledged that Iran's letting Chinese ships with Chinese oil go through the Strait of Hormuz right now to China.

00:04:43.640 So China's actually not being hurt by this in the way that we are.

00:04:46.560 And then Trump is saying it's OK. We produce more than enough oil domestically to supply ourselves for years and years and years.

00:04:52.440 But not exactly the case because we built refineries to handle the heavy crude oil because we didn't know that we had all this light crude oil that we found in 2008.

00:05:02.300 So we do produce the most oil in the world by far, but we could only refine like 10 percent of it because we don't have refineries that could refine the light crude that we have.

00:05:11.280 Does that make sense?

00:05:12.180 I do.

00:05:13.200 But did you see the subtle support that France gave to Trump with Macron?

00:05:19.580 Did you see what Trump said about Macron?

00:05:21.100 Did you guys see this or no?

00:05:22.440 Bob, I think there was something there.

00:05:24.320 Were they sending something?

00:05:26.280 He says, you know, he'll never help in the state of Hormuz.

00:05:33.940 Yeah, he said it's an eight call, eight and a half call.

00:05:37.300 He'll be out of office very soon, so we'll have to see.

00:05:39.560 What is this?

00:05:40.200 This is about, there's two clips.

00:05:42.000 Which one is this one?

00:05:43.580 Play this one.

00:05:44.320 Let's see this one because this looks like a traditional Trump

00:05:47.800 and he's got the green tie on, so it's yesterday.

00:05:50.220 Go for it.

00:05:50.660 You said in the last hour that he will never join a task force in the Strait of Hormuz until hostility is finished.

00:05:58.080 Yesterday, you said President Macron of France. What's your reaction to that, sir?

00:06:03.040 Well, he'll be out of office very soon, so we'll have to see.

00:06:06.160 You know, I don't know.

00:06:09.560 I like the trail-off comments, right?

00:06:11.820 Well, he'll be out of office.

00:06:13.400 Look, I mean, what this is doing, what the Strait of Hormuz conversation is doing is it's making you wonder how many other choke points are there in the world that can impact the economy, okay?

00:06:26.940 And what leverage different people have.

00:06:29.160 So we got a history lesson the last two weeks about Strait of Hormuz, right?

00:06:33.120 The world did.

00:06:33.980 Sometimes when this stuff happens, you're like, oh, I didn't know that.

00:06:36.520 Everybody's learning collectively, right?

00:06:38.440 So what did we learn?

00:06:39.180 We learned the power.

00:06:40.080 We learned who goes through it.

00:06:41.600 We learned who really has control.

00:06:43.400 at the choke which iran has a lot of influence in a country like iran people are scared of that

00:06:49.180 they could attack and we learn about carrick island on what could happen with carrick island

00:06:53.080 and the influence that we learn about the mines we learn about all this stuff right yeah but what

00:06:56.920 other choke points are there out there that china may be afraid of you know that other people we

00:07:01.340 hear about suez canal right you hear what suez canal does and by the way with the choke point

00:07:06.660 of can you go to the can you go to the strait of hormuz do you guys hear about what saudi arabia

00:07:11.580 just announced yesterday

00:07:12.620 that they've been working on

00:07:13.520 the last 40 years

00:07:14.180 that almost got done?

00:07:15.480 The pipeline?

00:07:16.920 Can you type in

00:07:17.960 the Saudi Arabia

00:07:19.460 straight pipeline?

00:07:23.960 Go to...

00:07:25.640 Bypass Hormuz

00:07:27.740 as Iran locks.

00:07:28.540 Yeah, go to the

00:07:29.680 east-west pipeline, right?

00:07:31.260 They see it to the left.

00:07:32.320 Okay, can you do me a favor

00:07:33.240 and go type in

00:07:34.060 Saudi east-west pipeline

00:07:35.640 and go to images?

00:07:37.600 Saudi, out of nowhere, 0.96

00:07:39.920 they announced this.

00:07:41.120 So check this out.

00:07:42.360 Go to right there.

00:07:43.440 That's a good one.

00:07:44.420 So the Strait of Hormuz is that choke point to the right.

00:07:47.840 Do you see top right?

00:07:49.040 All the way to the top right.

00:07:50.460 No, go even further, right?

00:07:52.060 And Iran is right above it. 0.98

00:07:53.960 That's Iran, right above.

00:07:55.600 So if you look at this image, there's better ones.

00:07:57.900 Okay, perfect.

00:07:58.940 So Strait of Hormuz is to the right, okay?

00:08:02.220 Kuwait, to the right of Kuwait is Iran.

00:08:05.340 Well, quietly, Saudi's been working on this east-west pipeline 0.99

00:08:09.280 that's able to do five to six and a half million barrels of oil

00:08:14.640 through not having to go through straight of Hormuz,

00:08:17.840 and they're claiming it is ready so they don't have to deal with this.

00:08:22.960 So they're playing prevent offense, right?

00:08:26.480 Hey, if you're going to do this to us and put the threat,

00:08:28.480 we're going to protect ourselves.

00:08:29.400 So everybody's paying attention to the different choke points.

00:08:32.080 The other one was Panama Canal.

00:08:33.160 We talked about it extensively that now Panama came out,

00:08:36.380 Supreme Court saying, hey, you guys can't have control over China.

00:08:39.280 So somewhat Panama Canal, Panama has control with the influence of America, right?

00:08:44.000 Then the other one we have to look at is what Israel is doing that they're talking about.

00:08:47.620 They proposed this in the 60s quietly.

00:08:50.100 Rob, if you can go to the Ben-Gurion pipeline, type in Ben-Gurion pipeline and go to images.

00:08:57.320 They proposed this quietly internally in the 60s.

00:09:00.300 They named it after their first prime minister.

00:09:04.140 And this is what the Ben-Gurion pipeline looks like.

00:09:06.400 Can you go to images, Rob, so it's just immediately people will see it?

00:09:09.280 Let me see which one to go through.

00:09:11.320 Go to, none of them are good.

00:09:15.220 I mean, go to the second row.

00:09:17.960 Keep going, keep going, keep going.

00:09:19.340 The fourth one.

00:09:20.000 Second row, fourth one, right there.

00:09:21.680 So currently, the Suez Canal is to the left, which is roughly 193 kilometers.

00:09:26.980 Okay, you see that to the left right there, the red line?

00:09:29.080 That's 193 kilometers, which, by the way, we know who controls that.

00:09:32.700 That's Egypt. 0.81

00:09:33.680 So now Egypt, for the most part, they're making a lot of money off of that.

00:09:38.160 I don't know what the number is, but they make $4.5 to $7 billion-ish off of that.

00:09:42.260 You guys can fact check me on this.

00:09:43.920 If you look to the right, you see Israel?

00:09:46.240 Israel came up with this idea of building their own canal.

00:09:50.300 We know Strait is God-made, Canal is man-made.

00:09:53.380 To build that through, it's going to be around 250 to 300 kilometers to not be reliant on Suez Canal.

00:10:00.880 And by doing so, it'll cost them $55 billion.

00:10:06.380 They'll need 300,000 employees to build it.

00:10:09.120 Some claim this may go through Gaza and that was part of the war.

00:10:12.960 It'll save them a few kilometers if they're able to go through Gaza. 0.73

00:10:15.920 If not, it'll be 290 kilometers.

00:10:18.080 And they're proposing to do that.

00:10:20.380 So everybody right now is kind of sitting around saying what do we do next.

00:10:24.280 But you know what's the other two that one of them we don't talk about a lot?

00:10:27.660 One of them we know is the choke point is what?

00:10:30.800 Taiwan with 90% of the semiconductors.

00:10:33.020 We all know how much control they have and how everybody has ships around that area to protect Taiwan, Japan, U.S., you know, and then China's flying jets constantly to make sure no one's messing with that because they eventually want to find a way to have control over it.

00:10:46.820 This is the last one that we have to talk about, and it's the Strait of Malacca.

00:10:52.340 Rob, can you tap in the Strait of Malacca?

00:10:54.400 Strait of Malacca is by far the most important straight to China.

00:11:00.320 Nothing is more important than the Strait of Malacca.

00:11:02.920 If you go to map, I'm trying to see which map to use that shows it.

00:11:08.120 Just go to the, yeah, that's a good one, Rob.

00:11:10.280 Click on that and go to the site.

00:11:12.540 Yeah, Strait of Malacca is probably the one no one is talking about.

00:11:17.000 Look at mainland China to the right, okay, up top, okay, right there.

00:11:21.400 Strait of Malacca is right there on the bottom.

00:11:23.240 If you go to Malaysia and they don't have it too zoomed in, 0.98

00:11:27.440 all the way that small little island at the tail end between Indonesia.

00:11:31.160 Indonesia, Indonesia's the bottom one, okay? 1.00

00:11:34.000 Go to south of Malaysia, Rob.

00:11:36.680 Go to south of Malaysia. 0.89

00:11:37.900 Go to Malaysia. 0.98

00:11:39.060 You see where Malaysia's at? 1.00

00:11:40.360 Right there.

00:11:41.260 No, you're right there.

00:11:42.080 Just put the arrow on Malaysia. 1.00

00:11:44.480 See that land to the left?

00:11:46.620 Right there.

00:11:47.140 That's Indonesia. 0.67

00:11:48.440 That's Indonesia. 0.67

00:11:49.700 So Malaysia gets $7 billion a year from that strait in revenue.

00:11:54.340 Indonesia only gets $3 billion a year.

00:11:56.320 But that small little island, Singapore, that you can barely see,

00:12:00.040 gets 15 billion dollars of revenue and they know if anybody wanted to make china's life a living 0.97

00:12:06.400 hell that's the one you mess with and china knows that so to me in the negotiation where trump's

00:12:12.500 talking to china you don't think trump knows that straight of malacca is the china probably doesn't 0.99

00:12:17.620 want any attention on straight of malacca yeah any so if i'm talking and trump's talking the way he's

00:12:24.520 talking i don't know but i would kind of drop it in there and i would kind of give a hint and say

00:12:28.740 Hey, let's not, by the way, you know how much money goes through it every year?

00:12:31.280 You know what the number is?

00:12:32.320 $3.5 trillion, 94,000 vessels a year go through this area.

00:12:38.040 $3.5 trillion.

00:12:39.480 So it's not like, I don't know what the number is, some 30%, 35% goes through this area.

00:12:44.900 35%, go back to the number you had right there, Rob.

00:12:48.480 What did it say?

00:12:49.140 In 2024, 35% of oil transported by sea and 20% of gas flow through the strait.

00:12:56.500 35 more than a third goes through this so to me if they're talking threats behind closed doors

00:13:03.120 and i trust trump's team has talked about this probably immensely with them but we haven't heard

00:13:09.500 this name a lot we haven't heard this name a lot this is something china wants nobody to pay 0.92

00:13:17.680 attention to this is a place china wants nobody to be talking about so to me while all this

00:13:23.040 negotiation behind closed doors are going on i wonder how much if this thing gets a little bit 0.98

00:13:27.700 deeper and china plays a little bit of an asshole move and tries to come and help iran with the 0.99

00:13:32.240 strait of hormones i wouldn't be surprised if america goes out there and does something 0.99

00:13:35.360 not anything to this area but dangling something saying hey don't forget we know how much important

00:13:40.720 this area to you is you better not be acting too crazy knowing trump behind closed doors in his own

00:13:45.840 way he may do that i don't know so we'll see we'll see don't you think that one of the reasons they

00:13:50.660 Trump delayed the meeting with Xi

00:13:53.340 was to get this Iran conflict resolved.

00:13:55.620 He wanted to go over there in a position of strength

00:13:57.460 and power and say, look, look at what

00:13:59.540 we did with Iran. Iran was supposed to be 0.96

00:14:01.460 this major country, major ally.

00:14:04.680 We've heard endlessly

00:14:05.560 about their ability to inflict harm all across

00:14:07.640 the region, all across everywhere.

00:14:09.460 We took care of them in about a month.

00:14:12.200 We can do that to Iran. 1.00

00:14:13.900 Don't mess with us in all these other different

00:14:15.500 places. I think that's what Trump was thinking.

00:14:17.160 But let me tell you, Besson says

00:14:19.440 it's got nothing to do with any of this stuff like it didn't get delayed because they're not

00:14:23.840 willing to play ball that's what Scott Besson said he's supposed to say that Rob you want to

00:14:26.860 play this clip you know we will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled but what I do want

00:14:34.660 to parse and there's a false narrative out there that if the meetings are delayed it wouldn't be

00:14:40.300 delayed because the president's demanded that China police the straits of her boots it would 1.00

00:14:46.620 Because there was a report out to that effect this morning.

00:14:49.320 That's completely false.

00:14:51.000 So if the meeting, for some reason, is rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics.

00:14:57.320 The president wants to remain in D.C. to coordinate the war effort.

00:15:03.320 And that traveling abroad at a time like this may not be.

00:15:09.000 I think they're talking right now, to be honest.

00:15:10.820 But do you agree? Do you agree with Scott? Do you agree 50-50 with Scott?

00:15:14.400 What, that this isn't the reason that he's not going?

00:15:16.300 Do you agree 50% that the reason to not go is because the calls didn't go well as planned and, hey, let's delay it?

00:15:22.440 And do you agree the other 50% this is not the time to travel?

00:15:25.180 Do you give both sides a little bit of credit that's probably happening?

00:15:27.760 I do, yeah.

00:15:28.400 What do you think?

00:15:29.500 No, I think this is Trump playing power politics.

00:15:33.500 Again, my whole framework is this is Cold War II.

00:15:36.480 You go to Cold War II, you go to Xi Jinping in a position of strength.

00:15:41.100 You go to them after you got the Iran thing bottled up and say,

00:15:43.820 look, we took out Venezuela, Cuba's next, Panama Canal,

00:15:48.220 we've done all of these things.

00:15:49.240 Now Iran, we're negotiating on our terms. 0.93

00:15:52.280 Even though I'm in your country visiting you,

00:15:54.340 we're negotiating on our terms.

00:15:55.540 I think that's the over.

00:15:56.600 And Taiwan's a friend.

00:15:57.760 And keep in mind that one thing that the Strait of Hormuz

00:16:02.860 and the war with Iran has almost taken off the table as a topic

00:16:06.720 that no one's talking about right now.

00:16:08.720 Taiwan?

00:16:09.360 No, tariffs.

00:16:10.420 you know and and the court saying you got to pay back the 193 billion dollars in tariffs and said

00:16:15.200 oh it's going to take yours not really we want the money back now and they're kind of pushing

00:16:19.360 the judges say no you guys gotta so so to me he's going there to china at a time that tariffs didn't

00:16:25.400 rule for him it ruled against him so you need to get a position of strength i go there i agree with

00:16:30.840 jeff i think i think there's i think there's a part of it that and by the way i i would do the

00:16:35.980 same thing like yeah no not right now guys you don't want to but again to me straight of malacca

00:16:41.300 is very important to china yeah i want to know what hurts you okay and i'm gonna remember i'm

00:16:47.980 gonna go back to our nice quote from our friendly general back in the days no friend ever served me

00:16:54.720 no enemy ever wronged me whom i have not repaid in full trump right now is watching to see who's

00:17:02.500 an enemy who's a friend or you don't want to help us no either way we're going to repay you in full

00:17:08.540 whatever it is good or bad you choose whether you want to be a friend and an enemy we're not going

00:17:13.580 to forget okay we're not going to forget so anyways we'll see what's going to happen here

00:17:16.960 uh i don't think it's going away uh uh this you know iran strait of hormuz all this stuff that

00:17:22.820 we're talking about i do want to talk to you guys about something a lot of you guys dm me and message

00:17:26.820 me and say hey you know how do i become a member of the cigar lounge the boardroom that you have

00:17:31.160 here last night i can't tell you how many people were here watching the great game of venezuela

00:17:37.220 against u.s when bryce harper hit the home run i mean it was beautiful and i was i'm like this is

00:17:44.320 the moment my son dylan called it that he was gonna hit the home run he hit the home run but

00:17:49.220 then we fell one short and the score ended up being three two uh congratulations to venezuela

00:17:55.240 I know how much this means to Venezuela.

00:17:56.860 Venezuela's had a great 2026.

00:17:59.460 Some may call it the greatest year, 90 days Venezuela's had in 20, 30, 40 years 0.96

00:18:05.900 is what people are talking about, the way they're celebrating.

00:18:08.740 So congrats to the Venezuelan team.

00:18:10.940 As much as I was rooting for America, I want a judge to hit that home run 1.00

00:18:14.820 and have that victory, but you got to recognize it.

00:18:17.640 A ton of people were here watching it.

00:18:20.260 You know, just yesterday I did a podcast with Joey Merlino here.

00:18:23.340 the allegedly, Rob, we have to say this correctly,

00:18:26.940 the allegedly boss of the Philadelphia Crime Family.

00:18:30.140 That podcast will come out.

00:18:31.700 We had Eric Trump here.

00:18:33.400 We've had Stephen A. Smith here.

00:18:34.560 We had Tate here.

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00:18:37.940 So if you want to be a member, it's by invitation only.

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Valuetainment - March 18, 2026

“Trump's Playing POWER Politics” - Xi Meeting SCRAPPED As Trump Focuses On Iran War

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