Trump says he has "the best plan ever" to end Iran war

0:01 That's breaking news.

0:02 Our cameras and crews at the White House where President Donald Trump

0:04 participates in an event for maternal health one day after Mother's Day.

0:08 He's taking questions from reporters.

0:10 Here's what he had to say just a few minutes ago.

0:12 Mr.

0:12 You mentioned that you'd be meeting with the generals on Iran.

0:16 You rejected a deal from Iran this weekend.

0:19 Can you tell us anything about that proposal and what,

0:21 if any, efforts you've made to break this gap?

0:24 It was just unacceptable.

0:26 You know, a lot of people said, "Well,

0:29 does he have a plan?" And yes, of course I do.

0:30 I have I have the best plan ever.

0:32 Iran has been defeated militarily, totally.

0:35 Uh they have a little left.

0:36 They probably built up during this period of time.

0:39 We'll knock that out in about a day.

0:41 But I have a plan.

0:42 You know, it's a very simple plan.

0:44 I don't know why you don't say it like it is.

0:46 Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

0:49 They're very dangerous.

0:50 They're very volatile.

0:52 It's a uh a terrible thing that's happened over there.

0:55 They've killed 42,000 people uh in the last 2 months.

0:59 42,000.

1:00 At least that's what we know of.

1:02 42,000 people.

1:03 They killed numerous people over the last week.

1:06 But they killed 42,000 people a month ago, a month and a half ago.

1:12 They were uh unarmed protesters.

1:15 Not at all violent protesters.

1:17 And they started taking them out, shooting them.

1:20 So, we're not going to let them.

1:21 That's the plan.

1:22 You know, people say, "What's the plan?" The plan is very simple.

1:25 The blockade, first of all, was a part of military genius,

1:31 just like Venezuela was military genius.

1:33 We have the greatest military in the world by far.

1:36 And uh we're stocked up with great ammunition.

1:38 We have much better stuff than we did uh

1:41 2 months ago when we first did the attack, which knocked them for a loop.

1:45 But uh very simple.

1:47 Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

1:50 They can't have it.

1:51 And if they did have it, the Middle East would be gone.

1:53 Israel would be gone.

1:54 And they'd hit Europe probably next.

1:57 We're doing a service to the world.

1:59 And this has gone on for 47 years.

2:01 Other presidents and leaders of other countries

2:04 that have the power should have done it, but they didn't do it.

2:07 But it's a very simple plan.

2:09 Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon,

2:12 and they didn't and they didn't want to go that far.

2:16 If you can believe it, they didn't How stupid Are they stupid people?

2:20 They didn't want to believe it.

2:21 They think that, well,

2:22 I'll get tired of this or I'll get bored or I'll have some pressure,

2:25 but there's no pressure.

2:26 There's no pressure at all.

2:28 We're going to have a complete victory.

2:30 We've already in theory had a complete victory from the military standpoint.

2:33 The military, look, their navy is dead.

2:36 They have 150 They had 159 ships.

2:39 Right now they have zero other than the little speedboats

2:41 that go around that got taken out eight a day by us.

2:44 Uh they have no air force.

2:47 They have no anti-aircraft.

2:48 Now, they probably put the shoulder jobs

2:51 on into service over the last 3 weeks, probably.

2:57 But essentially they have no anti-aircraft, they have no radar.

3:00 And frankly their leaders have been killed at the first level,

3:03 second level, and half of the third level.

3:06 And uh then they come back and they want to negotiate.

3:10 And they give us a stupid It's a stupid proposal.

3:13 And nobody would take it.

3:14 Although Obama would have taken it, Biden would have taken it.

3:17 What they took was far worse.

3:19 So we stopped them twice.

3:20 We stopped them when they terminated the worst deal probably ever

3:23 made in the history of our country in terms of defense.

3:26 That was the uh Iran nuclear deal by Barack penned by Barack Hussein Obama.

3:32 That would have given Iran a nuclear weapon within a year.

3:36 They would have had it years ago.

3:38 I terminated that in my first term.

3:39 And then when that beautiful plane right there hit them hard,

3:44 we really hit them hard.

3:45 And they told me I want to just tell

3:47 you this because they like to say, "Oh, well,

3:49 maybe it wasn't that hard a hit." Iran told me very strongly

3:53 cuz they intend to give us the nuclear dust as I call it.

3:56 It's easier than talking about other terms cuz

3:59 it's a term everyone but the nuclear dust, which is what we hit.

4:03 Uh they told me, "Number one, you're getting it,

4:06 but you're going to have to take it out because the site was so

4:09 obliterated that there's only one or two

4:12 countries in the world that could get it.

4:15 It's so deep and got hit so hard that there's

4:18 no way they have the equipment to move it,

4:20 you and China are the only two countries in the world

4:24 that could take it out." So, we talked about it.

4:26 They said, "You'll have to take it out because

4:28 we we don't have the capability of doing it." So,

4:31 for those people that like to say that those great pilots in those great planes,

4:36 well, we just ordered 22 more of them, new and improved,

4:39 uh that those great pilots didn't do their job.

4:44 They did their job.

4:45 1:00 in the morning with no moon, no light, no nothing.

4:48 Every single bomb hit its targets.

4:50 And then, as you know, we shot uh some incredible things.

4:57 There's things that nobody else has.

4:59 Nobody has a military like we have.

5:01 We shot the Tomahawks from a submarine 200 mi away and that went on top of it.

5:07 But, every one of those, including the Tomahawks,

5:09 every one of those uh weapons and and shots hit perfectly.

5:15 And they said to me, just to put it on the record, they said to me,

5:19 "There are only two countries in the entire world that could ever get that stuff

5:23 out of there because we don't have the equipment and nobody else." They said,

5:27 "China and the United States." So, I just want to let you know,

5:31 those pilots did an unbelievable job,

5:34 very dangerous job, at 1:00 in the morning.

5:37 Think of it.

5:38 No No moon, no nothing.

5:40 We had no light, purposely.

5:43 And every single one of those bombs went right

5:45 down an air in a granite mountain that exploded.

5:50 And they are unable to get it even if they

5:53 wanted to, but we're not going to take a chance.

5:55 So, that's part of the deal.

5:56 Sir, are you saying that they agreed

5:58 to allow the removal of all their enriched uranium?

6:01 Yeah.

6:01 Yeah.

6:02 Well, they did that 2 days ago.

6:04 They didn't Okay.

6:06 They did 2 days ago.

6:08 They said, "You're going to have to take it." We were going to go with them,

6:11 but they changed their mind cuz they didn't put it in the paper.

6:14 So, when they sent us this document that we waited

6:16 4 days for, that should have taken 10 minutes to do.

6:20 Right.

6:20 It look very simple.

6:21 We get that, they guarantee no nuclear weapons for a very long period of time,

6:27 and a couple of other minor things, but they just can't get there.

6:30 So, they agree with us, and then they take it back.

6:33 But, they they said to us that it was

6:36 so badly obliterated was the word they actually used.

6:40 That was my original word that it got challenged by some of the fake news.

6:45 But, uh and it wasn't challenged with any knowledge.

6:47 It was just challenged like they were

6:49 hoping that this wouldn't have been so successful.

6:53 No, it was obliterated.

6:55 We have the greatest military in the world.

6:58 They built it largely in my first term,

7:00 and I didn't know I'd be using it quite this much in my second term.

7:05 But, very simply, uh when they say, "Does he have a plan?" Yeah, I have a plan.

7:10 The plan is very simple.

7:11 You know, in war you have to change.

7:13 You have to be flexible.

7:14 You have a lot of plans, but you have to do different plans in different days.

7:17 But, I have a great plan.

7:19 But, the plan is they they cannot have a nuclear weapon,

7:22 and they didn't say that in their letter.

7:25 Mr.

7:25 President, given the changes that you've talked about in Iran,

7:30 is this still a leadership that you believe you

7:32 can negotiate with and ultimately reach a peace deal?

7:35 think so.

7:35 Well, you have two.

7:36 You have the moderates, and you have the lunatics.

7:39 And I think the moderates are more respected.

7:43 The lunatics want to fight till the end, you know.

7:46 There will be a very It'll be a very quick fight.

7:49 But you I call them you have just like our country.

7:52 We have lunatics, too.

7:53 We have I call them lunatics.

7:56 I call them stupid people, too.

7:59 But in Iran they have the moderates that dying to make a deal and then you have

8:02 the lunatics and I guess they're a little bit

8:04 afraid of the lunatics, but uh and why not?

8:08 The uh the level of ferocity for protest, you know,

8:13 the the people are watching and they want to go out on the streets.

8:16 They have no weapons.

8:17 They have no guns.

8:18 Uh we thought the Kurds were going to give us weapons,

8:20 but the Kurds disappointed us.

8:22 The Kurds take take take.

8:24 Uh they have a great reputation in Congress.

8:26 Congress says, "Oh, they fight so hard." No, they fight hard when they get paid.

8:30 So, I'm very disappointed in the Kurds,

8:33 but uh they were given I I said it wasn't going to work, by the way.

8:37 I just have to say it.

8:38 I I I disagree with what they did.

8:40 They gave it and I said, "They'll never get there." And I was right.

8:44 I like to be right.

8:45 In this case, too bad, but uh we sent some guns with ammunition and uh

8:52 they were supposed to be delivered, but they kept it.

8:53 I said, "They're going to keep it." But what what do I know?

8:57 I've only been doing this a short period of time.

8:59 What do I know?

8:59 Mr.

9:00 President, for the time being the ceasefire remains in place.

9:03 What?

9:02 For the time being the ceasefire remains in place.

9:05 Uh it's it unbelievably weak.

9:08 How do we say?

9:09 I would call it the weakest right now.

9:13 After reading that piece of garbage they sent us,

9:15 I didn't even finish reading it.

9:17 I said, "I'm not going to waste my time reading it."

9:19 Uh I would say it's one of the weakest right now.

9:23 It's on life support.

9:24 They understand.

9:24 These are all medical people.

9:27 Uh Dr.

9:27 Oz, life support is not a good thing.

9:29 Do you agree?

9:30 Bad prognostic.

9:31 I would say the ceasefire is on massive

9:33 life support where the doctor walks in and says,

9:38 "Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living." Yeah.

9:44 Mr.

9:44 President, Daniel, go ahead.

9:47 One of the best reporters in Washington.

9:49 Thank you, sir.

9:50 Dr.

9:50 Oz referenced this a little earlier.

9:51 Two questions on health care, if I can.

9:53 The Council of Economic Advisers released

9:55 a report saying that the most favored nation

9:57 drug deals will generate about $529 billion

10:01 in domestic savings over the next 10 years.

10:15 Most favored nation drug deals are

10:16 the Republicans' golden ticket to the midterms.

10:20 I think the Republicans should walk away with the midterms.

10:22 Now, typically, whoever is president, they vote the other way.

10:26 Nobody knows this.

10:28 Do we have a psychiatrist in the group?

10:31 [laughter]

10:30 Nobody knows why, cuz I think we've had the best president.

10:33 A lot of people have said,

10:34 even some radical left lunatics have said that we've had the best presidency,

10:39 the best first year of any president.

10:40 Look, I stopped eight wars, got the largest tax cuts in history,

10:43 the largest regulation cuts in history,

10:45 all the things we've done, so many like all of this that we've done.

10:49 Medically, we've done so much.

10:51 Um, you know, we did a thing called right to try

10:54 in my first and I could never understand it when I was a civilian,

10:58 which wasn't so long ago.

10:59 I haven't been doing it that long,

11:00 but I I always used to marvel at the fact that if they had a great

11:04 drug and it had to go through the FDA and the FDA guarded it and said,

11:10 "You can't use it." And if a person was

11:12 terminally ill and the drug was showing great promise,

11:16 the person terminally ill,

11:17 they wouldn't give it to the person cuz they didn't want to hurt the person.

11:21 And I said, "Well, we need something on that." And it was very important

11:24 to me and I had no idea it would be so hard to get, but we got it in total.

11:28 We got it in full.

11:29 It's called right to try.

11:31 That if you're terminally ill,

11:33 you have the right to try a drug that has not gone even anywhere near final.

11:39 If it shows even a little promise, and we've saved thousands of lives.

11:43 It was very hard to get because the insurance companies didn't want it,

11:45 the doctors didn't want it cuz the doctors didn't want to be blamed.

11:49 Uh the drug companies didn't want it cuz if it didn't work,

11:53 they didn't want it on their record.

11:54 So, what we did is we said we're not going to count it on your record.

11:58 If somebody's terminally ill and they take the drug doesn't work,

12:00 we're not going to count it on your We'll have another record,

12:03 you know, a little smaller one that not a lot of people

12:05 look at, but we're not going to count it on your record.

12:07 So, right to try is is been one of the great successes.

12:11 Again, nobody talks about it.

12:12 We've saved thousands of lives but you know what is maybe even more important?

12:18 We've learned very quickly that some drugs work and some drugs don't.

12:21 In other words, some drugs take a person who's terminally ill

12:26 and and there are numerous cases and without waiting 7 years,

12:31 10 years we we By the way, we think we've cut it in half,

12:33 but but you do need a period of time.

12:36 Without waiting many, many years,

12:39 we know the drug works because we've taken people that were dead.

12:43 We had a person given the last rites.

12:46 God, the kids are crying and and started

12:50 them on this drug and the person became better.

12:54 It works, you know?

12:55 And some don't work.

12:57 But you learn really fast.

12:58 It's called the ultimate test, I think, right?

13:00 You know, they test all these things.

13:02 They use animals all over the place.

13:05 They use everything to test.

13:07 Piece of person's going to die.

13:08 So, they didn't want it because they didn't want to be sued for, you know,

13:13 the drug companies didn't want to be sued if it didn't work.

13:15 The country didn't want to be sued.

13:17 So, I got everybody into a room and I said

13:19 we're going to do this, but if anybody uses it, they have to sign a document.

13:23 It's not a very strong document that they're not going to sue the doctor,

13:26 they're not going to sue the country.

13:29 They're not going to sue the manufacturer, the pharmaceutical company.

13:32 They're not going to sue anybody.

13:33 But we're going to give it a shot.

13:35 It has been right to try has been so successful.

13:37 It's been amazing.

13:39 Nobody talks about it, but everyone knows how successful

13:42 there was a young man that we visited on actually

13:45 in Los Angeles who's taking advantage of this program.

13:47 Katie actually spoke to him by phone.

13:48 He's from Alabama.

13:50 That he reached out to you directly

13:51 and this is the same program that benefited him.

13:53 And just to put numbers on the Council of Economic Advisers,

13:56 it's between, you know,

13:57 500 and whatever it was,

13:58 30 million that you said and 700 billion dollars in savings.

14:01 So, we estimate at 600 billion dollars in total savings.

14:04 And the impact on the American people, Mr.

14:06 President, is one in three Americans leave a drugstore

14:08 without their medication because they can't afford it.

14:11 They may know they had a doctor's prescription,

14:12 they know they can make a difference in their lives.

14:14 That will no longer happen with the most favored nation drug pricing.

14:17 And we're giving drugs like the the which as you call it,

14:20 the fat shot, the weight loss drugs to to all beneficiaries of Medicare.

14:24 Every senior American can get them for $50 starting on July 1st.

14:28 These are just inconceivably good prices and they're so good in fact

14:32 that we actually save the taxpayer money

14:33 by reducing the downstream effects of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

14:37 Mr.

14:37 President, all possible because you took brave action.

14:40 And again, the quick question we should be asking ourselves

14:41 is why did that why didn't this happen a decade ago?

14:44 Katie, what do you think about that young man?

14:45 That he is um he has a a new lease on hope and it's because of you.

14:50 I talked to his parents and they said,

14:52 "We feel so good about our country that we literally have the president and Dr.

14:57 Oz and Secretary Kennedy doing everything possible to give

15:00 our son a fighting chance." They said before,

15:02 you know, no one was listening.

15:04 Uh but you, Mr.

15:05 President, took action and uh Will Roberts said he

15:08 that is such a he is such a great young man.

15:10 He's inspired so many people.

15:12 Nobody talks about thousands of people,

15:14 but but it's also it's like this incredible

15:17 laboratory is of people that are they're finished,

15:21 they're terminally ill, they're not going to live.

15:24 And we weren't given And this went on for years.

15:26 You know, this went on Madam Secretary,

15:29 you're doing such a good job with prices, agriculture.

15:33 How's the beef doing?

15:33 We got to get the beef down.

15:35 We're We're working on it.

15:36 It's the only thing.

15:36 We got to get the beef down.

15:38 But

15:38 It's becoming more affordable.

15:39 was this was so incredible because and I marveled at it for 30 years of saying,

15:46 "Why?" I'd have friends that were terminally ill.

15:50 You'd meet people.

15:51 They were really in bad shape.

15:53 They weren't going to make [clears throat] it.

15:54 And they couldn't get a drug that looked like it was going to work.

15:56 They couldn't get it.

15:57 I They asked me to get it.

15:59 You have contacts here.

16:00 Could you get it?

16:02 Couldn't get it.

16:02 You go to jail if you get And they were going to die.

16:05 They'd die 3 weeks later, 4 weeks later.

16:08 And we're saving a lot of people that were gone that were terminally ill.

16:11 And and what we're doing is producing almost immediately You You know,

16:15 you can almost immediately approve these drugs.

16:18 But it was very You know, look,

16:19 legally it was a disaster because everybody would be sued.

16:22 The problem is somebody would die, and then they blame the drug,

16:25 and then the drug company gets sued,

16:26 the doctors, the country gets sued, you know, a member of the family goes crazy,

16:31 and and you're settling for millions of dollars because you

16:35 killed somebody that was going to be dead in 2 weeks.

16:37 So, I did that, and I'm very proud of it.

16:40 The other day, a doc- a doctor mentioned the uh fat drug.

16:44 So, think of it.

16:46 $87 it would sell in London,

16:49 and $1,300 in New York for the exact same box made I

16:56 won't name the company made by the same company in the same facility.

17:01 $87 in London, $87 in Heidelberg, $87 in Paris, $1,370 It's true.

17:13 in New York.

17:14 And this went on for a long time.

17:17 And I will say you know he could be a famous guy.

17:19 He's begging me not to release his name.

17:24 [laughter]

17:22 He's a very highly neurotic, very fat sort of a fatslob I would call him,

17:27 but he's he's a brilliant man.

17:29 We know many of those people.

17:31 He's a brilliant guy actually, but he said "President,

17:35 what the hell's going on here?" He didn't need the money.

17:38 He's rich as hell, but he he just couldn't

17:40 understand why he had to pay so little in London.

17:42 He went to London and he couldn't understand it.

17:45 He said "This is crazy." And it actually motivated

17:48 me in a certain way cuz he was very smart.

17:50 He He did a study.

17:51 He actually sent his people and he traced this medicine and he found out

17:57 it was the box here is the same box as he had in New York.

18:00 It was it made in the same plant and it cost

18:03 you know 10 times more here than it did in London.

18:06 And and that that there are worse stories than that.

18:10 And I said that's it.

18:11 It's over.

18:12 We're going to do it.

18:12 That got me really motivated.

18:15 He's begging me not to release his name because he is a well-known person.

18:19 And I so destroyed his reputation in terms of his physicality

18:24 that he just doesn't want I said you know you've

18:27 had a big impact on medicine because you got you got

18:30 to be better than any normal person could have you know.

18:33 He said "No, I don't want to." Okay, yeah.

18:37 You're listening to the president of the United States

18:39 moments ago at that maternal health event where he

18:42 opened up questions from reporters We got a wide

18:45 range of answers on a wide range of topics,

18:48 but CBS News correspondent Natalie Brand listening in at the White House.

18:51 Natalie, let's talk about the ceasefire that's

18:54 on massive live support as the president says.

18:57 What does that mean as we go into a new week in talks to end the war in Iran?

19:04 Yeah, hi Reed.

19:04 That was a big headline out of this ongoing Q&A with the president.

19:09 We don't exactly know what it means other than

19:11 the president again saying that the ceasefire is on life support,

19:16 massive life support, he said.

19:18 Now, he didn't say it was over, but the question that remains is,

19:22 you know, what are the next steps here?

19:24 The president did go into a little bit more details about

19:28 why he viewed Iran's response to the US peace proposal as unacceptable.

19:35 He indicated that, you know,

19:37 Iran just did not go far enough on on the nuclear issues,

19:41 and that's something that he also talked to our Nancy

19:45 Cordes about this morning ahead of this on camera appearance.

19:50 She asked him, you know, did Iran make any concessions on nuclear issues?

19:55 And he said they did, but they did not go nearly far enough.

20:00 And in this on camera appearance,

20:02 when he was asked about, you know, the Iranian response,

20:06 he said that he reiterated Iran cannot have a nuclear

20:10 weapon and said that they didn't want to go that far.

20:13 He also seemed to suggest that Iran had at one point signaled that it

20:20 would allow the US to remove the enriched uranium that is still in Iran,

20:25 and then they seemed to change their mind on that point.

20:28 So, some of these key sticking points seem to remain, but again,

20:33 a lot more detail about why he did not like Iran's latest response.

20:38 And again, you know, saying that the ceasefire,

20:42 this fragile ceasefire, is on massive life support.

20:45 So, we've seen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on CBS in recent hours,

20:49 also holding that firm firm opinion and belief

20:53 that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,

20:55 even getting in to the amount of weapons-grade

20:59 uranium that Iran, he says, still has.

21:01 What kind of coordination is the president

21:02 having with the Israeli Prime Minister on that?

21:07 Yeah, well, obviously, uh you know,

21:09 this from the start has been a joint operation and um you know,

21:13 if you talk to both leaders, they would say that they're in close contact.

21:17 It was interesting in that new interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, you know,

21:22 the Prime Minister said that that's the reason why this operation

21:25 is not over because there is still nuclear material in Iran.

21:30 And you know, on the Iranian side,

21:32 the latest statements that we're seeing from their military forces

21:36 and the foreign ministry is that they are guarding that enriched uranium,

21:41 that they believe, you know, that this is their right uh to enrich,

21:46 uh and they don't seem to be backing down from that sticking point.

21:50 Now, the president uh again in this Q&A uh seemed to allude

21:54 again to the fractures or the divisions

21:56 within uh Iranians' uh current government, the different leaders,

22:00 the hardliners uh versus the more moderates,

22:04 and saying that that still, you know,

22:05 continues to be a source of of challenge and difficulty

22:09 in trying to reach uh a negotiated agreement here.

22:14 Well, and part of the impact of this war on the American people,

22:17 of course, is the pain at the pump.

22:19 The president was asked about gas prices a moment ago and perhaps how to give

22:24 us a little bit of ease when we go to gas up our cars.

22:26 Let's listen to that and then talk about it on the other side, Natalie.

22:31 Uh yeah, I'm going to uh reduce until the Look at it.

22:35 As soon as this is over with Iran, as soon as it's over,

22:39 you're going to see uh gasoline and oil drop like a rock.

22:44 Going to be dropping down like a rock.

22:47 I mean, it already, look.

22:49 Just on the basis of You know, things have happened.

22:53 When it first came about, uh 20% of the oil came out of Hormuz.

22:59 That's a lot.

23:01 But you know, with time it's like they're going to Texas.

23:06 They're going to Louisiana.

23:07 They're going to Alaska, a lot of Alaska.

23:09 Alaska's, you know, sort of it seems like very far away from the from Asia,

23:14 but it's actually a relatively short trip by comparison

23:19 to other locations they have to go to to get oil.

23:21 And uh they're going to Alaska.

23:24 In fact, our big problem is we're building bigger docks,

23:27 docking, you know, dock to fill up.

23:29 But, we have uh we've become very big on the filling station.

23:33 We're big filling station.

23:35 And what's happening is when this first when people heard about losing Hormuz,

23:41 they said, "Oh, this is it's genius.

23:45 They're finding other locations." And some of those people, I spoke to them,

23:49 companies and countries,

23:51 some of those people are going to continue to go to Texas.

23:53 They like it better.

23:54 They said it's an extra 45 minutes.

23:57 They like it better.

23:59 And it's sort of amazing, you know, it found its way.

24:03 So, a lot of people thought, "Oh, it'll go to $250, $300." It's not.

24:07 I mean, today it's at less than a hundred.

24:09 Think of that.

24:10 Now, when this ends, you're going to see it drop like a rock.

24:15 How long are you going to suspend that tax?

24:18 All right.

24:18 So, he uses those terms, Natalie, drop like a rock,

24:21 but that is contingent on when this ends.

24:24 So, we know there are some moving pieces there, of course.

24:27 Uh the US has rejected that Iranian response, not saying exactly why,

24:31 but also the president will be meeting with President Xi in China

24:35 and talking uh about oil and Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, no?

24:43 Yeah, absolutely.

24:44 The huge impact that the effective closure

24:47 of that strait has had to global energy prices.

24:51 Particularly, uh China has been hard hit because of its

24:54 reliance on oil and energy from the Strait of Hormuz.

24:57 But back to some of the president's comments, you heard him arguing, you know,

25:02 that the the closure in the Strait has had a positive impact

25:06 on US oil producers because ships are now coming to, you know,

25:11 the United States Gulf to to fill up on oil.

25:14 However, that has not eased the the pain

25:17 at the pump that average Americans are feeling.

25:20 And in this exclusive phone call this morning with CBS News's Nancy Cordes,

25:25 uh the president seemed to uh suggest that he would like to suspend

25:30 the federal gas tax for a period of time while this continues to play out.

25:35 That's 18 cents per gallon.

25:38 Uh but important to note that suspending that tax

25:41 would require Congress to get involved as well.

25:44 Shortly after Nancy's phone call,

25:47 uh Republican Josh Hawley of Missouri, announced senator,

25:50 announced that he would be introducing legislation uh

25:54 to to suspend uh the federal gas tax.

25:56 This is something that some Democratic lawmakers have also pushed for.

26:00 So, we'll have to see uh what now that Congress,

26:03 once they return, uh whether this actually moves forward.

26:08 You know, the president,

26:09 while trying to argue that this is short-term pain for this larger

26:12 goal of making sure Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.

26:15 He's acknowledging, you know, that that average Americans are,

26:20 you know, suffering at the gas pump.

26:22 Uh in talking about this new idea to suspend the federal gas tax, Reed.

26:27 All right, I want to ask you about this breaking moments ago.

26:29 Sources tell CBS News that President Trump was uh very much

26:34 involved in approving a plan to fire the FDA director, Marty Makary.

26:38 What can you tell us about that little bit of breaking news?

26:44 Yeah, this is a report uh first

26:46 by the Wall Street Journal that CBS News has confirmed

26:49 that it appears the president has signed off

26:51 on a plan uh to fire the FDA director.

26:55 Although, you know, we have not heard any details about the timing.

27:00 The president's been asked about this and he's not answered directly.

27:04 It doesn't appear as though, from what I heard,

27:06 that the president has not been asked about this this morning as of yet.

27:11 This follows some clashes over health issues including vaping and some others.

27:18 Uh Uh Dr.

27:20 McCary was MAHA, Make America Healthy Again, advocate.

27:26 But, you know, his tenure so far has at times been a bit tumultuous.

27:31 So, we'll have to wait and see whether this does actually,

27:34 you know, go forward with the administration firing him.

27:39 Again, timing unknown.

27:41 Uh the caveat is that the president could always change his mind and, you know,

27:45 health experts and contributors at CBS have also,

27:49 you know, pointed out the issue of vacancies

27:52 within HHS and this would add to them.

27:55 All right.

27:55 Natalie Brand showing us proof that our White House reporters have to be ready

27:59 on a moment's notice to give a master class in a wide range of subjects.

28:03 Thank you so much.

28:04 Good to talk to you.