Stocks Reverse On Trump Comments And Oil’s Next Move After Spike Above $100/Barrel 3/9/26

20:52Tim Seymour:I mean, the range is remarkable today. Paul, great to see you. Yeah. Paul Sankey, Sankey Research. So the message sounds like we're just the markets are underestimating the impact of the oil disruption.

21:04Melissa Lee:Yeah, no doubt. But it's away from oil, too. I mean, the Iranians hit two data centers, two Amazon data centers in UAE. You know, and you were talking about the infrastructure. Obviously, that's really important, too. So when you just think about, you know, this is some of these cities have become really popular. Abu Dhabi, Dubai. I mean, these are like huge centers of finance. You know, they've been reoriented in many ways from London. And so when you have this sort of disruption, I don't think it's coming back anytime soon. So I just think that there's a lot of reverberations that are probably really hard to price right now.

21:34You know, I started off as an equity energy trader. And if you look at Carter said this the other day, that if you look at the actual stocks, they flattened out. They were telling you something before the news media or the news headlines caught up to it. I don't think it's the time to buy energy equities right now. Now, I think oil, if it goes down to 60, I think the world and the United States are going to be very grateful of that level. So I'll look forward to that.

21:59Tim Seymour:Coming up, the outlook on Claude, the latest on the AI deal between Microsoft and Anthropic and what it means for rival OpenAI. That's next. And speaking of joining forces, Novo Nordisk and him and her is lightening the load together. How the companies settle a long-running dispute and hope to pack a punch in the weight loss drug space. Don't go anywhere. Fast Money is back in two.

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23:55Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Microsoft launching Co-Pilot Cowork, a new enterprise tool integrating Anthropics Cloud Cowork AI into Microsoft's existing AI assistant, the new model designed to run multi-step workflows that are more complex than what Co-Pilot currently provides. Microsoft closing just above the flatline today. shares are down 15 % year to date. It's almost like meeting, I don't know, like you're acknowledging that there's some kind of threat to your business. So you might as well join forces here.

24:23Melissa Lee:Well, we've been talking about the frenemy situation with Microsoft and OpenAI going back, you know, two, three years or so. And when you think about, you know, what Claude's co-work or Anthropic co-work really did to a whole host of different industries over the last month or so, it makes perfect sense. I mean, the perception of this, you know, and the perception that it's better than codecs that OpenAI has. And so now all of a sudden, if you are a 365 user at Microsoft and you have the ability within Copilot to choose the model you want to use, using it within the infrastructure from a protection and security standpoint, I mean, this is a great deal for Microsoft.

24:57Melissa Lee:And we think about what they're trying to do with Azure, attracting enterprise customers that giving them more choice at a time where Copilot has not seen a huge uptake. When we saw the numbers that they gave us in their last quarterly call, there was two ways to look at it. You could say, wow, that's pathetic. They only had 15 million users. Or you could say they have hundreds of millions of users globally, and the better this product gets, it's going to be a massive opportunity for them.

25:20Tim Seymour:Were you silver linings, Dan, on that?

25:22Melissa Lee:I'm always silver linings, Mel. I mean, like, so just, you know, but my point is— I don't think you know what silver lining means. But you also just said this, that the stock's down like this. I think there's a very unique opportunity in Microsoft to start lagging into this. I think the narrative could start to change. Google took the mantle, and I think, you know, there's a good chance that Microsoft could take it back.

25:40Tim Seymour:The security aspect, I think that is key here. I think to your earlier point about it wasn't working before, right? So why not say, all right, it's not working. We've got to try something else. And this seems like a very good thing to try. I sort of agree with Dan. Sort of? Well, you know, I'm not used to silver lining sunshine Dan. No one is. It's a beautiful day. I'm used to Oscar the Grouch kind of Dan. Yeah, that's sort of, if you were a Muppet, that's the one you would do. Some people call me a Muppet.

26:08Melissa Lee:Go look at the Twitter. How's that Muppet on the desk? How's that Muppet on this? Yeah, I got it. But I think I agree with you. It hasn't been this direct for a while. I think this is interesting. Yeah, I mean, given the backdrop that you provided, essentially looking at all of the disruption that this caused within the software space, why not defend the fort, bring it in-house? And, you know, you talked on it a little bit, but, like, just to expand a little bit, the transition into Azure and essentially making sure that you have the enterprise spend up there allows them to be the de facto landlord in this whole transition that we're having here.

26:42So for me, it's one, essentially kind of, yes, it is an implicit acknowledgement that perhaps we have some fears that our software stack could be disrupted. On the other hand, it's saying, okay, well, this is likely going to continue. We want them using our cloud. So let's go on ahead and just entrench ourselves there and ultimately end up with a stronger position. If you look at the technicals on this, the rest of my co-panelists, so does everyone else cover the fundamentals of it? If you look at the technicals of it, we go back to the May 2025 level. Just stop a gallon. It gets$400. Take a pick right here.

27:17Tim Seymour:There's a lot more Fast Funding to come. Here's what's coming up next. Dropping pounds and gaining returns.

27:23Melissa Lee:Why Novo Nordisk is changing its tune with him's and hers and how the two stocks reacted to the partnership. Plus, travel woes hitting the nation's busiest airports, as the partial government shutdown and security shortages add hours to wait times, the airlines being impacted, and whether there's an end in sight. You're watching Fast Money, live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this.

27:56Fast Money

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29:28Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. HIMSS and HER are soaring 40 % for the stock's best day on record. The telehealth company partnering with Novo Nordisk to bring Ozempic and Wegovi to the platform while still offering compounded semaglutide on a limited scale. Novo also dropping its lawsuit against HIMSS over what the company called mass illegal compounding of the active ingredient in its GLP-1 drugs. Novo shares higher by 3%. We should note that Novo still reserves the right to bring new suits should there be some sort of a breach of this agreement. But you're commenting on it. I mean, it's a fascinating move by HIMSS and HERS.

30:02It's a fascinating move by both. It's essentially, you know, mortal enemies now become under one alliance. So, listen, the HIMSS situation, I think that, for one, this is definitely a win for consumers, right? These compounded drugs, regardless of what you think, they circumvent the FDA. And I think essentially think that was the core of Novo's lawsuit. I mean, clearly it was the catalyst for that is financial. But their argument there in the courtroom was essentially that, listen, you're circumventing the FDA. You're kind of attacking these consumers that don't necessarily know what they're taking.

30:35And they're, you know, the catalyst for them consuming your product is nothing but price. It's not the actual efficacy of the drug. So I think that kind of removes that situation there. And I think it's a win for Novo and that they now have, you know, a lower cost distribution. Now, does it get to the issue around margins, which is why the company, the guy down and the margins kind of erosion? I don't really know how that fixes that. So I think it's a muted win for Novo. But I do think the whole legal overhang is a net positive for both shares.

31:06Tim Seymour:Well, it might bring in some volume, which would help with lower prices. Right. I think the margin compression is going to happen either way. I think it's going to happen for Lilly as well. But I do think the TAM is gigantic and out there and there's so much more to go. So I agree with you. I think it makes sense for both of them. And having the compound is better, I think. I'm not quite sure what they're allowing on in a limited sense. Yeah, I'm not sure. So that's sort of interesting to me. They allow any. I would have thought that the deal would not allow any. But I do think it's good for both of them.

31:40And Novo at this point, valuation, you know, on the franchise is not very high. HIMSS has lost two-thirds of its value since October. So if you look at the entry point in the stock, this is as good as any. So stop yourself out. Keep it on a short leash. But I would take a flyer out on it because the next level here could be another 40 % higher. But just leave yourself a little bit of a leash to the downside because if the story falls apart, you don't want to be a part of it.

32:07Melissa Lee:Yeah, and 40 percent gains are not what they used to be. If you're down 76 percent from the all-time highs, I mean, if you look at it, it's barely a blip on the chart.

32:15Tim Seymour:But the short interest is enormous. Right, 40 percent. Not surprising, yeah. Coming up, we are waiting for President Trump's news conference in Miami. We'll bring you back live, and we'll hear from former Army General Wesley Clark on whether the Iran war could really end soon. Fast Money is back in two.

32:37Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money Stock, staging a major reversal after President Trump's comments on the Iran war nearing an end. The Dow down nearly 900 points at the low, is climbing back to gain nearly 250 points. The S &P and Nasdaq both falling as much as 1.5 percent in early trade. The S &P 500, though, ending the day up 0.8 percent. The Nasdaq jumping nearly 1.4 percent. Shares of Live Nation jumping 6 % today. The Ticketmaster parent settling an antitrust case with the DOJ and avoiding a breakup if approved. The settlement would see Ticketmaster unwind some of its exclusivity agreements with artists and open up the ticketing industry to greater competition.

33:14Tim Seymour:And some after hours action, Hewlett Packard Enterprise topping earnings estimates but coming up short on revenue expectations. And Vail Resorts missing estimates on the top and bottom lines and lowering guidance due to persistent, historically challenging weather conditions. Meanwhile, oil prices finishing sharply lower after hitting nearly$120 a barrel overnight. The swing coming after President Trump hinted that the war with Iran could be over soon, that the U.S. is very far ahead of its proposed timeline as the conflict enters its second week. We are waiting for President Trump to speak to House Republicans in Miami on a number of issues.

33:47Tim Seymour:We'll take you there live when the speech kicks off for more on the state of the Iran conflict in the meantime and a potential timeline for a resolution. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark joins us now. General, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for joining us.

34:05Tim Seymour:A couple of times in President Trump's remarks today, he called it a short-term excursion and kept using the word short-term when he was addressing House Republicans. And I'm wondering how realistic do you think that is, given what the situation is there right now, given that a new leader was just installed? President Trump can call it off anytime he chooses to. And then it's up to the Iranians to determine if they want to keep it going. They've taken a lot of damage. I think there's been a lot of hits on their ballistic capability. We haven't solved the nuke problem yet. But clearly, we've set back their military a long, long way.

34:46We've done it with a lot of targets hit, only three U.S. aircraft loss. We've had seven service members killed, and that's terrible. But there's no telling what losses the Iranians have had on this. So I think if President Trump calls it off, I think there'll be a sort of a cold, angry cessation of hostilities. But I do think that that'll get the global oil markets back to normal.

35:17Tim Seymour:Okay. I mean, that would be a good thing, particularly to consumers out there dealing with high living prices overall. But at the same time, General, if we did pull out, what kind of situation do we leave behind? Did we accomplish? And I understand that there weren't necessarily goals, clear goals set out to begin with, but have we diffused the nuclear threat at all? Have we left Iran in better hands than we started with in terms of the Supreme Leader? I mean, what has been accomplished? I think what's a concrete accomplishment is that we have set back their ballistic missile program. And their ballistic missile program was actually sufficient to really swamp the state of Israel.

36:02And after Israel had expended all of its interceptors and so forth, the Iranians, absent this, would have been able to continue to strike Israel with non-nuclear means. No, we haven't addressed the nuclear issue. And there's still 650 kilograms of enriched uranium somewhere out there. And we got rid of the leadership and a lot of the top people, but they prepared for this for a long time. And so new leaders have stepped up. I suspect the son of the former Ayatollah Khamenei is going to be pretty angry, going to seek revenge in some way. But I think it'll be a very, very angry, cold peace for at least a few months while Iran licks its wounds, tries to figure out what goes next and tries to rebuild its deterrent as it sees its deterrent.

36:54General Clark, thank you for your service. When I look at this, this has been going on for my entire life. So when you pull back the lens where you just left off there, does this make it easier for the USA to go in again six months from now? if he backs off at this juncture? Or does this make it a tougher sell six months from now? I know we're dealing with politics with the midterms. But could this be a rinse and repeat now? Because they're only as dangerous, and they'll always be as dangerous as the current leader. Yeah, it's a little bit of both. I think if we really took out a lot of their air defense, whatever was left over, we can assume it's gone.

37:38So the Chinese or the Russians have to replace that. So that leaves them still vulnerable to a repeat of this. On the other hand, they're under no doubt right now that we would come after them again. So they'll try even harder to hang on to a nuclear program. And if they can get a nuclear device, if they can do a nuclear test, if they can have something that raises their deterrent, then I think they're going to have to go for it. You know, Ayatollah Khomeini was known for saying he didn't want a nuclear weapon. He knew if he got one, he'd be attacked. Now I think the reasoning would more likely be, let's look at the case of North Korea.

38:23Let's get as much as we can, as many as we can, so we won't be attacked again.

38:30Tim Seymour:AMY GOODMAN, President Trump made some comments this afternoon also, General, that the U.S. would take over the strait. And I'm wondering, from your standpoint, is that even realistic, given, you know, maybe we've sort of disarmed Iran to some extent in terms of reducing their arsenal, but the Houthis are still out there. They've got massive drone capabilities. There are also just simply boats that can be packed with explosives that go through the strait. I mean, this is sort of the central piece of this whole thing in terms of bringing oil prices down. It is. And I see people talking about Karg Island.

39:06It has nothing to do with the strait. And it's really there's three islands there. There's a tomb, little tomb. And then there's the Abu Musa. And these three islands are part of the control. They're at least two of them are very heavily armed and they're defendable, defensible. And if we were going to take it by force, we'd have to do that. Probably have to take the north side. And those are some big high bluffs. And there's a port city there. And so you're talking about a, let's say, a U.S. Army core size objective, 30 ,000, 40 ,000 troops to go in and secure something like that with assurance.

39:46And then, you know, hold it against counterattacks and so forth. You've got air supremacy over the area. got naval supremacy. They could still release mines, and so you might have to have some special ops guys go in on the ports and do underwater demolitions and wreck their whatever watercraft they have remaining. Everything's feasible if you're willing to put the forces in and take the risk and pay the price.

40:16Tim Seymour:Yeah, at what price? General Clark, thank you so much for your time. It's always an education speaking with you. General Wesley Clark. Coming up, more disruptions at airports. TSA shortages leading to hours-long security lines at some of the nation's busiest airports. The impact it's having on the travel trade and what to know before your next flight. Fast Money is back in two.

40:44Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. travelers reporting wait times at some of the nation's busiest airports have stretched to several hours over the weekend as TSA staffing shortages continue. CNBC's Phil LeBeau has got the details. Hey, Phil. Hey, Melissa, this is what happens when you have a government shutdown and some of those TSA agents, they don't decide to report or they decide they are not going to report to work. As a result, at some airports, not all airports, some airports over the weekend And this morning, you started to see long lines. And as a result, this is what we see when we're talking about TSA staffing issues right now.

41:17The airports, in some cases, are warning travelers, hey, it's not enough to get here 60 minutes in advance. You may have to get here two or three hours ahead of time. Again, it depends on the airport. Several-hour waits are possible. We've seen that in a few places. And it's approaching spring break travel, which is peak season for the beginning of travel picking up. And as a result, people are saying, well, what's the impact for the airlines? Well, airline demand remains strong. You would look at this chart and you'd say, well, over the last week, look at how much these guys are down. I would contend with you it's not because of the TSA staffing issues.

41:50It's because of jet fuel. As jet fuel prices have surged, that's weighed on the airline stocks. And as a result, the trade has been sell the airline stocks until we have better clarity in terms of what we can expect for the first quarter, second quarter, potentially for the rest of the year. The airline index also under pressure over the last week and a half. I'm pointing this out because you see that little bit of a blip there at the end. Once we saw jet fuel come down or oil prices, I should say, come down late this afternoon, we started to see a rebound in some of the airline stocks. And this is really what's driving it, not the TSA lines.

42:26And one quick clarification, Melissa, people have said to me, well, look, we had the impact of the government shutdown last year and the airlines really took it on, you know, in the shorts because of that. The difference is that was because of air traffic controllers and flights being canceled. That's not what we're seeing right now. What we're seeing are delays because of long lines, but it's nowhere close to what we saw last year.

42:49Tim Seymour:Have the airlines actually had to adjust their schedules to allow for the longer wait times? Not to my knowledge. I think this is a case where if they can wait a little bit in some of these cases, and it's really airport by airport, Melissa. So it's hard to go to an airline and say, well, what did you do in Houston yesterday? There are going to be, look, there will be some people who may miss a flight because they do not show up in time to get through security. Hard to know at this point. But this is really more of, and I hate to use the term, an annoyance for travelers than it is a major problem for the airlines at this point.

43:27Right.

43:28Tim Seymour:Phil, thank you. Phil LeBeau. You bet. Obviously, jet fuel is a bigger annoyance in terms of it spiking on the back of Iran. Not only that, but if we think back a couple of weeks ago, we had the winter storm that we've all forgotten about. 10 ,000 flights were canceled from Sunday to Tuesday. Many of us got caught up in that. They're not making up that money either. So there's been a bunch of headwinds for the airlines. But whenever you have something that's created by fuel, you always buy the weakness. And I would be a buyer of it. Coming up, all the action in the crypto trade as Bitcoin bounces but struggles to regain the$70 ,000 level.

44:05Tim Seymour:The next move in the space and the impact on crypto related names like strategy and Coinbase or Fast Money in two.

44:21Tim Seymour:President Trump speaking after the Republican member issues conference in Miami before he heads back to Washington. Let's listen in. And I'd like to wish everyone a very good evening. And over the weekend, the United States military and the Israeli Defense Forces continued Operation Epic Fury very successfully. Over the past nine days, we've carried out some of the most powerful and complex military strikes and maneuvers the world has ever seen. Now, you add that up to all of the other things. Midnight hammer, getting rid of the nuclear threat from Iran, which was a big moment in history, in my opinion.

45:01And the great success we've had in Venezuela and all other places. Every place we've gone, we've had tremendous success. But while we're doing all of these things, we're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete. We've wiped every single force in Iran out very completely. Most of Iran's naval power has been sunk. It's on the bottom of the sea. It's almost 50 ships. I was just notified it's 51 ships. I didn't know they had that many. Didn't last very long. And these are fighting vessels. They're meant to fight, but they're not meant to fight against us.

45:50We continue to target Iran's drone and missile capabilities. Their drones are way down. Their drone manufacturing has been hit starting today. We know all of the places they manufacture the drones and they're being hit one after another. Their missile capability is down to about 10%, maybe less. We're also hitting where they make missiles and where they deliver missiles. We've struck over 5 ,000 targets to date, some of them very major targets. And we've left some of the most important targets for later in case we need to do it. If we hit them, it's going to take many years for them to be rebuilt, having to do with electricity production and many other things.

46:36So we're not looking to do that if we don't have to. But they're the kind of things that are very easy to hit, but very devastating if they are hit. We are waiting to see what happens before we hit them. We could take them all out in one day. But it's all resulting in a 90 percent decline in various things. But in particular, Iranian missile launchers and 83 percent drop in drone launchers, as you know. the drone launches are are pretty well shot but we're at over 90 percent decline in the Iranian missile launchers which is very hard to reproduce and very hard to get and usually what we were able to do through great equipment a lot of smart people as soon as they sent a missile up from a launcher, we were able to knock out that launcher within a period of five minutes or less, accurately right on the noggin.

47:37So now we have low-cost interceptors effectively combating Iranian drones, and our B-2 bombers recently dropped dozens of 2 ,000-pound bombs to destroy missile launchers all over Iran and buried deep under Iranian soil in many cases. The soil was no match. And we're also annihilating the manufacturing base that the regime uses to build drones and missiles at a rate that nobody thought was possible. We're knocking them out. We know where they all are. We're knocking them out very quickly. We're ahead of our initial timeline by a lot. I would say that we probably would not have thought after a month we'd be here.

48:19in addition to the fact that we've taken out the leadership twice and maybe three times. And we, as you know, we want to be involved. We don't want another president that maybe wouldn't be willing to do what I'm willing to do for the good of the world, for the good of our nation, to be stuck with the situation in five years or 10 years from now. So we think they should put a president in or the head of the country in that's going to be able to do something peacefully for a change. They've been doing this for 47 years, killing people for 47 years, whether it's the barracks or even the SS coal where they were involved very strongly.

48:59They always denied it, but where they were very strongly involved in all of the people that died through the roadside bombs died and are right now walking around with no legs, no arms, a face that's been so badly damaged. The Iranian regime has been attacking Americans and spreading terror for 47 years. And despite these countless opportunities to renounce their nuclear ambitions, which they had just a short while ago, they told Mr. Witkoff, who is standing right over here, they said, they actually said, we want to keep building essentially in a real nutshell we want to continue to build nuclear weapons if we didn't knock out midnight hammer if we didn't knock out their iranian potential if we didn't do that with midnight hammer they would have had a nuclear weapon they would have used it long before now and at a minimum israel would have been annihilated i was very lucky that we had the courage to do that that we had the talented pilots and the great equipment the b2 bombers are unbelievable We ordered 25 more, by the way, the newer, better version.

50:15We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world by far. You see that no matter where we go. You still need the people, though, to operate it and to use it. And those are the people that we cherish. Even after we obliterated their key nuclear sites in operation, Midnight Hammer, they never negotiated in good faith. They still continued to say we want to build nuclear. We want enrichment at levels that were unacceptable. And they even turned down an offer for unlimited free nuclear fuel forever for civilian purposes. We had people offering them free nuclear fuel.

50:55They weren't interested in that because they wanted to build a nuclear weapon. So instead, the regime was trying to reconstitute its weapons program at a different site. They couldn't go back to where they were the three sites that we obliterated But they were starting work at another site a different site different kind of a site And that was protected by granite. They wanted it protected granites pretty good, but they wanted it protected by A lot deeper. They wanted to go a lot deeper and they started the process While rapidly building conventional ballistic missiles, they were going to do it all at the same time that threatened our overseas bases and soon could have reached even our homeland.

51:39The regime's intention was to use this exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon. So as you probably saw, they had a tremendous number of missiles, most of which are now being used or destroyed and very unsuccessfully used because we have been able for the most part to shoot them all down what incredible technology the patriots have been unbelievable and other things and the laser technology that we have now is incredible it's coming out pretty soon we're literally lasers will do the work of at a lot less cost do the work of what the patriots are doing or what other things are doing the situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return and the United States found it intolerable in my opinion based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me Marco so involved that I thought that they were going to attack us I thought they would if we didn't do this at the time we did it I think they had in mind attack us and if you notice they did something which was very foolish very stupid it, I would say.

52:52They attacked their neighbors and their neighbors were largely neutral or at least weren't going to be involved. And they got attacked and it had the reverse effect. The neighbors came onto our side and started attacking them and actually quite successfully. if you look at saudi arabia you look at uae qatar and others but they were strong and they were smart but they got attacked nobody when i first heard it i said no somebody made a mistake there was no mistake uae had over a thousand missiles shot at it knocked them almost all down on the very first day i came down the escalator in 2015 i said quote, I will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

53:44And all I'm doing is keeping my promise. Think of that. That was in 2015. I said it. It was a threat then and a much bigger threat now, but no longer a threat, not for a long time anyway. We want to keep it that way as we continue Operation Epic Fury. We're also focused on keeping energy and oil flowing to the world. and I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe's oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they'll get hit at a much, much harder level. I will take out those targets that were easy and that I mentioned just before. We'll take them out so quickly.

54:24They'll never be able to recover, ever. If they want to play that game, they better not play that game. In the long run, oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat of Iranian ships, drones, missiles, nuclear menace, or anything. So the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain safe. We have a lot of Navy ships there. We have the best equipment in the world, inspecting for mines. Again, most of their ships are down at the bottom of the sea. But we will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world. They do anything.

55:08In recent years, the regime and its terror proxies have launched attacks on hundreds of commercial vessels. We're putting an end to all of this threat once and for all, and the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families. We've done that. We've done it. We brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done. We're getting very close to finishing that, too. In the meantime, during this brief disruption, the United States is offering political risk insurance to any tankers operating in the Gulf. So we're putting up risk insurance. We'll perhaps go alongside of them for protection.

55:50We don't think it'll be necessary if it is. And if they do anything, the price will be incalculable. it will be so great that they will have wished they never did it because you have to keep the straits flowing with all of that it affects other countries much more than it does the united states doesn't really affect us we have so much oil we have tremendous oil and gas much more than we need we have venezuela now is our new partner great partner they've worked out so wonderful we're working with the administration, the president, and it's a massive source of oil, gas, everything. But we're in a very good position, but very unfair to other parts of the world, like China, as an example.

56:40I mean, we're doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China. They get a lot of their oil through the straits. So we're doing this. We have a very good relationship with President Xi and China. I'm going there in a short period of time. And we're protecting the world from what these lunatics are trying to do. And very successfully, I might add, we're also waiving certain oil related sanctions to reduce prices. So we have sanctions on some countries. We're going to take those sanctions off till this straightens out. Then who knows, maybe we won't have to put them on.

57:18There'll be so much peace. but when the time comes the U.S. Navy and his partners will escort tankers through the strait if needed I hope it's not going to be needed but if it's needed we'll escort them right through and we have the greatest mind sweeping ability we have the greatest ships and all of the we know exactly where their place will get them out of there very fast but we hope we don't have any of that and again if they do that if they play that game we're going to hit them at a level that that they have not seen before. So we're winning very decisively. We're way ahead of schedule. It's our military is the greatest in the world with the greatest equipment and the greatest people in the world.

57:59There's nobody's ever seen anything like it. Iran's a very powerful country. They were going to take over the Middle East. If we did not hit them, they were going to take over the Middle East. They had thousands and thousands since their last hit. They had thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else. Most are now destroyed, but they were going to take over the Middle East. Those weapons were aimed at Middle Eastern countries that had nothing to do with this. They were going to take over the Middle East and they were going to try and destroy Israel. So we stopped it with good timing and we're very proud to be involved in this and it's going to be ended soon.

58:41And if it starts up again, they'll be hit even harder. Thank you very much for being here. Go ahead. Any questions? Thank you.

58:51Tim Seymour:Thank you so much. Do you approve of Iran's new supreme leader? And secondly, can you tell us more about your call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today? What did you discuss? Yes, I had a very good call with President Putin. We had a lot of people on the line from our side from his side we were talking about ukraine which is just the never-ending fight and when look there's tremendous hatred between president putin and president zelinski they can't seem to get it together but i think it was a positive call on that subject and we obviously talked then about the middle east and he wants to be helpful i said you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine Russia war over with that would be more helpful but we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive yeah please yeah please thank you Mr.

59:48President on Iran you called it an excursion you said it would be over soon are you thinking this week it will be over no but soon days I think so okay and and with respect very soon look everything they have is gone, including their leadership. In fact, there are two levels of leadership, and even actually, as it turns out, more than that, but two levels of leadership are gone. Most people have never even heard about the leaders that they're talking about. So it's obviously been very, very powerful, very effective. To Cuba, you said that Cuba wants to make a deal. Yes. What would the United States get in return for that?

1:00:26And why should Americans trust Marco Rubio to negotiate it? Well, Marco Rubio is doing a great job. I think he's going to go down as the greatest secretary of state in history. Look at what we've done as a presidency. Look at what we've done as an administration. They trust Marco, and so do the American people trust. He's been successful no matter where he's been. He also speaks the language, which is always nice and always helpful. but he's dealing and it may be a friendly takeover it may not be a friendly takeover it wouldn't matter because they're really in they're down to uh as they say fumes they have no energy they have no uh money they're in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis and uh we don't want to see that but they were very very bad to a lot of people as you know and a lot of people living are the Cuban American vote, which I got at record levels.

1:01:28Very important. Those people are very important to me. I know what they went through. They went through hell. Some of them have gone on to be some of the most successful people in the country. Cuban American business people, some of them are like the most successful in the country. And a lot of them are friends of mine because I've been fighting this battle with them for a long time. The Castro regime was brutal, but they lived off Venezuela and now they don't live off Venezuela sends them no energy no fuel no oil no money no nothing they lived without Venezuela they couldn't have made it and we cut them off from everything else so uh yeah we're they're gonna make either a deal or we'll do it just as easy anyway yeah please go ahead There's footage that shows that an American missile strike and a tomahawk missile likely destroyed that Iranian girl school.

1:02:23So will the Americans, will the U.S. accept any responsibility for that strike? Well, I haven't seen it. And I will say that the tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, is sold and used by other countries. You know that. And whether it's Iran, who also has some tomahawks, I wish they had more. but whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a tomahawk, a tomahawk is very generic. It's sold to other countries, but that's being investigated right now. Yeah, please. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning.

1:03:03So which is it, and how long should Americans be prepared? Well, I think you could say both. The beginning, it's the beginning of building a new country, but they certainly they have no navy they have no air force they have no anti-aircraft equipment it's all been blown up they have no radar they have no telecommunications and they have no leadership it's all gone so you know you could look at that statement we could we could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here i could call it or we could go further and we're going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days.

1:03:45We wiped them out the first in the first two days. When you think about it, it's incredible. We wiped out a big Navy, very powerful Navy. You know, these were ships. These were serious ships. These were ships that you buy when you want to win battles. They're all they're all on the bottom floor the sailors are all running off their ships they refuse to get on the ships uh the air force is gone everything's gone the missiles are down to a trickle the drones are down to probably 25 percent and they'll be soon be down to nothing we'll have the where they manufactured the drones are under fire as we speak they're being hit so the rest is going to be determination as to my attitude along with the people in the trump administration what we want to do thank you yeah please can i ask you you mentioned you're going to waive certain additional oil waivers or sanctions can you talk a little bit more about that and address in particular well we're looking to keep the oil prices down we went artificially up because of this excursion into a very positive thing.

1:04:53I mean, this was an excursion that a lot of people wouldn't have done. I knew oil prices would go up if I did this, and they've gone up probably less than I thought they'd go up, but I don't think anybody thought we were going to be this quickly successful. This was a military success the likes of which people haven't seen. We have the best military. We have the best equipment. We have, I believe, the best generals. We have the best. And this went very quickly. We talked about that with President Putin. He was very impressed with what he saw because nobody's ever seen anything quite like it. You know, Iran was a very powerful military country with all of the missiles.

1:05:36Now, you had the double attack. You had the original attack with us and Israel, and that knocked them for a loop. Then you had the B-2 bombers, which took out their nuclear capability, and they would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks to four weeks, and they would have used it long before this press conference, and we might have had a much different press conference if we had a press conference at all. But it's been amazing. The military success that we've had is truly unprecedented.

1:06:09You said you've told your congressional colleagues that you will not sign any piece of legislation until the Save America Act is passed. Does that include the confirmation of Senator Mullen as your next DHS secretary? Does that mean a DHS funding bill? And Senator Thune said today it's not a matter of whether or not your Republican colleagues agree with the policy. It's about changing the process. In other words, getting rid of the filibuster to get. So in order to get it, you're going to need Democrat votes. And what we're saying is the Save America, not the Save Act, which nobody knew what it was, the Save America Act, the Save America Act.

1:06:43And that's voter ID. We want voter ID. When a voter, we want to be able to see a picture of the voter. We want to be able to see that the voter is legitimate. We want, very importantly, confirmation that this voter is a citizen of the United States of America. and we want no mail-in ballot scams. So we have exceptions for the military, for sick, for disabled, and for people that are away, business trips or whatever. Even vacations will be very liberal in that. We've added two things to it, no men and women's sports and no transgender mutilization of our children. We don't want our, it's mutilization of our children and we don't want that.

1:07:31So we added those two things. That's the five points. We have five very good points. It polls at 86 percent with Democrats. Think of that. The overall vote is 86 percent. With Republicans, it's 98 percent. And the only one opposed to it is a Democrat leadership because they cheat. They want to cheat. So we added those two points. We're going for the gold and we're going to have to fight like hell. now certain things will happen certain things will take place i'm here to do a great job for the country but we don't have a country if we're going to have elections that are so corrupt and so dishonest like we've witnessed over the last period of time you know as an example few i mean virtually nobody has like we nobody has a system of mail-in ballots like we have no other country in the world.

1:08:30France went away from it. They all went, you know why? Because it's corrupt. And Jimmy Carter, when he had a commission, frankly, I think it's probably the best thing Jimmy Carter did. He said, you can't have mail-in voting because it's inherently dishonest. And it's turned out to be totally dishonest. So we're going to fight for it. Yeah. Has Iran activated any sleeper cells inside the U.S.? There's reports that they have pressed that trigger button to activate those cells at least abroad? Well, we've been trying for a long time. We've been very much on top of it. One of the things we have to do is get the Democrats to stop the Democrats' shutdown, because, as you know, the apparatus that looks into that, Schumer and the Democrats have shut it down, which tells you they probably hate our country a lot.

1:09:18But the Democrats have to open that up. But we've got very, very good intelligence into that. We know a lot of different things that have happened that have been very bad. A lot of them came in during the Biden open border period. But we have them under. We've got them. We're watching every single one of them. Yeah, we know a lot about them. The biggest problem we have is the Democrat shutdown. We know a lot about them. But the shutdown doesn't allow us to do what we have to do. Do you have to take him out? Does he have a target on his back? You mean the new Supreme Leader? You mean the son? How can there be an Iran?

1:09:59Well, I don't want to I don't want to say that. But, you know, I was disappointed because we think it's going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country. So I was disappointed to see their choice.

1:10:12Melissa Lee:Thank you, sir. You've said you have someone in mind to be the new Iranian leadership, if not the Ayatollah's son. What are you looking for in that person? Are you looking at someone internal, given that you just said that their leadership has been I like the idea of, you know, internal and eternal, come to think of it. But I like the idea of internal, because it works well. I mean, I think we've proven that so far. In Venezuela, we have a woman, Delcy, who has been, you know, president of the country, very respected, very, she's doing a great job and it's you know no disruption we had as you remember iraq where everybody got fired the military got fired the police got fired the politicians got fired there was nobody and you know what they turned into isis and we don't want that we don't want that so uh i would like to see people that are inside go now they talk about the son of the shah they talk about other people, but, you know, hasn't been there in many, many years.

1:11:17We have a formula that's been very good so far, and I think it'll continue to be good. The relationship is extraordinary with Venezuela, smart country. We've taken out 100 million barrels of oil. It's right now in Houston being taken care of and made so beautiful. And you have to see this at work. They have, it's brought to the refineries. It's being refined in Houston, which is made exactly for that product. And so far, but it's 100 million barrels of oil. And now they have another 100 million barrels coming. And it's like a partnership. We're getting along so well with them. It's great for Venezuela and it's great for the United States.

1:12:06yeah please go ahead hi mr president you just suggested that iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war but you're the only person in your government saying this even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked standing over your shoulder on your plane on saturday why are you the only person saying this because i just don't know enough about it i think it's something that i was told is under investigation. But tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.

1:12:45Yeah, please.

1:12:47Tim Seymour:You said earlier that we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. What do you consider enough? What's your baseline? Where they're not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon where they'll look at that man and some other people from the administration and say, all right, we're not going to do it. They were not willing to say that. And when Steve called up and he said that to me, I said, well, here we go. Let's do it the hard way. But the hard way, I think, is probably the easy way. When basically I can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever for a very long period of time of developing weaponry that could be used against the United States, Israel, or any of our allies.

1:13:35We have great allies in the Middle East, great countries that are allies. And they were staying out of it until they got hit. Someday they'll have to do a story. Why did he do that? Why did they do that but they were going to hit them if i didn't hit them first they were going to hit our allies first i believe upon information and belief but i believe that he was going to uh he was they were going to take over the middle east they were looking to take over the middle east now had operation midnight hammer not taken place that was definite because they would have had a nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks.

1:14:15But that took place. That was a setback. But look at the number of missiles they were able to buy and make over the last six months. And those missiles were aimed at various countries. And when you look at a thousand over a thousand missiles shot at like UAE, they were looking to take over the Middle East. We got there first. Lucky. I'll tell you what, the Middle East and those countries, very rich countries are very lucky that I was president instead of somebody else.

1:14:47I don't think so. No, no, we get along very well on this. He was, I would say philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic. But I felt it was something we had to do. I didn't feel we had a choice. If we didn't do it, they would have done it to us. I felt based on the negotiations that were being had by Steve Woodcoff and Jared Kushner and Marco and Pete and everybody was involved, I felt that they were going to, that they were looking to tap us along before they hit and i thought they were going to hit and if they hit us first that would have been a very bad thing uh in the back please in the back

1:15:43about the straight you mean yeah well i'm i want to keep it open i want to keep it good you know it doesn't pertain to us so much as it does to china we're really helping china here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the straits. But, hey, look, we have a good relationship with China. It's my honor to do it. Yeah. You have called him an unacceptable choice. So does he have a target on his back? And how can you say that? I don't want to say whether or not he does because that would be inappropriate. But, hey, look, I had a target on my back because, as you people wrote pretty well, they caught the assassin that was after me so we just got them first but they caught the assassin they have him now in custody that was after me so you know but uh people don't like to mention that but they they did catch him and i'd like to congratulate our military secret service fbi all of the people that worked on that but they did yeah please go ahead no go ahead please thank you mr president you promised the iranian people you would help them but it sounds like you're willing to end this fight after your military objectives have wrapped up is that isn't that a betrayal will i help them i'd like to if they can behave but they've been very menacing you know they're great people they have an amazing population it's amazing smart brilliant energetic they have a great point i'd love to help them but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped and right now they're in a system that only allows failure and I don't want that and I want a system that's not going to be attacking us.

1:17:26We want a system that can lead to many years of peace and if we can't have that we might as well get it over with right now. Yeah, please. Mr. President, as of today there have been eight US military fatalities associated with the war in Iran. How many American deaths are you willing to have in this war? Well, as I said before, when you have conflicts like this, you always have death. And I was at Dover yesterday. I met the parents and they were unbelievable people. They were unbelievable people. But they all had one thing in common. They said to me one thing, every single one, finish the job, sir.

1:18:03Please finish the job. And I'll leave you at that. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.

1:18:21Tim Seymour:We've been watching President Trump making comments about the war in Iran. A couple of key messages here. He says that we are ahead of the initial timeline by a lot. Those are his words. He also repeatedly used the word excursion, implying that it's short term. When asked if it would be a week, he said no, but soon. He was also asked about what winning means, because he had said in the press conference they haven't won enough. When asked about what that meant, he says when the Iranians have no capacity to develop any weaponry used against the U.S., Israel or its allies. Also interesting to come out of this, he said that they're doing this strike for their allies, for the allies, including China.

1:19:04Tim Seymour:And he did reaffirm that summit in April with President Xi Jinping of China. So that is still on. We'll see how the futures react, especially after today's huge reversal. He did make the initial comments about this being a short-term excursion during the regular session. We did see that bump higher. So we'll see if that carries over when Asia opens and then, of course, when the U.S. starts trading tomorrow morning. Thank you for watching our special coverage. We now join Mad Money with Jim Cramer in its entirety. All opinions expressed by the Fast Money participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet, or another medium.

1:19:41You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information the Fast Money participants consider reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Fast Money Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash Fast Money Disclaimer.

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