Someone has been smoking some strong stuff over at Fox “news.” Here’s Trump apologist Maria Bartiromo on this Sunday’s Fox & Friends Weekend, just ahead of her insane half hour plus long phoner with Trump, pretending the talks that just fell apart with Iran are part of his grand strategy to force China to buy American oil.
BARTIROMO: He directed allies to buy oil and gas from America. Now, the US and allies are increasing their naval presence in the Strait of Hormuz right now, to indicate to the world that yes, Iran wanted the strait closed, it will then be closed. And all the traffic will be redirected to the Gulf of America, where the United States will up its capacity and up its sales of oil and gas to the rest of the world.
There is a second front developing right now in this war, and that second front is about the economy. The United States military has destroyed the economy of Iran and will continue to do so. The president has talked a lot about helping the people of Iran. As much as this is decimating Iran and its economy, it is helping the people of Iran on the other side of this.
So, major developments this morning with the United States beginning this blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, directing all traffic toward the Gulf of America, directing the US to continue upping its capacity of production, because the US is right now even before this situation producing more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. So the president will join me momentarily to give us more on all of this. Sorry, go ahead.
JENKINS: Well, we’ll see. I just want to jump in there, Maria, because you did such a good job of laying out the impact to Asian markets specifically China and where this is headed, but just as we analyze things right now, it is becoming more and more apparent that the leverage that Iran thought it could hold over the Gulf states in taking the strait hostage that has existed for decades, are now really learning in real time that they didn’t ever have that card to really play?
BARTIROMO: That is exactly right, Griff. The Iranians tried to play their best card that they thought they had by securing and dominating the Strait of Hormuz. But President Trump out thought them and out maneuvered them. That is the bottom line here.
Now, I’m glad you mentioned China because this is a very critical part of this story. Given the fact that President Trump has faced, basically taken the oil from Venezuela, taking Maduro out, then taken control of the situation in Iran. Also his comments on Cuba.
He has strengthened the hand of America when it relates to China. Remember, China was buying 90 percent of Iranian exports of oil, okay? It was paying under market prices because it wasn’t not even paying in dollars.
But now China will have to compete on the global stage and it will have to pay for the oil and gas in dollars, if and when it turns to the Gulf of America for production of oil and gas.
So this is a key part of the story. The Iranians tried to checkmate President Trump. President Trump checkmated Iran with this beginning of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which the president will give us all of the details in 10 minutes time when he joins me live on the phone.
HURT: We’ll all be tuning into that. Real quickly, though. What do you expect the markets to do tomorrow morning when they open?
BARTIROMO: Well, at this point, given the fact that the oil is in question, there will be real volatility. I would expect initially the price of oil to move higher because we are watching the situation in real time develop.
But overall, the president is going to get oil prices lower, gas prices lower, and the stock market is going to rip higher over the longer term.
North Korean television ain’t got nothing on these people.