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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Today, the United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime. We have the strongest and most powerful by far military in the world, and we will easily prevail. It was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn't do it.
I said, it's where they cry uncle or where they can't fight any longer. We won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet. In the first hour, it was over. The situation with Iran is moving along very rapidly. It's doing very well. Our military is unsurpassed. There's never been anything like it.
This is Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and radio alongside Tyler Kendall. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington. A little taste of President Trump there. Commenting on the state of the U.S.-Iran conflict over the last two weeks, the arc of communication and the evolution of justification has been fascinating.
And joining us now ahead of our conversation with Secretary Doug Burgum is our political panel. Lester Munson, Republican strategist, principal of the international practice at BGR Group, alongside Democratic strategist Jamie Jackson, founder of Vantage Global Media.
Jamie served as political appointee in both the Obama and Biden White Houses, including counsel for Pentagon Legislative Affairs and the House Armed Services Committee. We've got a great combination, and welcome to both of you here. You heard that last remark the president made in that string of remarks. He said, we've won. We've... already won.
How dangerous is that commentary from the commander in chief if in fact we haven't?
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Chapter 2: What actions is the Trump administration taking to increase US energy production?
I think it highlights a lot of the inconsistencies that are coming out of the White House and the Pentagon. A few days ago, the president said that he wanted total unconditional surrender, and we haven't seen that. We've heard that the Pentagon this morning, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Department of War, gave remarks about how the campaign will go on for more weeks.
There's going to be an increase in escalation, and so I think it's very dangerous to have such inconsistent messaging coming out of the administration.
Well, Lester, what do you make of that when we've heard the administration focus a lot on perhaps tactical successes, right? We heard the defense secretary earlier today say 15,000 targets have been hit, but have they clearly communicated the objectives that have to be met in order for the timeline to be reached and us to see this conflict pull back?
Well, I actually think the administration, when you kind of maybe average out all of the statements, has been fairly consistent in what they're saying, which is we want to eliminate Iran's capability to threaten the United States with nuclear weapons, threaten its neighbors with its ballistic missile technology, threaten the Strait of Hormuz with nuclear weapons.
its Navy, and then the production facilities for all of those things. And that's what I think the president is referring to when he says, you know, we won on day one because the initial strikes were so effective and did, in fact, eliminate at least the very top leadership of the country.
I'm glad we could get a swing from both of you on this. Lester Munson and Jamie Jackson are going to stay with us as we now add the voice live from Tokyo of Doug Burgum, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Secretary, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. I know you're joining us from a world away at the Japan Energy Summit that's underway in Tokyo.
We'd like to ask you about what you're hearing in Japan. I just want to start first, though, on the matter of Iran. Is the energy issue going to bring out a quick resolution to this war?
Well, I think what we're seeing here, of course, is the strength of President Trump setting clear objectives, our military executing nearly flawlessly. And, of course, what this exposes for the whole world is that we do have a terrorist regime that is threatening the world economy. This is a regime that 47 years ago, when they took over, literally took American hostages.
Now they're holding the entire world economy hostage. President Trump and the allies understand that on the backside of this, when this is resolved, that the world's gonna be peace, there's gonna be more peace in the world, there's gonna be more prosperity, and there's gonna be more stability and more freedom and movement of energy for all countries.
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Chapter 3: How is the US military responding to threats from Iran?
Well, as again, of course, in America, as you know, these are private companies. Some of them are public. I'll let them talk about their own production plans and their production increases. But certainly when there's a price indication that's happening right now, this is an opportunity. Shale producers have the ability to
increase their production some of them have you know drilled but uncompleted wells they just have to turn those on and of course we're seeing our partners i just got back from venezuela last week where you've got companies like chevron that are indicating that they can accelerate their development in places like that.
And of course the administration taking steps in places like California where we've got offshore in California that weren't being blocked by the state of California in terms of regulatory and red tape, that that could substantially increase the amount of oil being produced in California. Every stone is being overturned. The team in D.C.
and the team that's here across a whole set of cabinet members from the Trump administration that's here, we have 17 countries attending this Indo-Pacific Energy Security Day. ministerial, all of these countries are understanding that it's important for them, for their economies and for their countries and for their citizens to have energy security.
And they're looking to buy energy from a trusted ally. And of course, here we are in Japan who's been buying LNG from Alaska for more than 50 years without a single interruption because there are no choke points when you're buying energy from the United States. And that's very different than when you're buying from providers where you've got a terrorist regime
And whether it's directly the Iranians or their proxy, the Houthis, that can cut off flows of commerce to the world, energy security matters to these buyers. And that's why we're seeing these senior leaders and some of the largest LNG companies in the world all here.
There's going to be a lot of deals announced in the next couple days at this event, meaning in the tens of billions of dollars, because there's that kind of understanding of the importance of energy security.
Well, we'd love to hear more about that when those deals are announced. Secretary, I hope you can come back to Bloomberg to tell us about it. I'm wondering what you're hearing from our allies, from our partners there in Tokyo about triple digit crude oil, how long they can last before this damages their economies and how often you're hearing China come up.
You know, Russia and China have been framed as the winners here.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the US-Iran conflict on energy markets?
Well, it's going to make it more expensive because that's going to increase the price of that floating oil that's out there right now. But this temporary waiver on the Russian floating oil, most of that oil had already left Russia. So Russia's not benefiting from that. If there's any price arbitrage, it was whoever owned the cargo after it left Russia.
But that's going to help make sure that we can keep prices down for our allies like India and others. And so, again, that was a smart move that the administration undertook previously. on that temporary waiver, on all that floating, you know, the dark fleet oil that was out there, again, to help relieve some of the short-term pressure.
But meanwhile, you know, our military making incredible progress on, you know, securing the objectives of this conflict.
You said, Mr. Secretary, that there's a lot of tools that the administration can invoke. I'm wondering what's still on the table. Could we see a federal gas tax holiday? Could we see the invoking of the Jones Act or even a push to get higher ethanol content gasoline onto the market?
Well, I think all of these ideas are under consideration. And we've got teams, like I said, that are working around the clock doing analysis and effort on this in an effort to try to focus on affordability and keeping the prices down. But this has been our focus since the day that President Trump took office. When he took office and declared an energy emergency, it was because
energy prices were out of control, whether it was for electricity or for liquid fuels or for heating your home. And of course, those prices have dropped dramatically in last year because President Trump's policies of energy dominance, which is about having enough energy for low prices at home and being able to help lower prices for our allies.
Lifting the ban on LNG export facilities, which also happened immediately in the Trump administration, has allowed U.S. to become the number one LNG export. We've displaced two-thirds of the Russian gas that was being sold into Western Europe this past winter. The estimates are that that's in the tens of billions of dollars that were saved by consumers in our allies because of U.S.
being able to literally come to the rescue with low energy prices.
and whether it's prescription drugs, whether it's housing, whether it's interest rates, whether it's food, President Trump has been on the march lowering those prices for Americans, and with this temporary interruption versus to have an opportunity for long-term transformation, I think this is something that everybody in the world should be joining in.
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Chapter 5: How are domestic oil producers reacting to current energy demands?
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