Good morning, everyone. Looking forward to heading to North Carolina to campaign with Michael Whatley, who's gonna make a great Senator for the State of North Carolina and the people of the United States. We're gonna talk about all the economic benefits of the Trump administration's agenda, particularly no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax, um, or, or the most significant middle class tax cut that we've had in 30 years in this country.
So we're excited about it. I'm excited to see Michael Whatley. He's a good guy who's gonna make a great Senator. What do you guys got?
Mr. Mr. Mr. Vice President, so CNN, MS Now, and Politico are now suing other the ban. Do you think it's --
Sure.
-- appropriate for the president to be banning media outlets just because he doesn't like what they report?
Well, I take some issue with the premise. So he's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying, "We're not gonna give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda." We have to remember, those three outlets account about 92% of the stories that they have on the, the president of the United States, on the administration, are negative.
That's not representative of the American people. It's not representative of pub- -- pub- -- public opinion. So if you're gonna engage in what is effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican White House give you special access?
Sir, sir you've talked a lot about free speech over the years. How is this not an attack on free speech?
Well, they can still report on the Trump White House. They can still get the public report. They can still, of course, talk to people in the administration and outside the administration. What the president has said is we're not gonna give you special a- -- access inside the White House. The way that I think about it is if you go back to the Biden administration or the Obama administration and compare, let's say, Politico to Breitbart, if you actually look at the objective analysis, Politico and Breitbart are, Politico is as anti-Trump as Breitbart was anti-Obama or anti-Biden.
Now, why on God's green Earth would Donald Trump be expected to give Politico special access when nobody in the media e- -- ex- -- ex- -- expected the Biden administration or the Obama administration to give Breitbart special access? It's about basic fairness. They can still report. They still have the access to free speech.
They're just not, not gonna get an office in the White House anymore, and I think that's totally appropriate, unless of course they start to behave like real nor- -- news organizations.
Do you have a status update on Iran at all? Have there been any ongoing discussions among your national security staff on what to do next?
Well, I mean, I, I think the, the biggest update that we have, of course, is that we continue to see a substantial amount of oil and gl- -- gas flow through the Strait of Hormuz despite the Iranians terrorizing ships every single day. Uh, what the president has said is Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, and of course when we took action to ensure that Iran would not have nuclear weapons, they responded by terrorizing international shipping.
We're of course going to try to protect the free flow of commerce as much as we can. That's what the United States Navy has done for the past 80 years. I don't wanna get ahead of the president of the United States. I'm sure there will be further discussions on this stuff at UNGA this week in New York City.
Are you [Inaudible] in Ukraine or in Iran this week at the UN? Are there any signs of any hope for any kind of deals?
Well, look. I'm, I'm always optimistic that we're gonna make progress. I think as the president has said, the Russia-Ukraine war has been by f- -- by far the toughest of the int- -- international conflicts to solve. I believe he's meeting with President Zelenskyy either tomorrow or the day after. So I'm sure there's gonna be some good progress made, but look, uh, this thing has been tough to solve, no doubt about it. But I'd rather work for a president who has energetically tried to solve the problem.
We're gonna keep on trying to solve it. Do I think it'll get solved eventually? Yes, it's just a question of time.
You know, gas prices are really high right now, $6, uh, up, or above $6 for a gallon of diesel. How much longer should Americans be expected to pay, pay these high prices?
Well look, we're very cognizant of the fact that because the Iranians are terrorizing international shipping, energy prices are elevated. But we're doing everything that we can to one, try to clamp down on those prices, but give the American people some relief in the interim. One of the things the president has talked about is encouraging some of the states to give Americans relief from the gas taxes.
I think we all have to accept that so long as the Iranians are trying to terrorize international shipping, we of course are gonna try to push back against that, but that is why gas prices are so high. All right, guys.
[Crosstalk]
We'll see you in New, North Carolina. Take care.