President Donald Trump’s hand-picked energy secretary appeared to flail helplessly when Fox News host Laura Ingraham grilled him Wednesday on the administration’s plans for Iran.
With the Tehran regime firing projectiles at oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, and global markets on edge, Ingraham invited Chris Wright onto The Ingraham Angle to explain what the Trump administration actually plans to do about it.
“So, Mr Secretary, three ships near the strait were hit by projectiles over the past 24 hours. What now?” she asked.
Wright immediately danced away from the question, instead launching into White House talking points about Iran’s history of hostage-taking, terrorism, and regional destabilization.
For once, Ingraham wasn’t having it.
“Well, Mr Secretary, we know that,” she interjected. “But, I’m sorry to interrupt. Yeah, well, I said that in the Angle, I couldn’t agree more. And we understand that history. It’s murderous. But what now?”
She went on to try and preempt any more evasive answers, posing a more specific question: “That’s the question again. They are launching projectiles, still, of some sort, at ships. We have an insurance market that’s still messed up, even with CHUB, I know, is stepping in, a $20 billion fund. The DFC is partnering with CHUB. But, if you have crews on these ships that are afraid for their lives, how do you break this logjam in this critical waterway?”
Insurance giant Chubb is partnering with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation on a $20 billion fund designed to unblock commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Wright’s answer was to trust the military and wait it out. “It will take us some time to do that, but there is an awesome power of the U.S. military; soldiers are doing a great job. And we are every hour of every day degrading their military ability to threaten the ships in the Strait of Hormuz... ultimately, the United States military will prevail. We will end their ability to impede traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and ships will flow again,” he said, also mentioning 400 million barrels of strategic reserves the president had announced.
It wasn’t Wright’s first stumble this week. On Tuesday, he posted on X the false claim that “the U.S. Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets.”
The post was deleted within minutes, but markets had already moved. Benchmark U.S. crude prices plummeted by as much as 19 percent. An exchange-traded fund linked to oil futures lost $84 million of its market capitalization.
At a briefing that day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed she hadn’t spoken to Wright about the post. “I can confirm that the U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time,” she said, adding that doing so remained “an option the president has he will absolutely utilize, if and when necessary, at the appropriate time.”
