Newsmax host: “I would criticize essentially any other president after ten days like this. The DOW has lost almost 3000 points. Gas is way up.”
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From the March 10, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): Some good news tonight as the rest of the media clutch their pearls after ten days of war in Iran, oil prices falling 11% today. They fell yesterday to right around $87 dollars a barrel. The national average for a gallon of gas tonight, 3.54 a gallon, which is up $0.56 cents since the strikes began in Iran. Chairman and editor in chief of Forbes Media, Steve Forbes, is with us. He also ran for president twice on an economic platform. I remember it, the flat tax, right?
STEVE FORBES (GUEST): Absolutely.
FINNERTY: In 1996 and 2000. So I just want to be honest, Steve, I would criticize Joe Biden if he were president. I would criticize essentially any other president after ten days like this. The DOW has lost almost 3000 points. Gas is way up.
I will criticize Donald Trump if this continues, but after ten days, I think people that voted for the president have to have a little bit of faith and remember that we aren't anywhere near Joe Biden bad just yet. What do you think?
FORBES: Joe Biden bad is way over here.
FINNERTY: Right.
FORBES: Donald Trump is way over here. And they've said from the beginning, this is going to take several weeks. Iran is a very, was a very real threat. You have to -- unfortunately, you have to take everything out. All the missiles, not just the missiles, but the missile factories, all nuclear capabilities, which they're starting to rebuild again. These are -- this is a regime that has us in the crosshairs for 49 years. They've been very explicit about it. And they use negotiations to buy time to continue their nefarious ways.
FINNERTY: Right.
FORBES: They're terrorism central. We should have taken them out in 2001 after 9/11. They're right in the thick of it. So 25 years later, we do what we should have done a quarter century ago. So in terms of the short term, I think what the president did in the Strait of Hormuz is amazing.
FINNERTY: Yeah.
FORBES: Put the Navy -- going to put the Navy in and take care of the insurance problem, which was a huge, and stopping the tankers. So, now we're starting to get some tankers moving again. So if after a couple of months nothing has happened, then we would be concerned. But short term, I think the violence in the market shows people just want to see how this thing is going to turn out --
FINNERTY: What happens --
FORBES: It could turn so much in one day or two days where oil gets to 120, then goes down to 80, 85 --
FINNERTY: Yeah.
FORBES: And the DOW goes way up and then way down and then way, way up again.
FINNERTY: Always.
FORBES: People want to see how this thing turns out.
FINNERTY: Right.
FORBES: But wars don't happen quickly. They do in movies, but not in real life.
FINNERTY: They happen in two hours in movies.