Secretary Wright Joins Fox News' Laura Ingraham - March 11, 2026

Today, one of the Iranian officials, still breathing, issued a warning. Watch. We will never allow even a single liter of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of the United States, the Zionist regime, or their partners. Any vessel whose cargo or oil shipment is destined for the United States, the Zionist regime, or their hostile partners will be considered a legitimate target. So, Mr. Secretary, three ships near the Strait were hit by projectiles over the past 24 hours. What now? Yeah, well, what now is, I think you've seen what Iran is all about. The world is seeing what Iran is all about. When this regime took power, the first thing they did was hold 66 American hostages for over a year. Three years later, they killed hundreds of our Marines in Lebanon, all with us taking no action at all against Iran. It is a murderous, terrorist regime that's threatened peace and security and prosperity in the Middle East for 47 years. And as you just outlined, as they ramp up their missile program to shield a nuclear weapons development program, you simply can't let them become this superpower that can't be knocked off its pedestal, or else the world is forever held hostage to Iran. So, I'm— Well, Mr. Secretary, we know that, but I'm sorry to interrupt. —the president is starting to fix it. Yeah. Yeah, well, I said that in the angle. I couldn't agree more. And we understand that history. It's murderous. But what now? Ask the question again. They're launching projectiles still of some sort at ships. We have an insurance market that's still messed up, even with, you know, Chubb, I know, is stepping in, $20 billion fund. The DFC is partnering with Chubb. But if you have crews on these ships that are afraid for their lives, how do you break this logjam in this critical waterway? Well, the most critical thing right now is the U.S. military degrading their ability to project power, not just missiles for long range, but also their assets that impede travel through the Straits of Hormuz. So it will take us some time to do that, but there's 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 ships in the Straits of Hormuz. And as you saw, we announced earlier today, the president announced just recently, that we will release collectively 400 million barrels. This is to tide the world over while these flows are restricted by Iran. But ultimately, the United States military will prevail. We will end their ability to impede traffic through the Straits of Hormuz, and ships will flow again. And the SPR release in total is about a third of all reserves of their participating countries, about 30 countries or so. Europe was hesitant about doing this, but looks like most people have gone along with this. How long will that last us? And what is your prediction about when this Gulf traffic will resume? Well, the releases, certainly out of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, they'll go over about four months. But this conflict, I don't think goes that long. I think we will have the Straits of Hormuz open well before then. Exactly when, you know, I can't say, but we are working 24 hours of every day to get there. But hopefully in the next few weeks, we will see ship traffic returning to the Straits Hormuz, the world going back to normalcy, but not the normalcy of before, normalcy minus a heavily armed, wildly empowered murderous regime. They will be near completely defanged and will not be able to threaten U.S. soldiers in the region, the neighbors and traffic through the Straits of Hormuz. But as you said in your angle, we've got to get through that transition period. The New York Times, no surprise. Of course, they're always going to root against success here. But they claim that you and other top advisers dismissed Iran's strength and ability to respond to missile attacks and military strikes, dismissing concerns both in February and during the 12-day war back in June. Was there a miscalculation here? Absolutely not. I read a lot of things in The New York Times. I just wonder where they come from. But no, no reality whatsoever with that statement.