Trump Addresses Iran, Inflation, and Sharpies at Cabinet Meeting

During a cabinet meeting Thursday that covered the war in Iran, record-long security lines at major airports, rising oil prices, and skittish stock markets, President Trump interjected by holding up a custom-made black and gold Sharpie and launching into what became the most-discussed moment of the session.

Trump went on an extended, freewheeling tangent about the cost of Sharpie pens during the live, televised cabinet meeting, a five-plus-minute riff that careened from federal construction overruns to ballpoint pen aesthetics to a personal phone call with a Sharpie executive, all while the United States is actively at war with Iran, gas prices are spiking at home, and America's allies are declining to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The Sharpie monologue came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, envoy Steve Witkoff, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered sobering comments about missile strikes, Tehran's uranium enrichment efforts, and the U.S. troops that remain in harm's way.

The tangent began, ostensibly, as a parable about the Federal Reserve's headquarters renovation, which Trump claimed had ballooned to over $3 billion, possibly $4 billion. He told the cabinet he could have done the whole job for $25 million. Trump called the Sharpie more economical and a better writing instrument than the fancier pens used by his predecessors, framing the anecdote as an illustration of his business acumen and man-of-the-people tastes.

Trump's anecdote began with him insisting the White House was once stocked with "beautiful" ballpoint pens that cost $1,000 each, which presented a problem during ceremonial bill signings when he would hand out pens as keepsakes to lawmakers and supporters. He said he worked with a marker maker and initially worried about giving the company too much publicity, only to divulge it was Sharpie. Trump said he contacted Sharpie and was told they could make a black pen with the White House logo in gold at no charge. He insisted on paying $5 per marker.

Trump did briefly call Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell "a moron" for not cutting interest rates, though even that landed almost as a throwaway line, a speed bump in the larger Sharpie monologue. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was eventually handed one of the pens as a reward for his work. "Good luck, Scott," Trump said, to laughter from the room.

The Sharpie has a longer history in Trump's political theater. It was the most attention the marker had gotten at the White House since the "Sharpiegate" scandal involving Hurricane Dorian during Trump's first term. After Trump displayed a hurricane path map with a line drawn in black marker in 2019, his campaign sold a set of five fine-point markers for $15. A version of the Sharpie was later on sale at Mar-a-Lago for $3, and the Trump Organization currently sells a Trump-branded pen for $25, though it is unclear whether that version is a Sharpie. Sharpie's manufacturer, Atlanta-based Newell Brands, said in a statement it had no information about the conversation Trump described, but noted that Sharpies are used by current and past U.S. presidents, elected officials, celebrities, athletes, and artists, among others.

The renewed brand spotlight did little to move markets in Newell Brands' favor. The stock of Newell Brands, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker NWL, fell 3.23% on the day, as broader Iran-driven market anxiety appeared to outweigh any boost from the president's endorsement.

The cabinet meeting was not the only arena where Trump made his views known Thursday. Earlier in the day, Trump posted a string of social media messages threatening Iran over ongoing negotiations, lashing out at NATO allies for not joining the war, pressuring congressional Republicans to "terminate" the filibuster, and blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, now stretching into Day 41.

Trump said Thursday that neither the spike in oil prices nor the slump in the stock market during the Iran war were as bad as he had anticipated. Expressing confidence in the war effort, he told Treasury Secretary Bessent that oil prices "have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. It's all going to come back down to where it was and probably lower." Wall Street economists in recent days have raised the odds of a recession over the next 12 months, with most contending that unless the war ends soon, the damage to the economy through inflation and oil-related repercussions will cause a contraction.