‘Don’t Laugh — Inappropriate!’ CNN Anchors Caught Off Guard by Surprise Trump War Inflation Twist

CNN anchors Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan were caught off guard by a surprise twist in a report on price inflation due to President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

Concern over high gas prices has been a main feature of the war as the closure and blockade and reopening and reclosing of the Strait of Hormuz have choked off oil supplies. But other petroleum products have also experienced price spikes and shortages due to the closure.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, CNN Business executive editor David Goldman drew surprised laughter from Sidner and Bolduan when he sprang the news on them that the price of condoms is on the way up:

DAVID GOLDMAN: I mean, we’ve been talking about gas prices is the big consumer impact in the United States.

SARA SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: That’s for good reason, right? Prices already went up to $4.00. That’s painful. It was painful immediately and it was painful broadly.

But in Asia it is so much worse. They’re rationing fuel there. They have a plastic bag problem in South Korea where people are hoarding them because they can’t get them. And most importantly, in Japan, there are medical supply shortages in some hospitals.

So for everything that we’re experiencing in the United States it’s worse in Asia. And because of the problem — because they rely so heavily on the Middle East for all of their supplies it could get so much worse here because as you said, they make half of the stuff that we buy. So if factories can’t get aluminum or plastic, they can’t make the things that we buy in the United States and that’s when we start thinking about shortages.

It’s not a problem right now-

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: — but it could become a problem not only because of this — because factories don’t have the supplies, but also because workers might not be able to even get to work if they can’t get the fuel.

By the end of the month, right, 700 million barrels of oil could have evaporated from the world because the Strait of Hormuz is closed. That’s according to Keplr. That’s a huge amount of oil.

So if you have to start rationing fuel, how do you even fill up your car or your scooter, or whatever it is that you’re using to get to work to make the stuff that Americans buy?

And we’re already starting to see some of the impacts. There was a condom maker — kids, close your ears. There was a condom maker that had said that 20 percent or 30 percent even price increases are coming down the pike because they can’t get the ammonia, they can’t get the silicon oil that they need to make their products. And so if that’s happening already imagine what else could be coming down the road.

SIDNER: (LAUGHS) I’m sorry, but that was not on my bingo card!

GOLDMAN: Yeah, sorry. I kind of threw that one at you.

SIDNER: You did.

GOLDMAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: You threw it at me and I thought don’t laugh — inappropriate! Uh, but David, thank you for bringing us that this morning. I do appreciate it.

GOLDMAN: Any time. We’re having fun this morning.

SIDNER: Very interesting. All right, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN: (LAUGHS) You can laugh and it is still important!

Watch above via CNN News Central.

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