Trump says he's surprised the Iran war didn't tank stocks by 20% and push oil to $200

• US President Donald Trump called into CNBC during pre-market trading on Tuesday.
• Trump said he expected the Iran war to cause deeper stock-market losses than it has.
• The president also said he's surprised oil hasn't gone higher.

When President Trump announced that he'd be on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday morning, the bullish quips started flying on social media.

The tone was playful, bordering on cynical: Why would Trump go on financial network during a war, if not to juice asset prices?

Sure enough, Trump's appearance struck a positive tone, albeit in a roundabout way. Rather than say he thinks stocks should be up more, he expressed surprised they didn't fall more. He made the opposite case for oil.

"I thought [stocks would] be down 20% or down a very substantial amount," Trump told CNBC. "Even when it was down more a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised. I thought it would be down much more."

He continued: "I thought oil would be much higher and I'm very happy to say it wasn't. If you would have told me that oil is at $90, as opposed to $200, I would be, frankly, surprised."

In making these comments, Trump put forth the bullish view that Iran-war damage wasn't as bad as it could've been. And it seems to have worked on Tuesday, with major US indexes extending gains into regular trading.

The benchmark S&P 500 had already erased wartime losses, reaching new record highs last week, alongside the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite.

Oil prices have pulled back from Iran war peaks, but are still well above prewar levels. While Trump dismissed oil price concerns, experts continue to warn about the economic impact of the oil shock.