special counsel. you name it. they better behave themselves while mr. trump is overseas. maria: he's in the spotlight. and do you agree there is a shot at what don is saying. dagen: stay on message, use that positive momentum. maria: and always a pleasure, thank you. let's get to "varney & company" and stuart. over to you. stuart: thank you very much indeed. it's a new look for the middle east. he reverses president obama. and a gusher of money is flowing america's way. good monday morning, everyone. our president is now in israel and he received a warm welcome. that's a reversal of president obama's very chilly relationship. president trump arrived there directly from saudi arabia. that's not been done before. the mideast trip builds an alliance, the saudis, america and very quietly, israel, all against iran. the president left the d.c.

swamp. he is successfully dominating the news cycle in a positive way. now, look at the deal making. 200 billion dollars worth signed already. energy, armaments, infrastructure in america, boeing, ge power generation equipment and another quarter trillion dollars in arms deals expected in next ten years, enormous dollar numbers. the media, not happy. they want to concentrate on the president's political troubles back home. investors encouraged by the deal making and the switch away from political turmoil. the dow is going to go up just a little when the trading day begins. maybe 30, 35 points, but remember, please, despite it all we're only a couple hundred points away from the dow's all-time record high. "varney & company," monday morning, about to begin. ♪

all right. this coming in from the auto industry. that man right there, mark fields, ceo of ford, he used to be ceo. he's out. i'm going to say that he was fired. what you're looking at on the right-hand side of your screen is the stock since, let's see, that will be since when he took office at ford back almost three years ago. down 36%. more details on the firing. liz: he's replaced by jim hackett, a turn around guy in autonomous vehicles. this is an era of declining profit margins at ford. and nearly 40% stock decline and lost that much in market value. the stock has been in trouble. it's been at a four-year low. they're not making as much money on their cars and vehicles as they have in the past. tesla passed it in market cap. we may have hit peak autonation wide. car sales peaking as uber and robot course come on-line, and

people saying why buy a car if you're in an urban area. >> that's a trend. and ford premarket is up a little. want to get back to the president's trip in israel. he arrived in tel aviv earlier this morning, here is what he had to say, roll tape. >> we have before us a rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region, but we can only get there working together. there is no other way. >> israel's hand is extended to peace, in peace to all our neighbors, including the palestinians. the peace we seek is a genuine and durable one in which the jewish state is recognized. stuart: all right, joining us now, congressman lee zelding, new york. am i right, this is a reversal of everything president obama did in the middle east? >> well, president trump is

certainly trying to go as far out of his way as possible with his words and his interaction with the president and the prime minister today in israel to try to strengthen our relationship, not just between administrations, but between nations. there's a lot that israel is focused on with regards to the exst existential threats. there is a strengthening of our relationship as we move from president obama to president trump. and then there's the opportunities on the economics. we hear president trump talking about the opportunities. he gave a remark about closing the trade deficit between our two nations and asking the president hopefully that hopefully he doesn't mind, so from an economic standpoint there's a lot of economics as well. stuart: there's a big picture here. it's more than just an economic

relationship or a diplomatic and military relationship with israel. surely, there's a new-- not exactly new about an alliance is coming to the forefront here. sunni muslims, saudi arabia, america, joining together to help support the sunnis and islam against the threat of ir iran. and israel seems to be going along with this privately what i'm calling a new alliance. what say you, sir? >> there's a silver lining in what we are unfortunately dealing with regarding iran trying to become a regional power and with the rise of isis is that you have nations who are-- that are trying to figure out how to deal with iran, for example. you mentioned the sunni countries where in the past, in recent years and decades, they've looked at israel as a threat and trying to go on offense to wipe israel off of the map, but now they are turning their focus towards iran and forming this alliance

and realizing maybe israel is an ally. maybe we can work together to protect their own countries, so no doubt about it, we're seeing a strengthening of that alliance between many majority muslim countries that are seeing iran's rise and ambition to be a threat to their own stability and looking to israel as more of an ally than they did in the past. stuart: congressman, has the president changed the subject away from the political turmoil, the swamp in d.c. towards across the global stage? >> yeah, he's having a great week, an important substantive week. i would actually encourage him while he's in israel to maybe search a little bit deeper with regard to the possibility of moving the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. we should, as foreign policy, be recognizing jerusalem as the undivided, unquestionable capital of the jewish state of israel. the president wants to strike a long-term peace deal between israel and its neighbor and as

he focuses on these challenges and so many others around the middle east, and the rest of the world, that's an important part of his job as president of the united states, leader of the free world. the president of the greatest country on the globe. so, he does have challenges back home that need attention, will have his complete focus. we also need him to be successful on the world stage as well. stuart: got it, thanks for joining us this monday morning. thank you, sir. that is the, stu. backdrop and political turmoil receding this morning, look at futures, we're going to open higher on all three prompts. the dow jones industrials will be up 22 minutes from now. how about the price of oil, remember, the president has been visiting saudi arabia, lots of talk about oil there. $50 a barrel as of this monday morning. president trump's budget will

be released tomorrow, cuts to big programs like medicaid and food stamps. judge napolitano is with us this morning. it's the bottom line here, it's extremely difficult to take back something which the government has given. >> it's extremely difficult politically to do that. stuart: yes. >> when social security was challenged in the supreme court, there's only one supreme court opinion reviewing its constitutionality. it said, the government has not made an enforceable promise to pay anybody for anything. it can tax and spend however it wants. meaning, it can legally shrink entitlement programs. there's no legal claim to the government. there's no legal claim to the money that the government took from you for social security that it is holding for you. it's already been spent and the government is at liberty to spend however it wants. that's the legal and constitutional basis for the president's wishes to shrink entitlements. stuart: so he doesn't have to

go to congress to say make this change or make that change. >> oh, yes, congress has to make the change. what i'm saying, the court cannot say because stuart varney made social security contributions throughout his working career he's entitled to this pot of all of it at the end of that career. the court-- i know this is killing you using you as the example, the court cannot say that. [laughter] >> but medicare-- i'm sorry, medicaid and a lot of cuts coming to medicaid under this budget. that's not an entitlement programs nor food stamps. >> there will be tremendous political fallout for members of congress, including republicans that represent large groups of constituents who have planned their lives, expect to go receive these benefits and the arguments will be, this is unfair. these people are beyond their working years, they've planned their lives expecting to receive this. how can you take it from them now? >> the trump response

politically probably should be we'll take it from the future generations, not the present. stuart: we'll let the state decide and you get x-numbers of dollars, but you decide how it's spent. >> that will force the states to raise revenues or take the heat for contracting the revenues which the feds don't reimburse them for. stuart: and one last one, i hear within the budget there will be restrictions on social security disability payments which have skyrocketed since 2008. >> it's a scandal. i'm sure a lot of people have been legitimately injured and a lot of people know it's a way to get more social security, phantom injury. stuart: the president can impose new rules on who gets social security disability and who does not. >> yes. stuart: i don't think you have to go to congress for that. i don't know that-- >> i can tell you how that works, the social security administration proposes the rules, congress has 30 days, if it does nothing, the rules become law. if both houses of congress vote

to rescind the rule, we're back to square one. stuart: so it's doable. relatively okay doable. >> it's doable now while the republicans have control of both houses of congress. the democrats would never consent to a social security regulation that diminished someone's availability or diminish the resources available for social security to distribute. stuart: i hope we'll see you in a couple of hours. >> you shall. stuart: which we'll be lucky. >> love using you as an example. stuart: a top general reportedly caught on tape issuing orders to use snipers to take out members of the opposition. this is the full-blown collapse of socialism. that's what's going on there and we're on it. check this out, vice-president pence giving the commencement address at notre dame over the weekend. dozens of students and parents walking away from the ceremony as soon as the vice-president started to speak. my take on that is coming up next hour. and this is some really

extraordinary video. a little girl sitting on a pier in british columbia. a sea lion swims up next to you. what happens next will shock you. we'll show you that video in full, i promise you. this is sort of the teas. liz: what happened? >> and i have to stick around. stuart: they're shouting at me, don't give it away, don't give it away! i won't. watch us after this. are allergies holding you back?

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>> we've got it now. this is from canada. a young girl posing for a photo, pulled into the sea by a sea lion. can you add anything to the story? >> you know what? no, i can't. this happened near vancouver, canada on a popular walk with tourists. as you can see, that sea lion, it's amazing to me when you watch that. how quick it was. she was posing for the sea lion. stuart: grabbed her from behind. ashley: luckily, she was fine. a man jumps in and grabs her and pulls her back.

i don't think i've ever seen anything quite like that. it shows you how quickly. these are wild animals by the way. when you get that close. things can happen. thankfully, she was fine and the guy was good, and jumped in and saved her. my goodness. >> i object to hyperbole. amazing awesome, fantastic. but that was amazing video. >> yeah. >> awesome. [laughter] >> all right, a couple of stocks, companies in the news, first sears. it's closing an additional 30 stores, down a fraction. down half a percent. $7 for sears. netflix, is a years ago, it went public at $15 a share. it's ten times that now. 157.62. that's a premarket quote for you. the koch brothers are spending i believe between 3 and 400 million dollars pushing for tax reform, pushing for the president's idea of tax reform in congress. come on in, please. americans for prosperity, tim

phillips, joining us now, who is fully behind the koch brother's push. the first very, do they approve of the border tax, border adjustment tax? >> we oppose a border adjustment tax, stuart. it's a tax on consumers which is what it will be. it will hurt this economy and hurt those who can least afford to pay it, seniors on fixed income. stuart: could do the koch brothers and those in your organization oppose to cutting taxes. >> we know that cutting tax rates increases revenues, under reagan, to 28%, revenues went up in that sector. we know at that cutting rates does-- and other thing, simplify this tax code. we have over 40,000 special interest deductions and we want to strip those out. a lot of them are corporate welfare. some of the wealthiest corporations in the world get special breaks that leads to a

two-tiered society. let's have a lower corporate rate, we have he got seven individual rates and let's collapse down to three. the trump plan calls for that one, it's a good one. stuart: i'm interested in the special deals or the special deductions which are often, various groups, home mortgage deduction, charitable deductions, as you said, 40-odd thousand special deductions for corporations. how much of these deductions, how many of them are just going to go away? >> it's up to the congress during the course of tax reform to strip those out. they have to take them out, stuart, or not renew them. you know, wind and solar gets billions and billions of dollars, those are renewed so they've either got to stop renewing them or strip them out during the course of the tax reform negotiations. we're optimistic we're going to get tax reform this year. we think it's going to get done, but it's a big lift and a lot easier to do, a lot easier to lower and flatten rates, simplify things if you get rid

of the special interest deductions and republicans, who are in charge, you know, they're the ones who frankly have to look at business allies and say to them, guys, if we're going to get this economy moving again at 3 or 4% growth, we've got to lower and flatten these rates and strip out the special interest deductions because frankly, it harms the economy and it makes it more difficult to reform some of the social welfare programs when you're on the other end protecting corporate welfare. stuart: tim, i think it's a big deal that the koch brothers are on board with this because you're talking 300, maybe $400 million worth of money just flowing into the political system in support of tax reform. this is very big deal, i think. i don't think it's getting much attention. >> it won't be that much money. it's a significant effort, stuart, but it is important to have outside groups pushing congress to take action. stuart, we believe republicans are on the line here. the expectations are so high with the american public and

there's no issue that can make a bigger difference to getting this economy going than tax reform. they're doing some good work on rolling back the obama era environmental regulations that were so extreme. that's happening, that's a good step. tax reform is the key for this year. stuart: tim, i don't think you'll get much opposition on that point of view amongst conservatives and free market republicans. thank you. what we're looking at is president trump visiting the western wall in jerusalem, of course. it's 4:20 in the afternoon every there. the president will make some remarks-- i'm not sure about that. he will be visiting the wall at some-- while he's there now. when his official visit to it begins, we will be looking at that very carefully, but that's what is going on right now. now, i think this has some, forgive me for being crass, i think there's some financial implications here, specifically

that the president has changed the subject. the president is now full and center right in front of all of us on a historic diplomatic trip to the middle east that removes the political turmoil that's been a feature of our lives here in america in recent days. ashley: it was a good time to get out of washington. stuart: it was. and he's doing something that's extraordinary. his visit to saudi arabia. ashley: 409 billion dollars worth of deals. stuart: yes. ashley: think about that, 409 billion. stuart: at the moment, the gentleman there is explaining the history of the wall to him. i believe that that's the western wall often known as the wailing wall, i believe, and the president is having the significance, the historic significance of the wall explained to him. i should note that he arrived in tel aviv earlier today, directly from saudi arabia. now, no other significant leading official from the united states has ever gone

directly from the home of islam to israel, never been done before. ashley: that's right. stuart: i think that tells you something about the historic nature of this trip. ashley: you're absolutely right. i've got to say his speech in saudi arabia was very good, very pointed. i think made all the right points. the deal-making has been tremendous as we've said. $409 billion worth of deals and you can't argue against that. and horror we are, showing difference to israel and visiting all the historic sites and frankly, looking presidential. >> james freeman is with us, editorial guy from the wall street journal. i'm saying that this is a change of the conversation, a shift in the headlines which our media has to go after. the president dominates the news cycle. he's out of the swamp. i think he looks good politically at this point and i think the financial markets approve. i'm saying everything here, james, chime in. >> just to under line your point we've seen a lot of harsh

criticism of the president in the media lately, but you look at the enthusiasm first king salman of saudi arabia and now the prime minister of israel have greeted him and he's getting through a message we're getting closer to our traditional allies, he thinks it's a counter weight in iran and president obama did the nuclear deal with that has become so controversial. stuart: our president, the president of the united states of america in the past 48 hours has been treated with maximum respect by the king of saudi arabia, the royal family of saudi arabia. >> yes. stuart: the leader of egypt. the prime minister of israel, absolute respect across the board. ashley: that's a change. stuart: but who is treating him with contempt? >> the media. stuart: the media is treating him with absolute contempt and in california over the weekend, there was a meeting of democrats and they were led in an obscene chant against our

president by a leading democrat. liz: it's circular in d.c., it's about gotcha politics, right? so the media knows that they can make a lot of money and ratings with gotcha politics. the politicians know about the swamp gotcha politics, that's how they get on television, so it's circular. stuart: now we will watch as the president approaches the wailing wall. >> okay. that was the president there. we seem to have momentarily lost our signal. we've got it back. look, we're going to stay quiet here, this is a religious moment and stay quiet and we can observe what our president is doing.

>> . stuart: i believe it is traditional for visitors to the wall, known as the western wall, but often called the g wa small prayer, as you may have seen, the president reached into the wall and appeared to deposit a small prayer, i believe that's traditional thing that one does when approaching that wall. he's walking away with one gentleman who has explained the

significance of the wall to him, and he's walking away and that-- it was a solemn moment for our president who has been very warmly received in israel and before that, he was treated almost royally when he arrived in saudi arabia. this is a historic trip and as we were saying earlier, it has changed the whole conversation in the media. how can you ignore this and find-- . ashley: they'll find a way. stuart: are you kidding me? >> the president says jerusalem, the site for three world favorites, muslim, christianity and jewish faith, if they cooperate peace is possible including between had the jewish and palestinian. stuart: i do not want to be crass and talk about money, but he signed 400 billion deals.

ashley: 409 billion. stuart: with more to come over the next ten years. the stock market is going to open in about three minutes' time and when it opens you will see quite a reaction from some defense stocks and maybe boeing as well because they are seening deals to provide wide-bodied jets to the saudi arabia airline. you will see significant stock price moves in some defense stocks and some technology stocks. ashley: maybe some oil stocks, too. stuart: and oil stocks. ge, for example, a $12 billion deal with ge to supply power equipment and digitizing equipment. all of this is coming -- those numbers,those dollar numbers are extraordinary. i've never seen an arm's deal worth what, a quarter trillion dollars more in the next ten years, james. >> and this hits a number of items on the trump agenda. obviously, he likes american manufactured goods to be sold overseas and he likes this exxon deal, i'm sure where the saudi firm is joining to build

a petrol chemical plant on the gulf of texas, our gulf. so he's obviously focused on the american manufacturing revival there, but i also think this is a huge moment. we talk about his going to saudi arabia first and beyond economics, although economics is a big part of it, he is there in large part to encourage the reforms that the crown prince there, 31-year-old mohammad bin salman to their economies and see their national oil company go public and have private investors for the first time soon. so this is kind of an exciting moment and it's not just economics, he's talking about liberalizing, improving the treatment of women. so i think president trump is very focused on encouraging what seems to be interesting reform in the saudi kingdom. stuart: a couple more financial items related to the president's trip. a $40 billion infrastructure investment fund will be created, i think the blackstone

group organizing this fund, some of the money will come from saudi arabia. i'm intrigued at this because this may be a new way of paying for infrastructure projects. we're all used to the idea that the government pays, that's how it works. the government organizations it, runs it, a bureaucracy is in charge of it and we pay for it. maybe this is a different way of paying for much-needed infrastructure. liz: it would take it away, maybe, the power of the states to lock up that money, the state bureaucrats and unions to lock it up for years to come. the president noted that's been a problem to fix our ailing roads and bridges and airports. we haven't had a new airport in something like 20 years according to jamie dimon. ashley: ask anyone, what's more efficient, the private or government? >> and technology investment fund totalling $93 billion with, 50 billion in the united states of america. this is a promise that the

leader of softbank made earlier, just after the election, and now there's an official announcement. one more for you, $50 billion will come into america from aramco, the saudi arabian country about to go public. and here it is, 9:30 eastern, and that stock market opened with a 62 point gain. 20,867, okay, 57 points higher, but, sorry, we're at 20,860, that's a very solid gain and plenty of green on the left-hand side. we're off and running and the trading week has begun. we've got a couple of stocks to look at before the big picture. look at ford motor company, we're awaiting a press conference on the ceo shake-up there. ford is down 35% since the ceo mark fields arrived at the company from three years ago. the current price of ford motor company stock is about 2%

higher on news of this change at the top. look at look heed martin, the defense company up on news of that huge arms deal with saudi arabia. lockheed will get some of the money, $7 higher. exxon is getting a boost from its $20 billion deal with the saudis, not much of a boost, $82 a share. under amour, nothing to do with the middle east at all. under amour at a four-year low. it's under pressure from nike, of course, and falling victim perhaps to the retail ice age, how about that. who is going to cover for us, there you have the four faces on screen. ashley, liz, james freeman and keith fitz-gerald. all right, let's talk about president trump mideast treat. $400 billion worth of deals with saudi arabia. keith, is that really going to create jobs back here? if so, how many? what's your guess? >> i don't have any idea on the figure, but, yeah, you bet it's

going to create jobs because it creates demand and people forget that demand equals sales, equals revenues, equals profits, equals higher stock prices. stuart: is that what the market is reacting to? now we've got a 75 point gain. and wasn't expecting such a gain. is that a reaction to the deal making? >> a certainty. if it's uncertainty, traders don't like that. if it's certainty, deals particularly signed by the president, money is going to flow, they can bank on it. stuart: james, repeat what you said five minutes ago. changed the conversation, it's not political turmoil it's historical deal making and diplomacy. >> and i think the market maybe likes that the trump administration has regained its footing. the trump program of tax cuts and deregulation is going to proceed, stocks go higher. when they think that agenda is in trouble they tend to go lower. so, i think this looks like a

positive. we're seeing basically a successful trip and obviously for these specific companies, new orders. >>, but it doesn't speak to the quagmire in washington. i'm sorry, this is great. as soon as it gets back to washington, the republicans have to get their act together. stuart: meanwhile, defense stocks, which all went up at the end of last week, when this kind of huge deal making was muted, they're up again this monday morning, as though deals were signed. so, too, with some of the oil companies, no huge gains by any means, but they're up a little bit there. oil services in particular doing well. i want to get back to the ford motor company. the ceo, mark fields, out. under pressure from investors. we keep showing that. that's down 35% since mark fields arrived as ceo. i believe that the company is n now, the stocky should say, is now up 2%. above 11 a share. liz: it's a the a four-year low, boy, a world of hurt for ford. mark fields replaced with

turnaround hackett, experts in self-driving cars and ride sharing. and we may have hit, some analyst believe, u.s. peak auto as people say, hey, it costs too much to own a car. why not use uber if you're in a big city. you don't need to own a car in big yourban areas. stuart: keith, what do you say about this? and didn't do ford company much good. >> e-mack is spot on. it's about the future of a ceo that missed technology implications and it's about bigger things than just the cars. stuart: would you please look at the dow jones industrial average? now it's up 86 points in four minutes' worth of business and we're awfully close to 21,000. no, we're not.

20,900. a couple hundred points, 200 points away from the all-time record high. liz: and the democrats still don't get it. it's about jobs, it's about growth. they're still in the d.c. quagmire of gotcha politics, and the president left the swamp and is now trying to cut deals and has done it. stuart: more individual stocks for you. this is reail ice age. sears holding is going to close another 30 stores on top of the 150 closures announced earlier this year. sears is done for. what do you say, keith? >> death watch. this stock is a bug in the windshield and has been for a long time. [laughter] >> i have to pause, a bug in search of a windshield. you want to follow that one? >> following that, we've been seeing how-- ♪ [ [

we're dealing this with amazon and-- >> and he's blaming the media and vendors, wow, and since it took it over 2004, profits and revenues have been going down. stuart: you're right. get back to softbank, launching the world's largest tech fund with cooperation from saudi arabia. the total value of the fund, $93 billion and it investigates in artificial intelligence, robots, chips. james, you know, that's another job creator, isn't it? >> i would think some jobs created, it's so massive. most silicon valley venture funds, nowhere near this size. obviously, venture investments have been getting bigger and bigger and they tend to be smaller. this is now instantly, a giant in the world of technology investing, but as far as how they're going to do, obviously, softbank, there is a a track record there. if it's the saudi royal family, i like the process and we want to encourage it and i kind of

wonder whether that's going to be the wisest investor in technology startups. maybe it could be, i'd be, i guess, interested in keith's opinion on this. >> softbank is up a buck at 77, 1 1/2%. does that quiet your fears? >> if people are-- if it's the softbank side making the decisions maybe people will be comfortable with that. stuart: the bottom line on a monday morning, seven minutes into the new trading week, we've got a rally on our hands. the dow is up 82 points. i think the market likes the change of the conversation away from political turmoil and towards deal making. you do have the deal making in and of itself. look at the s&p 500, where is that this morning? surely that's up, too. a gain of 2,389. the nasdaq, home of the technology stocks, it's been going up and up and up, where is it, 6,109, 25 points higher. it's a rally. how about the fabulous five,

let's look at them. we've got google, alphabet. amazon, facebook, the fab five. i think i've got them all. ashley: there you go. stuart: they're all on the up side, close to or at all-time record highs. got it. netflix, today is the 15-year anniversary of the ipo. ashley: 15 years? >> 15 years they launched out and of course, that's when you've got the movies in the mail as i recall. ashley: yes. stuart: and mailed them back in again. liz: yeah. stuart: keith, it went public at $15 a share 15 years ago. >> amazing trajectory for this company, but you know, stuart, i've got to confess, i'm actually worried about this stock now because the independents that got them here today potentially is a problem. everybody wants to get into this space, everybody's that's well-funded wants to do original content. if they don't team up with someone, my fear is they'll

lose their mojo. stuart: the stock is up to 158, a record high or very, very close to it. and then we have twitter, the co-founder evan williams told he's story if the social media site helped elect donald trump. do you have any thoughts on that, james? >> yeah, it is disappointing when people who you think of as supporting free speech are suddenly ambivalent about it when they don't get the outcome they want from public debate and discussion, but i think this is what concerns a lot of users, whether it's twitter, facebook, et cetera. these organizations are getting into the business of trying to knock out fake news, as they see it. as they're getting into more of the editing function. is there going to be a problem with political bias here? and obviously, he's put his cards on the table that he didn't like the outcome of our free election or free speech. ashley: they should say that this platform is so powerful it

enables to become president who uses it and apologizing for their own business. liz: the last quarterly earnings report, donald trump's influence with attracting followers on twitter was noted in the quarterly earnings. the effect on the stock. >> what's he doing? >> apologizing for it. stuart: i know from my monitor, that keith has been waving his hand and he wants it get into the twit are discussion. so get into it. >> i tell you, it's cry me a river time for this guy. i'm with ash. he could have flipped this around and says you know what, i don't like the result, but look at the great things our technology did, we've got trolling under control and twitter is a great place to be if you don't like what happened. he completely missed the boat and a social media superstar out of touch with reality. stuart: out of touch with reality. strong stuff. how about this, virtual reality, not selling. the headsets stuck on the shelves.

53% of internet users say they're just not interested. keith, virtual reality. >> i think-- >> interesting, interesting thing. if it's a business, stuart, it's a must-have technology into you're into insurance, medical, doing something for people. if you're just into playing games, i don't think the technology is there where it's compelling. when i split the investment world, it's must-haves, i want to invest in. nice to have i think about another time. virtual reality, for the consumer, but must-have for the defense industry. >> james. >> the teenagers in my household have not asked for this. as keith talked about, it's the lack of a killer application. there's no game or experience or what have you where everyone says you have to look at this. stuart: you're all wrong. you are all totally wrong. [laughter] >> seasickness. i know that's the wrong term to use, but motion sickness or something. >> travel sickness or motion sickness. stuart: they haven't solved

that problem. liz: they give out dramamine at the tech contest when they show these. stuart: they do. liz: yes. stuart: thanks, james, keith, gentlemen, good stuff to start a monday morning. we like it. now what? we're close to 100 point gain for the dow industrials, 86 it be precise, 20,890. how about this? a high ranking official of california's democrat state convention leads the crowd with an anti-trump obscenity laced chants. and maxine waters is asked what the democrats stand for and she struggles to give a clear answer. what she says, more varney next.

>> it's close to 100 point gain in the first 15 minutes of business, 93 up, close to 20,900. big deal here, dish announcing its now on amazon fire tv. it sounds like content, more content coming to amazon. have i got that right, nicole? nicole: that's absolutely right. amazon is the behemoth. and now we see the collaboration between the two, dish now available on amazon fire tv. and with that, you get just about everything without any cost. we're talking about 100% of live and recorded programming, thousands of titles, as well. as long as you have this hdmi input and amazon fire tv no cost to you and it's available beginning today. both of the stocks to the upside and a big collaboration between dish and amazon. stuart: a big deal.

thanks, nicole, big stuff indeed. do you, as our viewers and investors, do you want to invest just in on-line sellers? if you want to do that, there's a new etf. that's a fund, basically, a new etf for you. and the man who designed it and runs it is with us now. his name is christian magoon. it's called "i buy", this is an etf. a basket of stocks and all of the stocks in the basket "i buy", must get 70% of revenue from on-line selling, is that accurate? >> that's accurate. there's a very strict index methodology that a retailer must have 70% or more from their revenue coming from on-line sales in order to be in this basket. and about 41 companies worldwide meet that criteria currently.

stuart: so, this is how an investor can just jump on-line selling without getting complicated by-- it's a pure play in on-line selling, that's what it is, right? >> that's right. so, how do you select the best on-line retailer? who is going to win the game? we all know about amazon, but there are many others in the u.s. and around the world. i buy, the on-line retail etf allows new one purchase for 41 companies and you get the diversification and hopefully find the next amazon. stuart: that's an interesting chart. we can see it on the side of the screen perhaps you can't see it, christian, but our viewers can. that is a chart and a half and gone straight up. would a company like wal-mart, it has an on-line operation, it wouldn't qualify for your etf? >> that's correct, currently wal-mart has less than 15% of revenue coming from on-line retail sales. they're dominated by brick and mortar sales which have been

going down across the industry. so they wouldn't meet it, but, stuart, they could eventually if they continue to transform their business and meet that 70% threshold. stuart: okay. would amazon qualify for your i-buy etf? >> yeah, they absolutely would. they're in the top ten holdings of the fund and they, as you know were born as an on-line retailer and they have other businesses now. they're driving or poster child of on-line retail. the question is, do you just invest in amazon or invest in all the other companies that take advantage of this trend. stuart: well, 41 companies make an interesting basket of on-line sellers. christian, i've got to leave you, i have to switch over to the ford motor company, they're holding their press conference to announce the ceo mark fields is leaving. who you're looking at there is bill ford. i believe he's talking about mark fields right now. we'll listen in.

>> unprecedented change and you all know this, you follow this industry, in fact, you've seen all the changes that we have he been talking about for some time. well, they're here now and time of great change, in my mind, requires a transformational leader and we thankfully, we have that in jim. because you all know jim's biography, but let me give you a little color to it because i think it's important. jim ran steel case for 25 years. that alone is a huge accomplishment, but then you peel it back and say, so what happened during those 25 years? and to me, what was most instructive was that jim took a company that defined itself as a furniture maker and jim said, no, let's imagine the future of the workplace. let's imagine how people are going to work and want to work in the future and then let's build our company around that. and he did that and, of course, they still make furniture throughout the whole--

and they still make furniture, but in doing so, grew the company took them to first to the industry worldwide, and the culture was one of optimism and a feeling that they could get things done easily because they had a very clear view of the future. then jim went to university of michigan and you can say, well, is that relevant. stuart: chairman of the ford motor company, he's explaining what he wants the company to do in the future. explaining the reasons why mark fields, the ceo of ford for the last three years, is now out and jim hackett is coming in. now, what bill ford is saying is, he wants a transformational leader because the auto industry is in a transformation industry. i might add the gentleman coming in, runs the autonomous car unit within ford. evidently bill ford, the

chairman, sees things going in that direction. liz, am i right, the ford motor company as currently organized has a very small profit margin, lower than general motors, and the stock, the company is worth less than tesla. that's the old way. bill ford wants it take them the new way. liz: it's worth noting during the financial crisis when the automakers were in serious trouble shall the way that ford got out of it, they put a lot of debt on its balance sheet so that cash flow goes toward servicing that debt. 28 billion dollars, a ton of money. so, yes, the market cap has dropped below tesla, the stock is at a four-year low. the profits were almost cut in half last year to 2.6 billion dollars from the year prior. and the way of the future is-- are robot cars. it's ride sharing. so, gm sees that, the other automakers see that, ford sees that, too. it's going to change the nature of car inventories across the country. people don't want to, you know,

foot the cost for buying entire vehicles if they can ride share or do robot cars in the future. stuart: to come degree, the market is buying that store, the stock is up well above $11 a share. ashley: that's one of the biggest complaints, the stock price has been suppressed for quite some time and ultimately fields takes the blame. stuart: i remember right after the financial crisis in 2008, 2009, ford stock dropped below $2 a share. ashley: sure, i remember. stuart: and boom, that thing i think 17 or 18 in a very short period of time. it could have been one of the best investments of all time. ashley: it goes to kudos to liz's point, they didn't get government money. liz: the way they did it is borrow. the market cap, borrowing costs that time and now, it's about $28 billion to put on the balance sheet when the market cap is about $44 billion. stuart: bill ford says the new

man of the company, the new ceo, jim hackett is a visionary leader. he wants a transformational leader and bill ford believes it's jim hackett. new ceo of ford motor company. the dow jones industrial average in business for 23 minutes. we're up 100. 20,900. i might add that the defense contractors are doing extremely well because of the huge deals announced in saudi arabia over the weekend. oil service companies, they're doing well, and so are the fabulous five. okay, we talk about them all the time. up, up, up, and still up today. i'm looking at microsoft, i own some of it, at $67.96 up 27 cents. amazon is up $10. getting very, very close to $1,000 a share. 969 to be precise. facebook has joined the upside move and now it's up 4 cents at

148. twitter though, is down after one of its co-founders apologized for helping to elect donald trump. okay. move on, please. let's get to venezuela, a general there, venezuela reportedly ordered snipers to prepare for a clash with protesters. that sounds pretty extreme to me. liz: it's the head of the army in venezuela. what happened was, this recording with as leaked and they were talking about how ma dduro is having a hard time. if this is not a call for intervention, the call for snipers, i don't know what is. and venezuelans, you're going to use snipers to take us out when it's our right to protest? it's a big deal what's going on. stuart: left-hand side of the screen, bill ford why he wants to make ford, a future-looking

company replacing the ceo. in israel, the president visiting the wailing wall, it's a diplomatic trip in saudi arabia and israel, going develop. warmly received in both places. of the president has signed massive, huge dollar number deals with defense contractors and oil service companies. and we have a change in the conversation because the president is no longer embroiled in the swamp back home. and the dow industrial is showing that, up 95 points as we speak. now we have this for you, a california professor facing a formal complaint for refusing it allow college republicans to attend women's history month events. ashley: orange coast college professor wrote a letter in fact, outlining the fact that she didn't believe the republicans club on the college campus should be allowed to attend events. there's a letter and i want to give you a quote, if the college will not stand up to the republican club, i have decided to stand up for myself

and other students. she is, by the way, the professor of sociologsociology. they've lodged a complaint and she needs a class in. stuart: diversity. i've got a segue. mr. hackett is talking with bill ford. >> and transformed mazda and what he did with the way forward here, he's agreed to help me, you know, we had a great talk last friday and i'm going to go to a football game with him in the future. so, you know, we have a good relationship. but i want to go, because, you know, it's really hard to be candid with you when bill says the nice things to talk about yourself and i'll let you dig in any parts of that. but i want to go to the company this morning and say that the year of being here, there's a lot of things going well. the company's record earnings

proves that it's able to make lots of things happen. in fact, if i contracted for you, alan did a special thing to get the company to be a community again with this structure that he created, and the one ford strategy. it worked really well and in fact, we'll use parts of it in the way that we monitor our success. what it doesn't do as well, it doesn't handle when there's lots of complex strategy questions. if you thought of strategy like a rubik's cube, it's not just solving one side, there's lots of sides to the problem. i'm trying to design and you'll hear about a team that's a little closer to bill and i that allows us to make decisions clearly for organization. that will be the first thing. the second thing is that, and this is in keeping with bill's ladder of points he made for you, is the fitness of the business is always an objective. the improved fitness, i should

say. it never can relax because it's always moving. my old football coach says you either get better or worse, you don't stay the same. so many of the things that ford has been contemplating are in support of that and i'm going to take all of that work and get with bob shanks and my team and we're going to come back with plans to keep the fitness high. so, our returns and getting our cost of capital out of every initiative is really important notion and it's not going to fall by the wayside given this ability that i have with this bill to see the future. and that's the third part. the future is not a fantasy, it's not where he and i are making up things. in fact, what we both do, we're really curious. we talk to lots of people around the world that are really smart from deep learning folks to design thinking folks, to people that understand, you know, where carbon fiber is going to go. and in a way, we're triangulating all of these forces to try to come up with a

competitive set about where we're going to play and how we're going to win and that clarity takes the top people in the company. i've got a big advantage in that i have a relationship with bill that goes back years when we were the east and west ceo's that were meeting to deal with revenue sharing in michigan and we had dinner a couple of times to being on the board to witnessing this ted talk. i was not on the board when that happened. i got to introduce bill to a bunch of people at ted and i remember telling him off to the side, i think you're a hero in my world. and why would you say that? first, bringing alan in, the college that that took for him to make that decision and secondly, what he did when he stood ahead of the world on the environmental impact of business and then ahead of, on mobility, you know, before others saw it. and then at ted he said, here is the-- his great-grandfather runs the company and starts the company,

look if we cut and paste the old model and put it all offer the world, we'll kill the world. so to have that sense of humanity, the sense of capitalism, the sense of people, you know, this is frankly the way i'm wired. and so, he's going to play an important role and a sounding board for me, really a co-conspirator and strategy. very comfortable with that. in our organizational design i've asked him to take two things off of my plate so i can focus in areas. so, just to end on this, the future is really a source of optimism for both of us. anytime this rubik's cube is turned around you have just as much advantage in that future as anyone else. we have a right to it. what we have that won't be lost is this great business, this great vehicle business, the number one vehicle in the world is made here at ford motor company. and that's not lost on me.

in fact, at steel case, as bill said, the license you get to make change comes from your care of, you know, where all the earnings are coming from, so, i'm really committed to that. and so, i just would end this saying i look forward to coming to talk to you less about myself in the future and more about ford's results. >> thanks, jim. so want to kick off q & a? >> that's the ford motor company, the new man, the new ceo, jim hackett right there, he wants to be forward-looking. bill ford on the screen moments ago. chairman of ford, he wants to be forward-looking as well. it's helping the stock a little bit, not that much. ford stock actually, the company, is weighed under by a mountain of death. liz: 49.7 billion in short-term. 93 billion in long-term debt that is swamping the market of that company. company. stuart: they want to change the situation, look forward, get away from the old style of the

auto company. that is what they're trying to do. okay, dow industrials, 94, 95 points higher, right at 20,900. now this, and contrast. president trump strides across the mid-east, warmly-received. renewing friendships with allies. anything but an apology tour. then there is the democrats and the left and their behavior over the weekend. i will start with that. in california top democrat official led the crowd in an obscene anti-trump chant. he didn't just stand by, no. he started it. and the crowd responded with raised middle fingers. such is the respect, coastal elites feel for our president. and then there was notre dame. vice president pence gave a speech, some students turned their backs on him. some others washinged out. it wasn't rowdy but it wasn't respectful, either.

contrast, i'm calling them insulting antics with what the president was actually doing, organizing and supporting an alliance against isis and terror state iran. establishing friendships in the middle east. there is a switch. bringing hundreds of billions of dollars into america by deal-making with the saudis. by the way this morning the leading trump-hating media outlet, "washington post" has an opinion peace entitled, trump's bizarre and un-american visit to saudi arabia. compare and contrast. the apoplectic left, and a president acting in america's interests. the elites are not having a very good day. the second hour of "varney & company," we're about to begin. ♪ stuart: maybe the successful change in the conversation away from political turmoil towards

deal-making and diplomacy in the middle east. ç like what is going on. 20,902 to be precise. it's a rally in the first 33 minutes of business this monday morning. let's get to president trump's mid-east trip. sounds like he is building a collision against terror. listen to this. >> this is not a battle between different sects or different civilizations this is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion. stuart: strong stuff. lieutenant colonel ralph peters joins us now, fox news strategic analyst. i'm saying this is an informal alliance. sunni muslims, saudi arabia, egypt, america, with quiet assistance from israel, to counter iran. what say you?

>> well, that is certainly a key part of it and the president gave a robust and very useful speech undoing a lot of the damage that obama did during his eight years but for me the speech was really in two parts. the immediate concern from the u.s. standpoint is actually isis, al qaeda, et cetera. when he called for unity the president trump was effective getting a lot of people, a lot of heads of state to nod their heads. he achieved a unity of spirit. the challenge is achieving unity of action. arabs and other middle-eastern countries are very good nodding their heads and saying a lot of things but we need them to fight soldier to soldier with us. iranian regime is great threat. horrible regime and people that want a gun.

bit unfortunate, united states were eephus sievely praising saudi arabia this weekend while iranians were giving overwhelming landslide vote. stuart: isn't it time to face real ity the principle threat in the middle east is not saudi arabia, it is iran, lining up against iran with the backdrop of the iranian nuclear deal, surely that is good priority for our president to have at this tom? >> you need a practical plan. there is a way to do it. what we have to do is expose the revolutionary guard. they're not strong and capable and powerful as they have been insure the people. the place to do that is syria. the iraq is more problematic.

it has to be done artfully, you want to take the regime apart in iran, wreck the reputation of iranian revolutionary guards. that is a worthwhile endeavor. stuart: thank you very much, colonel. appreciate you being with us on a monday morning. the market likes what is being said on the program and what is happening in the world of investing. we're now up 105 points. 20,910, trying to do the math, two points away from all-time record high. not bad for a monday morning. check this out, couple dozen students staged a walk out at notre dame during mike pence's commencement speech. >> thank you all. [booing] stuart: i think we should point out a large part of the you audience booed protesters as they walked out. ashley: that's good. stuart: yes, they did.

tammy bruce with us, fox news contributor. i coupled that, with a mild compared to that display of on send hety in california. >> yes. stuart: seems to me, that president trump was just treated with absolute respect by the king of saudi arabia, the prime minister of israel, the leader of heç egypt and et cetera, et cetera, with contempt by the left in america. >> that is interesting juxtaposition what is going on. reminds the american people and world how leadership views our president and what the american left melt down. what was interesting about the notre dame situation, 3100 graduates, less than 100 people walked out. irony was the vice president's speech was about freedom of speech, and they walked out, this is the other irony claiming that they were walking out in the name of inclusiveness which is sort of like needing to burn down the village in order to

save it. but the good news is that, so few. but they started with, this is where administration professors come in. notre dame has tradition of inviting newly-inaugurated presidents to give the commencement address. they made a big deal in march about not doing that, inviting pence instead. that is permission to behave against or behave badly because you don't like president trump. that was, bad move i think by notre dame and in this case, a the least not everyone went for it when it came -- stuart: i'm beginning to think the antics are irrelevant. as the president strides across the world stage, making $400 billion in deals and discussing with prime ministers and king students turn their back on the vice president or treat -- that is becoming irrelevant. it is becoming not a joke. it is disgusting. it is not a joke but it is irrelevant. >> they're marginalizing themselves. the individuals that walked out are not going also to be

prepared for the real world. this is where the responsibility of a university comes in. yes the president is focusing on his agenda. he is moving forward. those who choose to make themselves irrelevant at this point including ga sy media. stuart: -- legacy media. has the president left turmoil in washington. does he want or or has he. ashley shaking his head. ashley: nine days on the road is not changing what happens in washington. it is a quagmire. get momentum from the road trip. >> there is nothing he can do to placate the media or left at this point. his main goal as you see on the trip focus on the agenda. realizing power and iaea effectiveness, apply the same dynamics here. ignore the media. i like him tweeting, maybe do it in more deliberate sense. and i think he will learn some messages. stuart: the president is evolving. >> only has been 120 days.

this is honest. stuart: seems like three years. i mean it does, if you're in the business seems like three years, that's for sure. coming up you are about to see a sea lion yanking a young lady, you saw it there you go, look at that. >> terrible. stuart: off the western coast of canada. the crowd surrounded the sea lion feeding with bread crumbs urging him. somebody saved her. she is unharmed. coming up, actors, kevin and sam sorbo are here. they will talk a new faith based movie, let their be light. president's trip to the middle east the. ann coulter said president trump's critics may in fact be right. she will join us later this hour to tell us why. yes, this is the second hour of "varney & company." ♪ whoa, this thing is crazy.

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stuart: all right. 10:15 eastern time, up 80 points on the dow industrials. just show of 20,900. we pulled back a fraction but there is plenty of green if you look at the dow 30. we have this for you as well ford motor company replacing mark fields. he is out. in comes jim hackett. the stock fell 35% since mr. field took the helm weighed by a ton of debt. sears closing another 30 stores. that ised in ages did to the 150 they have announced will be closed. that announcement came at beginning of the year. straight down for sears at $7 a

share. back to the president's trip to the mid-east. one theme, religion uniting against terror. listen to this. >> there is still much work to be done. that means honestly con fonting the crisis of islamic extremism and islammists and islamic terror and we are having a very profound effect if you look what happened recently. and it means standing together against the murder of innocent muslims, the oppression of women, persecution of jews and the slaughter of christians. stuart: isn't it nice to see an american president say the slaughter of christians, accepting what is truly going on in this world. special guest joining us now. the author of, they're your kids, sam sorbo with husband

kevin sorbo. lady and gentleman welcome to the program. we concentrated on the sip problem sy of the middle east and all the deal-making but tell us about the religious aspects of this trip. kevin first. >> i likeç he called it what it is. it is islamic terrorism. i mean, i love the fact that if i bring this up with any of my friends right away on the other side of the fence, right away i'm clumping in all muslims. i never said all muslims are bad. never said that in my life. get attacked for that. go for parks far extremes looking reality what is going on in the world. stuart: sam, i have not heard american president talk about the slaughter of christians in the middle east. >> this is really a seminal moment. he managed to get, 50, 50 muslim nations together. you talk about political, my radio show is on politics and religion. politics how we get there.

they're intertwined. what he managed to do, bring that to the forefront to talk about this this is absolutely brilliant. i'm thrilled. stuart: what we do, with he do politics and money. you do politics and religion. >> for people money is their religion. works out that way. stuart: are you looking at me? are you looking at me? >> never. stuart: i'm episcopalian. you have a new movie, "let there be light." >> talking about politics and religion. sam wrote the movie. i directed it. we both are starring in it. out this fall. one of your coworkers, sean hannity funded entire movie. shot in birmingham. ready to go, comes out this you fall. sam? >> talks about, there is a darkness we have in the world in the form of terrorism. a darkness trying to encroach on the world as we know it. there is only one way to fight the darkness. that is with the light. and the light is, is what we believe. and we have to stand up for our beliefs. we made this film to try to encourage people to stand up for

what they believe. if they believe in life. if they believe in goodness, then we have to make that distinction. we were talking, we were talking earlier about the thing that is happening in california. i want to get into that. stuart: just for the benefit of our viewers -- >> let there be light the movie.com. check out the trailer. stuart: i want to get to that event in california a top democrat, party official in the democrat party, in california he led an obscene and i mean obscene anti-trump rally. he led them with an anti-trump chant. the crowd responded with raised middle fingers. you have got to see. i know you don't like it. you got to see it. watch. >> i want to thank the people that do this that interpret for -- come on. [applause] now, all together [bleep]

donald trump. [laughter] stuart: okay. we bleeped it out. that man is a democrat party official. what is happening to california. you live there, don't you? >> what has been happening for the last 30, 40 years out there, go ahead. >> you should say nancy pelosi im on. not just him. she was there also. >> she is in the background. freeze frame it. there are still photos laughing and applauding. she flew over there on commercial plans i'm sure. >> stuart we're teaching our kids in school, god doesn't exist, survival of the fittest is rule of the land. when people behave as though there are people who are subhuman, which is what this is, they consider donald trump to be subhuman because of his beliefs, what he holds, this is perfectly acceptable behavior for them. the reason we have a bullying outbreak in our schools, we've

been teaching kids they are pure accidents. they are accidents of nature. and that survival of the fittest is is the law of the land. if survival of the fittest is law of the land, this thing in the democrat party they elected someone new. she is challenging it, she knows cheat something not actually against the rules anymore especially in the democrat party. stuart: one more time, let there be light.com? >> let there be light the movie.com. stuart: thank you, kevin, sam. >> support the movie on opening weekend. >> coming out in the fall. >> thank you very much. stuart: president trump meeting with israel's prime minister, +p#ormer israeli i am ambassador to the u.s. is with us on that subject. we'll be back. what if technology

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stuart: president trump's visit to israel dominating the headlines. you see him approaching the western wall earlier in the day. the second stop on historic middle east trip. we have the israel's former ambassador to the united states. mr. ambassador, seems to us informal alliance is being made here. sunni muslims, egypt, lining up against iran with thes that kit support and approval of israel. is that accurate, sir? >> i think that is fairly accurate. israel has common interest with the arab world, saudi arabia, jordan, egypt, we have more in common than anytime in the last 69 years. woe agree on syria. we agree on isis. we agree on the muslim brother hood and iran. waiting for all of us waiting for america to stand up to iran

standing with us. stuart: 20 seconds, all i got, mr. ambassador. tos of the beamiest policy. tos you say? >> i say, certainly as far as iran goes, 99% of the people in region, especially arabs, that the previous president cut a deal with iran against our common interests. now the time to claim those interests. time of national defense for us is existential issue. stuart: a poor connection. you got your point across. we appreciate that. mr. ambassador thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. espn, total change much subject, they're still playing politics. one of their hosts claims cuizations of lib alibis those against diversity. jason whitlock, says that is bloody nonsense. or maybe shouldn't say that.

pure nonsense. ashley: you said it any way.

stuart: 96 points higher for the dow industrials. 20,900 is the level. amazon, mcdonald's, both of them have hit all-time record highs today. look at amazon, $32 a way from a thousand bucks a share. president trump's former national security advisor, mike flynn declining the subpoena invoking the fifth. aley: this is interesting. he is not going to testify because of the self-incrimination. and he has every right to do this. of course mike flynn was let go back in february on basically the final straw, if you remember was, lying to vice president pence about talking and dealings

with the russians. he is not though, invoking the fifth and not talk to senate intelligence committee. stuart: i have to raise this one for you. vice president pence, he takes the lead, he is taking the lead on the growth agenda while the president is away in the middle east. he is taking the lead on growth. he is going to capitol hill today to meet with congress, lawmakers. mark latta, vice president pence's press secretary. mr. latta, the vice president trying to figure out and going to republicans finding out which group within the republican party supports the big cuts that are coming for some social programs in the budget? is that what he is looking for on capitol hill? >> well, thank you for having me this morning. what the vice president will do traveling to capitol hill this afternoon meeting with republican lawmakers, working away forward that will deliver a budget on what republicans have been talking about for decades, what the president is talking

about, basically balancing the budget long term. making sure we have a budget that poises economy for growth and job creation. stuart: that is the budget proposal. that is the tax reform proposal, i got it, but when the vice president meets republicans today, he is going to find out whether or not they will support deep cuts in medicaid and deep cuts in food stamps. that is what he is going to find out that will be sort of a state of the agreement and state of the republican party meeting, really. >> well, what you're going to see in the budget when it comes out later this week it will deliver on president trump's promise we'll not touch social security retirement benefits or medicare. what we can talk about reforming government programs to deliver government services in the most effective and efficient way possible. many americans at home, state and local governments, companies for years have been tighting their belts. you have a budget rolled out from president trump and the administration later this week is one that will tighten the belt of the federal government.

make sure we're focused on priorities of building our defense, protecting our borders, investing in those things that can actually move our economy forward and make the economy grow again because that is the only way we will get back to a balanced budget. stuart: we hear moderates will not like some of these proposals but i have to move on because dozens of students at notre dame staged a walk out during vice president pence's commencement speech. what do you make of that? >> i was at the notre dame with the vice president when he delivered that speech. there were over 30,000 people in historic notre dame stadium. less than 100 exercised their first amendment right to walk out. they missed a message from the vice president, that we need to make sure freedom of speech, thought, expression on america's college campuses at a time many conservatives are blacklisted and forbidden to talk on campuses. that is what the vice president's message to notre dame was yesterday. stuart: real fast, the other members of the crowd there, a lot of them booed the protesters

as they walked out? that is accurate? >> that's true. i will tell you, that they were all also cheering that message from the vice president when he was talking about the president's message what he is saying overseas right now in rebuilding america's credibility as a leader in the world, and actually challenging the graduates to go out and fulfill their destinies to be the next leaders of our country and industry. that was the message, that was the focus, not on the very small percentage of folks who actually chose to leave, but tens of thousands that stayed to listen to the vice president's remarks. stuart: good stuff. marc lotta, thank you is for joining us. more politics at espn. dan lebitahd says that comes from lax of diversity. >> many of you are saying you

talk to daily show could not and politics. we like talking to interesting people about interesting things. if you want to object what we did there, that is fine you object to it. but, i%m bored by you. stuart: that is by the way, dan lebatard. my apologies. jason whitlock is with us. speak for yourself host on fox sports 1. all right, sir what do you say to what mr. lebtard had to say? >> well, i'm one of those critics i guess he is talking to. i'm not someone bothered by diversity. i am certainly pro-diversity. you know, i was originally hired to run the undefeated website which was intended to many ploy and is employing 50 to 60 african-american sportswriters and journalists. i think that is an easy cop out to say that the critics are

people that are bothered by diversity. i certainly am not, and have benefited from media environment that welcomes diversity. stuart: is it true to say, jason, that in your opinion, that espn has a liberal bias and it intrudes into their programing and appearance of their anchors on air? >> i think that entire media is being influenced to go a far left direction and i think that the entire media is distractedded by liberal politics, and not focused on business. i think it's, you know, acutely affecting espn. i wrote that in "the wall street journal." and so, yeah, i think the entire media feels a lot of pressure to go left and espn, you know, moved left in a way that is probably, in my view not as good for business as staying objective and more down the

road. stuart: jason, you wrote a piece recently about colin kaepernick. you said that he was, wrote it in "the wall street journal" the headline, let me show everybody the headline. colin kaepernick is a victim of his own supporters. i noticed that kaepernick has not been signed to any team for the incomes season. what is your point here? >> my point is that we had a city councilwoman in seattle over last weekend start campaigning for the seahawks to sign colin kaepernick. this is what i'm talking about. now you have football people being second-guessed by a city council person and, that has no expertise in football. colin kaepernick has become a political football and it is not something that an organization really wants to be bothered with. they want to make football decisions and so a lot of the people, the city council person,

a lot of the people in the media that are bringing their left-wing politics into the discussion about colin kaepernick, they're actually creating the problem for colin kaepernick. if i'm a head coach or general manager of a team, and you sign colin kaepernick, and you're going to be second-guessed by non-football people with a political agenda, i don't want to take that risk. you, you're risking, risking being accused of racism when your decisions are purely football. you're risking having your integrity and character questioned when you're just try football decision, and so the people actually thinking they're supporting colin kaepernick are people keeping him away from his next opportunity. stuart: since you're so popular on the program i will give you one more question. how you about this? i know you're laughing. i can hear you. tom brady signs a multiyear deal to help pitch aston-martin's

newest car model. do you have a reaction to that? >> tom brady is the best and the brightest. so why wouldn't he associate himself with the greatest car, one of the greatest models of car and a brand as powerful and known as the best and brightest like aston-martin? i think it is a perfect marriage. you know, look, he is married to gisele, one of the greatest supermodels of all time, now he is married, promoting one of the greatest automobiles. tom brady likes the best and brightest. stuart: that will not satisfy the patriot haters who are legion in this country. nonetheless, another fine performance, jason whitlock, anytime you want to come back on this program, sir, you are welcome. thanks for joining us. >> iç represent hyundai. stuart: i'm a john deere kind of

guy. jays, thank you very much. we'll you soon. >> thank you. stuart: huge hot dog recall about this. metal shards found in packaging, liz? nathan's and curtis brands, mittal shards found in the packaging. 210,000-pound of hot dogs recalled nationwide. no one injured. if you have the hot dogs, check the date of it, sell by date, get a refund. ashley: you wondered what was in hotdogs? >> shards. the winning horse in the preakness stacks, cloud computing, beat kentucky derby winner by a nose. this has nothing to do with cloud computing. we thought we would put spots on the side because that is the name of the hours. you get it? we're trying to be funny on a monday morning. why not? ashley: we try. stuart: we try. ann coulter says she is worried that the trump haters may have been right all along.

uh-oh. ann coulter is next.

♪ ashley: listen to this. tim phillips, president of americans for prosperity says the koch brothers don't like the border adjustment tax. roll tape. stuart: do the coke brothers approve of the border tax, border adjustment tax? >> we oppose the border adjustment tax. it's a tax on consumers.

it will hurt the economy and those who least can afford to pay it, those on fixed incomes. stuart: dot koch brothers and yourself, your organization, oppose measures to pay for tax cuts for other people? >> we know cutting tax rates increases revenues to the government. it happened under reagan, we cut the top rate from 50% to 28%, stuart. ♪ break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything.

>> i don't understand why people are that shocked. this president ran unconventional campaign. i was there along big part of it at beginning being one of his competitors. that is what the american people voted for. in essence this white house is not much different than the campaign. stuart: let me repeat that, senator marco rubio don't be surprised with turmoil surrounding mr. trump. this is what america voted for. joining us now the author of, "in trump we trust," ann coulter. ann, lately you've been down on president trump. i believe you're saying that the haters were right. make your case. >> not quite, and actually the attacks on trump keep bringing me back to defend him every time i want to be mad at him. but i mean what rubio said is, senator rubio, is preposterous.

that isn't what people voted for. we voted for a wall, for enforcement of our immigration laws, for not being the world's policeman. for ending nafta. unfortunately we're not getting what we voted for, but secondly it is preposterous, because to blame the quote chaos on trump himself, no. he is being viciously violently attacked. he took on on both split dal parties. like blaming czechoslovakia -- stuart: do you blame president trump himself for some of the tweets you put out, almost some of the things almost off-the-cuff, you're critical of that i take it? >> no, i love the tweets. almost everything that everyone else dislikes about trump, what i consider his strong points. i love his tweets. that is how he defends himself. i love that he had steak, brought his own steak to saudi arabia. everything else others attack him for. what i'm concerned with, i'm not, i mean we had no choice.

what were you going to do, vote for rubio? no. both political parties for years and years have been pushing whatever wall street and elites want. trump was the only candidate who is going to put americans first. i just want him to get back to his campaign promises but i love his 3:00 a.m. tweets. i think they're hilarious. stuart: the media clearly trying to get the conversation back to political turmoil and political trouble back home. i don't think the media will ever give him a break. do you think though, that the media at this point is winning? >> i don't think they have as much pow are -- power as they did when they took out president nixon. part of the rage they're losing power because of the internet. no, i don't think they will ever stop, and i hope trump notices that's if he doesn't keep his promises, republicans will be

wiped out in the midterm elections. democrats will have the house of representatives, and they will absolutely impeach him. doesn't matter, he could be purer than caesar's wife, they will impeach him. the left-wing base is obsessed with that. trump better keep his promises. stuart: is your criticism of mr. trump or is it because of a divided gop which can not deliver on promises which mr. trump made? >> well, of course i blame the republicans in congress the most but we always knew that. i know they were traitors again, working for the lobbyists, the chamber of commerce and wall street and not for the american people. we knew that trump would have a tough road to hoe but he was supposed toç go down and be a bull in a china shop. we're still waiting for the bull in the china shop. i mean, there is obviously still time. it has only been a few months now, but so far, that budget deal, it was, it was like a george soros practical joke, i

mean, $18 million to study misogyny in the marines. funding for a wall, specifically prohibited. funding for, you know, planned parenthood. this isn't what we voted for, and i do think trump meant what he said. you wouldn't go through what he went through for 18 months being attacked by both political parties the entire media, the washington rock brock, it is tough when he is up against. it what's he promised. that is what we want. stuart: ann, i hope you will promise to tell us with a lost warning the next time you propose to give a speech on any university campus because we want to know about it first. and if they throw you out we want you to make the speech with me on this program. i hope that is okay with you. >> love to. stuart: you're on, kid. you're on. ann coulter, thank you very much for being with us. we do appreciate it. thanks a lot, ann. >> thank you. stuart: i'm moving on to venezuela. this is terrible. a top general there reportedly

caught on tape issuing orders to use snipers to take out political opponents. liz? liz: saying come a time, his name is general jose perez torealba, there will come a time we have to employ snipers. i want us to be ready. we are facing subversive urban war. when people see dead bodies on the street, maybe they will stay home and not come out to protest. somebody at this meeting which was held in the last week of april at a military base in april. stuart: wait a second, what if the media catches us using snipers, photographs, that will kill us. he said we have to do 24 anyway to stop the protests. already 45 dead. seven injured plus. stuart: thank you, liz. here is what we have, president trump meets with israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu next hour. we'll bring you all the developments as they happen of course. stay with "varney & company." the comfort in knowing where things are headed.

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chance. the iconic voice coming through the phone, i never imagined it would be a familiar part of my day and my life. stuart: it did. peggy grand, president reagan's long-time assistant. she shared some stories from the white house in earlier days. shared the stories. a lot of you wrote in on that subject. just going to take one. this is from paul. great story of one of our greatest presidents, a gentleman with a heart of lion when it came to america and american people. ash, liz, people liked ronald reagan. ashley: they did. stuart: it hped -- helped him get stuff done. ashley: he gave fabulous speeches. while he was kindly to the viewers point, i had a backbone. look what he achieved. we could use him again, in contrast i think people are entertained by donald trump as opposed to liking the man what he stands for, what do you say?

liz: i think you're right. interesting you bring that up, they both calling entities evil. reagan was unusual as a president because the new term was coined reagan democrats. who would have thunk a democrat would vote for a republican. he grabbed and carved out the niche of voters. ashley: he was a hollywood star but also a governor. governor is a great training with president. you have to meet budgets and work both sides of the oil. liz: campaign every two years a lot of governors. used to campaigning. stuart: ability to use television. ronald reagan used television like nobodies before him. i think donald trump is pretty good at it. reagan is the master of communication via television. liz: that's true. stuart: did him a lot of good. everyone, we'll be back with a whole lot more on "varney & company" right after this.

stuart: at this hour, president trump is about to meet israel's benjamin netanyahu. watch the optics between them

when they get together. it will be very, very different from the almost open hostility that was so obvious when president obama met israel's leader. earlier the saudis rolled out a very long and very welcoming red carpet for our president. mr. trump went to riyadh to renew another township that had chilled in the last -- friendship that had chilled in the last eight years. at the heart, is a dramatic reversal of america's mideast policy. therethat's what our president w pushing for. he's uniting sunni muslims against shia iran with the quiet approval and assistance of israel. that's like day and night from the obama years, isn't it? we should be paying attention to this. our future is not about comey or the russians, and it's certainly not about impeachment. it's about's, security and, yes -- it's about peace, security and, yes, prosperity at home. the president faces an unrelenting barrage of contempt

from the left and the media. just look at that disgusting and obscene anti-trump crowd in california led by a top democrat. or the harvard study that showed 93% negative coverage of the administration by the media. one last point. president trump was treated with real respect by the king of saudi arabia, the president of egypt and the prime minister of israel, and america's media treats him with contempt. the third hour of varney ask be company is -- "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: well, you heard it, you've been seeing it. president trump in jerusalem to meet israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. this trip is the president's chance to change the conversation back home. joining us now, the former governor, john ashcroft, who was u.s. attorney general under president george w. bush.

mr. attorney general, welcome back to the program. it's great to see you again, sir. >> delighted to be back with you. stuart: did the president successfully change the conversation, divert attention away from what is political turmoil here to diplomacy and alliance-making overseas? >> well, the president is engaged in doing things that are in the national interests of the united states, and i think he's respected overseas for doing that. and the way you get cooperation internationally is to identify issues that are of common interest to people in various different parts of the world. and we have located a very common interest we have this stopping isis -- in stopping isis. and he's gone back not only to build, but to rebuild and reconstruct and enhance relationships that are designed around this common objective of destabilizing and defeating isis. and that is uniting us in ways

that our are somewhat unusual, but they're very productive. so the president is doing what the president ought to be doing, and i think the american people are glad to see him do that. stuart: do you believe it's -- i'm saying and i've said frequently on this program this morning that it's a complete reversal of the obama -- >> i've lost the feed. stuart stuart are you in agreement with that? i think we just lost the audio ability to communicate backwards and forwards with the former attorney general of the united states of america, john ashcroft. we'll, we will would work to ree that. left-hand side of your screen, melania trump, first lady of the united states of america, in jerusalem. it's about, what, 6:00 there at night, just after 6 p.m. local time right there. i believe the attorney -- yes, i think the attorney general is back. sir, can you hear me now okay? >> yes, i can. i'm sorry for whatever difficulty there is. [laughter] stuart: it's not your fault,

sir. it's probably mine, actually. >> go ahead. now it's gone again. stuart: it's gone again. i think we need to -- >> oh, is that him? [laughter] stuart: we've got to put more money. left-hand side of the screen, the ongoing visit to jerusalem byç first lady melania trump along with president, of course. do we have the attorney general back? no, we don't. okay. i do apologize to all of our viewers. the attorney general, former attorney general of the united states is a prime guest. we look forward to having him on the show, and we'll try to get him back at some point convenient in the very near future. he's a valued guest, we like the guy. that's john ashcroft. he'll be back. check the big board, we were up over 100 points, now we'll settle for a gain of 66, 20,871. where's the price of oil? $50 a barrel, closing in on 51, actually. this as u.s. oil companies sign very big deals with the saudis. $50 billion worth of deals, actually. come on in, please, steven

shawn, she's the author of -- he's the author of the shock report. i don't think these deals with the saudis make any difference to the price of oil, it's all about diplomacy and money flowing backwards and forwards. have i got it right? >> absolutely. and here in the now that this deal has no impact, of course, on the price of oil. this is all about machinations going ahead of thursday's meeting with opec. but this deal that was just inked best underscores why donald trump is president of the united states, and that's simply the fact that this country, during the recovery -- you know, let's keep in mind the great recession lasted 19 months, the recovery is now in its 95th month. we are five times now longer throughout the recovery, and yet we still lack quality jobs. that is to say when we look at the top earners on a weekly basis, the top two-thirds are still in deficit. of all the jobs in those 19 months that were lost during the

great recession, we've only replaced 60% of those jobs. so now the one industry that pays well and was at the vanguard prior to the crash of oil prices in 2014, of course, was the oil and gas industry. but as the saying goes, capital is going to go where it is welcomed, and it's going to stay where it is well treated. and when we saw all the political gamesmanship during the previous administration, it was obvious that this was not welcome capital in this industry. so thousand with this deal -- now with deal, trump -- shell after sitting on the sidelines for five to six years, finally pulls the trigger on building a major plant in the western part of pennsylvania. it is clear that capital is finally, again, welcomed in this industry, and the united states is once again open for business. stuart: and that means jobs. because we're talking tens of billions -- if not hundreds of billions of jobs -- dollars flowing into the united states. to you, that's flat out jobs,

high-paid jobs. are you making that point too, i think? >> oh, absolutely. now, when we look at the u.s. state department's own study of let's take the keystone xl which, by the way, hillary clinton's state department and john kerry's state department both signed off on and that study said during the construction phase 42,000 jobs would be created. now again, what that means for the petro are chemical industry at the top of the pipe and at the end of the pipe and the momentum plyer effect -- multiplier effect that we see translates generally into jobs. shell is putting 6,000 workers to work right now just outside of pittsburgh. it's going to lead to significant -- and, again, i want to underscore this -- can high paying, quality jobs. finally shovel-ready jobs we were told about eight years ago but for whatever reason we never saw, they were always there, and we're finally starting to see those real, quality jobs come to the fore.

stuart: thanks very much, indeed. the president and benjamin netanyahu speaking. let's listen in. >> [inaudible] i i do look forward to our discussions regarding our -- [inaudible] >> iran, iran should be very grateful to the united states, because iran negotiated a fantastic deal with the previous administration, a deal that is unbelievable from any standpoint. some people don't understand even how it could be -- [inaudible] and instead of being thankful and saying thank you because they were in serious trouble, i think they would have failed, totally failed within six months, we gave them a lifeline, and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity. and we also gave them an ability to continue with terror and with

a all of the things they've been doing. because no matter where we go, we see the signs of iran in the middle east. >> everywhere. >> no matter where we go, whether it's syria where we've been forced to shoot the 59 missiles a few weeks ago. no heart what area we're in -- no matter what area we're in, we see -- yemen, iraq. no matter where we are, we see the signs, every sign whether it's -- [inaudible] whether it's money and guns, it's iran. and instead of saying thank you to the united states, they now feel emboldened. maybe theyç figure that the del was so good, we'll do it every time. they can't do it, believe me. it was a terrible thing for the united states to enter that deal, and believe me, iran will never have a nuclear weapon. that i can tell you.

[inaudible conversations] >> our intelligence cooperation is terrific. [inaudible conversations] stuart: as we said, the optics of a meeting between president trump and prime minister netanyahu are extremely different from the optics of the meetings we've gotten used to over the last eight years between president obama and prime minister netanyahu. two things of substance were just revealed. number one, the president, our president said iran should be grateful to america because that, they got that nuke deal. the president at that point appeared to be setting his sights firmly on the nuke deal.

not necessarily to throw it over, but certainly to be highly critical of it whilst he's speaking to the prime minister of israel. second point, right at the very end of his remarks he said iran will never have a nuclear weapon. they will never have one. s that is completely different, that is the opposite of of the iran nuke deal. i think those were two very important statements from the prime minister and our president right there moments ago. now, who's with us now? i'll tell you, dana loesch, host of "the dana show." your thoughts on those two items just revealed there from our president. what do you say, dana? >> well, i'm pleased so far, stuart. and as always, so good to see you this morning. i'm very pleased thus far, and i'm really excited to hear the messaging on iran particular my, because for the -- particularly, because for the previous eight years it felt as though we did everything to satiate iran's

appetite for domination. it felt that we compromised so much for iran and got so little -- actually nothing -- out of it. so i'm really pleased to see that this is taking place with this administration, that these are the words that they have and that the language that the president has had, stuart, has been so strong against iran. it's a complete 180 from what we've seen with the previous administration. and that language, stuart, is exactly what we needed to hear from a president, from the united states' president. that language on iran, that forceful -- that's a real line in the sand if you want to talk about a line in the sand. and finally, i think we see it. that's been good. i'm very encouraged by this. stuart: something i was encouraged by which came out yesterday in the meetings in saudi arabia were our president talked about the slaughter of christians. it's got to stop. i mean, he came right out with it. we haven't heard that in the last decade. we've just not heard it. >> no. stuart: i thought that was a very welcome change, and you,

i'm sure. >> yes. i was very happy to hear that, because it is an everyday reality for so many people in that part of the world with. christian genocide, the absolute extermination of christians in so many areas. he also said islamic extreme up. -- extremism to saudi arabia's face. and he also hit upon a bunch of other points as well that i think are going to go a long way in reestablishing the united states as the bringer of peace. the united states as strength through peace. look, we'll be friends with you, but don't start nothing, there won't be nothing. i they's the message we're getting out of this information, and it is one that the united states has needed to have for a long time. there's been a power vacuum, an absence of spine, and it feels like it's back. stuart: left-hand side of everyone's screens, that is jerusalem moments ago. the president was engaged in a conversation with israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu. in it he said iran should be very grateful to america because

they got such an easy nuke deal with iran. second point he said was, look, the iranians are never -- he used the word "never" -- going to have a nuclear weapon. that, i thought, was a very big deal. do we have attorney general ashcroft back with us? we do? we do not. [laughter] >> ever hopeful. stuart: my prompter operator just very briefly this. dana, i want to get back to you with a story from the lady in southern california. put it on prompter, please. okay. okay. let me see, the dow jones industrial average, please. can i see that? up 71 points as we speak. 20,875,ç okay, that's where we are. okay. i know what's happened, okay -- >> yes? tooth stuart my teleprompter has come down, okay? that's what happened. dana? put dana be on the camera, please, because she's going to

laugh at me. thank you very much, indeed. my prompter went down, so i surs going, you see. [laughter] that's a problem for a guy like me. >> and the show goes on, those prompter problems. stuart: you know, that can i say. now, in southern california a leading democrat was asked what does the democrat party stand for. and i believe we have her response. it's somewhat garbled and all over the place, but listen and watch this now. maxine waters. okay. we're having a few technical difficulties. there we go. >> well, everyone knows that i am the ranking member of the financial services committee and that i have spent many, many hours and days implementing the dodd-frank reform. we've pushed back on the republicans, we fight against them attempting to get rid of the consumer financial protection bureau. it's my role as the ranking member of the financial

services -- as a strong democrat who's responsible for carrying out the values that we have, protecting the american people and making sure that we have an economy that works for everybody. stuart: okay. maxine waters there responding to a question, what does the democrat party stand for. your take on her response. >> stuart, i thought that was the most pathetic answer that i've ever heard. that was the well she went to, dodd-frank? most middle class americans, in fact, most americans cannot put into a ten-second sound bite what dodd-frank is. all they know is the amount of paperwork they have to sign when they buy a house. home ownership is down and we also see the stranglehold that it has on business creation. democrats don't have messaging because they don't have any policies because they don't have any substance, stuart. that's it. they've spent the past several years focusing on bathrooms and pronouns and everything else except jobs and the economy and

things that actually matter to americans when they sit down at the dinner table and they look at their family members from across the table. they don't focus on any of those difficult issues. so they have to go, they have to go and focus on these social justice warrior issues. the reason that democrats lost in november is because their messaging was horrible and their policies were horrible, and that's what maxine waters can't bring herself to say, so she has to go to this olympic-level world salad, by the way -- word salad. if you go to southern missouri, they're not going to know that she was on the senate finance committee, that she was one of the ranking members that helped with dodd-frank. they're just going to see her as a woman who's part of a party that could not articulate what it believed and what it would do to make americans' lives easier. and i don't mean leaning further upon government, stuart, i mean getting out of the way and letting people be able to create business and enjoy the fruits of their labor which this party for

years coming has been stand anything the way of. stuart: i also want your comment on the california democrat party's, their outgoing chair. they had a meeting of the democrats in california, and a leading democrat led the crowd in an obscene anti-trump chant. the audience responded by raising the middle finger. i mean, i thought i'd seen it all until -- that man there is a leading democrat. i think it's extraordinary. >> yes. the f-bombs that they dropped. and, apparently, he has a colorful vocabulary, i guess, because he believes cursing is a substitute for wit. it is not. but this is a really interesting phenomena that we're witnessing because, stuart, there's been a lot of discussion as to whether or not democrats think that trump won the presidency by cussing. they think that, well, maybe just because he was showing how tough he was by dropping this word or that word, maybe that's -- we need to do her of that. something to that effect. in fact, what they don't

understand, stuart, is one of the reasons -- trump doesn't have a foul mouth, at least on the campaign trail that we've seen like that, but one of the things thedon't understand is trump speaks from his heart. and a lot of republicans speak there be their heart. they don't have to do what you saw maxine waters, that video you just played, that's what democrats have been doing. what you see from a lot of republicans now, they say, look, folks, i'm just going to be straight with you . and democrats are confusing speaking from the heart with vulgarity. that's not going to win their base back, stuart. stuart: i don't think so. deign that, i'm out of time, thank you for bailing me out of my prompter problem. thank you very much, dana loesch, you're all right. >> thank you, stuart. toure stuart we'll continue to monitor president trump's first overseas trip, he's meeting with benjamin netanyahu. now i want to show you netflix. it's been 15 years since the company went public for the more first time, the ipo day.

fifteen years ago they were snail mailing physical dvd company. at $15 a share. not bad. >> not bad. stuart: and we told you that internet users say they're just not interested in virtual reality. well, the military is. they're using a new vr trainer to simulate combat jumps, letting soldiers practice over and over again before an actual mission. details on that coming up for you. ♪ ♪ these days families want to be connected 24/7.

that's why at comcast, we're always working to make our services more reliable. with technology that can update itself. and advanced fiber network infrastructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most.

stuart: all right. the military is using a new virtual reality trainer to simulate combat jumps, and it is called parasim as in, i guess, parasimulater. it uses a harness made like a parachute, a virtual reality headset, satellites, maps, makes them feel like a soldier on the battlefield even when he or she is not stwhroo. next case, air traffic control towers may be a thing of the past, certainly of the london city airport.

high-def cameras will replace the staff. the arrivals and departures will be monitored miles away using live streams. you're okay about that? hollywood's big summer movies not filmed in hollywood. warner brothers filmed wonder woman and king arthur in britain, 21st century fox chose australia for alien: covenant. los angeles tried its best to lure production back. produce beers say they got better -- producers say they got better tax breaks elsewhere. livenation, they've got a music test value passport. it costs $799, you can get into almost any music festival put out by livenation for the rest of the year. that's 90 music festivals for under $1,000 u.s. dollars. and now this, clint eastwood says we've all lost our sense of humor. he even says that dirty harry wouldn't be made today because it is not politically correct. there you go.

up next, that man coming down the hallway, judge andrew napolitano. we'll get his take on the governor of colorado, governor hickenlooper, pardoning a felon to avoid deportation. how about that? the judge is next. ♪ break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything.

stuart: president trump's former nationl security adviser, general mike flynn, declining the senate intel committee's subpoena invoking the fifth amendment. what is the significance of this? judge andrew napolitano is here. it's not just taking the fifth declining to answer, it's also declining to supply documents. >> yes. because voluntarily supplying documents is the functional equivalent of answering the committee's questions. and you may say, well, can't he answer what he wants and e invoke the fifth? no. you can't pick and choose which questions to answer and not to answer, and you can't today hour the examination to only those questions you want with. so surrendering the documents, had he done that, would have waived his right to invoke the fifth amendment when and if he's called -- stuart: so it's a good legal move but maybe a bad political move. >> yes. stuart: what about the special counsel -- >> he will not have this luxury. if they want his documents, they won't ask for them, they will show up at five in the morning

with a s.w.a.t. team armed with a search warrant, and they'll take a what they want. but he still could refuse to answer questions because involuntarily-seized documents is not the functional equivalent of volunteering the documents. stuart: so he could still refuse to answer questions from the special counsel as well as the senate intel committee. >> and it is most prudent for him to refuse to answer questions. why? because he hasn't been charged with anything yet. so until he know what is the allegations are against him, he shnt say a thing, and she's been steadfast about not -- he's been steadfast about not saying a peep in public. stuart: okay. it'll look bad politically. the left will have a field day. >> well, they will. the left loves the fifth, i love the fifth, but the left will try to make the argument he has something to hilled. stuart: okay. that'll come back to haunt everybody. colorado's governor, john hickenlooper, he pardoned a convicted felon in order to save

him from deportation. >> okay. stuart: now, you're going to give it the legalistic angle. >> yes. i'll keep my personal opinion out unless you want me to go there. so here's the law. the federal law allows a person who is in the united states of hurricane but not an american citizen to be deported if they are convicted of violate aring a state law.ç a state pardon from a state governor gets rid of that conviction. it's as if it never occurred. question: can he still be deported? that's got to be answered by the courts. if the governor wanted to preserve his right to stay here, he's done the right thing for this person. stuart: do you happen to know whether this individual who was pardoned is a very, very deserving case? i mean, like -- >> in my opinion -- stuart: -- spouse and ten kids or something. >> yes. i don't know that it's ten kids, but in my opinion, yes. this is a case that the governor will win in the court of public opinion. whether he wins in a courtroom or not, i don't know. i don't know of any test case

for this. but it would seem to me since a pardon lets you answer under oath you were never convicted, it completely wipes it out. stuart: it seems outrageous, but it's a back step to protect someone who you, p feel is worthy of staying. >> yes. and i think the governor's making the determination that some people deserve a break because they've been great residents though not yet citizens. stuart: o.k.. you know, judge, i think you've done sterling work. >> you're very kind. and when i fly into london, there's not going to be think control tower? this is crazy. stuart: you fly first class into heathrow. [laughter] >> you got me on that one. [laughter] stuart: did you ever take concord? >> no, i wish i had. >> yeah. stuart: now, that was something else. i wish they'd get back to it. >> very small in there, but you're there in three hours. stuart: three hours and 20 minutes, as i recall.

you can see the curvature of the earth. it's like a space trip. it really was. >> oh, my. there is a concord at jfk which you can see. it's just a shell. stuart: ah, those were the days, judge. [laughter] >> maybe they'll be back, stuart. stuart: see you later, judge. back to president trump's foreign trip, can it shift the conversation at home away from turmoil? fox news politics editor chris stirewalt is with us. you know the question, can it, has it shifted the conversation away from turmoil? has it? >> to a degree. i think the thing that has more shifted the discussion away was the appointment of the special counsel. that puts everything on ice. it slows down the leaks, it changes the discussion, it creates new forbearance in washington so it's very good timing for the president. first you get the special counsel, then you get the foreign trip. it's a page-turner. stuart: but it's also, i mean, it's political must-see.

the president of the united states at the western wall in jerusalem. the president of the united states greeted warmly by the king of saudi arabia. the president of the united states signing $400 billion worth of deals in one day. that's compelling. that takes you away from any mention of impeachment, for heaven sake, or the russians or comey. it's a win-win, isn't it? >> yeah. this is a good thing for the president. and as long as he keeps having good execution, he's doing a good job on the trip. there's been no tweets, no real gaffes, there's been no real problems. and as long as he keeps this up for his first foreign trip, as you say, this is must-see political tv. he's going to or interesting things, if he can keep it up through the duration, this will do him a world of good. stuart: i'm reading between the lines, chris stirewalt, and i see the glimmers of a grin emerging. >> no! stuart: you don't believe that our president can keep it up, no

tweets, no egregious statements, etc., etc. you don't think he can keep it up, do you? >> he hasn't had a nine-day run during his presidency -- stuart: during the campaign, he did. >> at the end -- stuart: knocked off the twitter for a while. >> after the access hollywood debacle, he was ready to listen, he was ready to behave. what people who work for him and his supporters hope now is, can he do it -- what they want is him to do it again. you've done it before, you've demonstrated the ability for self-restraint over a number of days. you need it now more than before because you need people to, as you say, okay, there's this russia thing, there's this investigation thing, we'll see what happens with that. but now let's get back to the agenda, let's get become to being -- back to being president. they need him to have a good trip, and so far he really is. stuart: i'm going to throw this at you. hollywood legend clint eastwood says we've lost our sense of humor. he also says that that 1971 hit, and i saw it the day it came

out, "dirty harry" -- >> yeah. stuart: i heard that, stirewalt. would never be made in today's politically correct climate. what do you say about all of this? >> he's right. and we are a shockingly un-funny culture these days. the stated public religion, the civic religion of the united states is anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti those things. there's a lot to be said for that, but there's also this: it puts people this such a cautious crouch that when you start talking about things like a movie where a guy, a white police officer or with a huge gun blows away the bad guys, many of whom are non-white human beings, i doubt that movie could be made in the way that it was today even though there's nothing that is particularly -- nothing at all racist about the movie. stuart: i've got 20 seconds. >> okay. stuart: do youç think we are getting used to the way our president conducts his presidency? >> no.

stuart: no? >> i only needed one second. stuart: yeah, you did. [laughter] we hear you. stirewalt, you're all right. thanks very much for joining us, as always, chris. >> bye, guys. stuart: check out that big board, we were up 60, now we're up nearly 80. earlier we were up over 100, but we are on the way up at this point. 20,883. how about the -- wait a minute, lizzie. >> i was thinking, a selloff? $300 billion was wiped out with the first republican saying impeachment, and now the president goes to the middle east and start the cutting deals. stuart: last wednesday. and today's monday. >> all day. [laughter] stuart: how about the nasdaq? home of the technology companies. another 34 points higher, a half percent up already at or close to record territory. the fabulous five, only one of them is down, that would be facebook. amazon is, what, $31 away from are $1,000 a share.

microsoft, i own some, $68.25, close to an all-time high. alphabet, as in google, also closing in on $1,000 a share, and apple about $2 away from its all-time high. the fab five are doing pretty well, i'd say. and, of course, we are monitoring president trump's first overseas trip as president. he's meeting right now in jerusalem with the prime minister there, benjamin netanyahu. and we've got this for you too, vice president pence returning to his home state, indiana, to deliver the commencement address at notre dame. not everybody wanted to hear him speak. dozens, and family members as well as students, walked out. pence went ahead with his speech. stay with with us, a lot more ahead for you. ♪

>> i'm nicole petallides with yourx business brief. after two weeks of losses for the dow, we are seeing today a few week with some up arrows. dow jones industrial average up almost 80 points at 20,883, and the s&p 500 gaining eight points as the nasdaq gains 35. taking a look at some of the dow winners and losers, this as oil and gold are also gaining today. boeing, 3m and cisco systems lead the way while pfizer comes

under pressure. the big story is the defense stocks which began to rally on friday ahead of president trump's trip to saudi arabia. then we have the big deal, the $110 billion arms deal with saudi arabia, and that really gives a boost to these defense stocks. we see lockheed martin moving higher. start at five a.m., i'll see you there. ♪ ♪

stuart: there has been a significant management shake-up at ford. mark fields, that man there, was the ceo. he is now out. investors didn't like his performance because the stock over the last three years since he came to power down about 35%. that's the new guy. his name is jim hackett. he is mr. fields' replacement. he -- that gentleman had previously led ford's self-driving car unit. ford's stock up 17 cents on this news, still stuck close to a four-year low. now hold on a second -- >> yeah. stuart: liz, you've got some numbers on ford's debt. i mean, they're wildly in debt, aren't they? >> yeah. the debt has tripled since the financial crisis, short term is about $50 billion, long-term debt about $93 billion. so remember as we were talking earlier, you know, they did not get a rescue during the financial collapse like gm did. instead, they put a lot of debt on their balance sheet to finance their operations. and this as ford has fallen

below tesla in terms of market value. so i don't know if this strategy can help them with the cash load to service that debt. stuart: mr. hackett used to run ford's self-driving car unit, and they want to take ford into the future. >> well, he's called a turn-around artist because before that he revived an office furniture maker called steel case, turned that around in a ten-year period. so he takes a lot of boxes. he's head of the autonomous vehicle unit, the smart vehicle unit which is what they have to do, look to the future, but he understands how to turn companies around. the biggest complaint on ford, or one of them, and to the debt is that stock price. their last shareholder meeting, they got pummeled by shareholders saying this is unacceptable. this stock price has been around $11 for far too long. stuart: that's not a good sign. by any accounting standard, that's a bad sign. >> i mean, the long-term debt twice the value of the company.

stuart: and if interest rates go up, then your cost of servicing the debt, the payments you've got to make go up as well, further eroding your position. they're trying to make some changes. all right. goldman sachs has slashed what we're going to call its tax cut projection. it now expects a trillion dollars over the next ten years, a trillion dollars of stimulus, i guess, as to opposed to the original version of $1.7 trillion. >> yeah, they do. and they're blaming the quagmire that is washington getting bogged down, taking up valuable time on these issues that, ultimately, will have an impact on the extent of the tax cut, stu. they were saying some type of legislation, according to analysts, will happen early in 2018, but even now they say that's a closer call than they thought it was. so they're becoming, their expectations are being lowered week by week. stuart: that's a big call to make from a very important company, goldman sachs. >> yes.

stuart: but it's not had that much impact on the market this morning as we open up this monday morning. >> right. stuart: we were up 100 points, now we're up 70. i think it's the change, president trump's making huge strides overseas in the mideast, in large part leaving behind the political turmoil at home. i think the market likes that, and we're at 20,873. 200, 250 points away from the all-time record high. and as we said earlier, just remember, it was only last wednesday the dow dropped 372. it has substantially recovered. leaked documents reveal how facebook handles issues like hate speech, terrorism and graphic content that appears on their social media site. they've got details on how they deal with it. tell me. >> yeah. just leaked to "the guardian," so standards appear to be about a awareness, not censoring things, free speech. let's just focus on one area, you know, self-harm. they're saying, yes, you can --

we will show videos where people are self-harming themselves short of suicide because, quote: we don't want to censor or punish those this distress. so they're making these weird judgment calls that are now being called into question. u.k.'s theresa may wants a probe into it. let's talk quickly about the other things that they will not censor, bullying. they will allow people bullying other people on their web site if it's not celebratory. in other words, if it raises social awareness. so i'll tell you, they are really dancing on a fine line here. they have 4500 people looking at millions of videos from around the world, they've almost doubled that team. i don't know how they make these judgment calls, i just don't know how they do it. stuart: no. how could you? >> according to "the guardian," they're overwhelmed. they have literally ten seconds to make a decision, and much of this is self-reported. it's almost an impossible situation. they're trying to make software that'll pick up this stuff, but

it hasn't workedç yet. >> it's in early stages. stuart it's a judgment call that is almost impossible to make -- >> because of the sheer volume. stuart: and also how do you make a judgment call on self-harm in the public interest or not? i couldn't do it. >> i'll tell you, theresa may and the u.k. authorities are very upset about this. stuart: really? >> yeah. stuart: okay. we've got to get to venezuela. this is an appalling story. a venezuelan general reportedly orders snipers to prepare for a clash with protest theres. in other words -- protesters. in other words, knocking off, sniping, killing your opponents. >> yeah. the general is with the army, there was a secret meeting on a military base in northwestern venezuela, and he essentially said, listen, we are facing the threat of civil war. we need to prepare for the use of snipers, you know? basically saying we're going to investigate the legality and the risks of this. there will come a time when we need to employ snipers to stop

these protesters. somebody said, well, wait -- at this meeting in the secret recording, wait a second, what if the media takes a photograph of us using a sniper. his response, well, if they see dead bodies in the street, people will stay home potentially. stuart: that's extraordinary. and this is on tape, is that -- >> yeah. so people are matching his voice to the recordings they already have, they say it is him. 45 people dead, more than 700 injured. 2,000 people detowned, hundreds of people -- detained, hundreds of people being arrested and military tribunals. they're putting whole families before -- effectively being counter9 martialed. stuart: thank you very much, indeed. president trump meeting with benjamin net an ya hue in israel. that's right now. up next, one of the president's foreign policy advisers. we're seeing a real change in the middle east these days. and this, the winner of the preakness stakes, cloud computing -- that's the horse's

name -- beating kentucky derby winner always dreaming in the final stretch by just a nose. in honor of the preakness winner, we thought we'd show you some cloud computing stuff. we were being rather clever, trying to be, and we'll be back. ♪ ♪

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stuart: it's a monday morning. we're off and running on wall street. we've been in business for, what, almost two and a half hours, and we're up 71 points. maybe this has something to do with the president and his dramatic trip to the middle east, a very warm reception in saudi arabia and in israel. he's totally dominating the news cycle, putting the you are the or moil back in america -- the turmoil back in america all the way down to the bottom of the ladder, and we're up 70 points, 20,876. now, just a few moments ago, literally 20 minutes ago, president trump was speaking with, in public, with benjamin netanyahu. one of the comments that he made was the iranians will never -- and that's the word he used -- never get a nuclear weapon. ashley, that seemed to me to be -- >> i mean, is there think doubt? you know, that's a very strong

statement. stuart: he's shredding the nuke agreement -- >> of course he is. stuart: -- that president obama negotiated. >> he called it the best deal iran ever did with the united states. stuart: he said the iranians are grateful to the united states -- should be. >> should be grateful. well, and he's right. stuart: you know who we have with us now? washington lead farris, former -- walid phares. it seems to us that the president, our president, just about ripped up the nuke deal with iran when he said they'd never be allowed to get a nuclear deal. am i on the right track? >> ono, no, that's right. his whole journey to meeting with 50 leaders of the arab and muslim countries, their main concern is the nuclear capacity, military capacity of iran. he committed that along with them they will stop iran's nuclear weapon. that's what he meant, basically. stuart: well, that's kind of

dramatic, i would say. and he also seems to be getting a coalition together of muslim countries and the united states with tacit approval from israel to go after isis. it seems like that's a new coalition. >> that is a very important coalition. actually, it's been months that this call to form an arab coalition in the region to help and assist the united states in syria and iraq, potentially in libya, who knows, of course with the tacit approval of israel to make sure that, number one, iran is contained, but isis is defeated and replaced with moderates. only the arabs can help us with that task. stuart: i've got to make some must be with a commercial break -- some money with a commercial break. thank you for joining us. more "varney" after this. ♪ ♪