we see these trend only accelerating. [closing bell rings] liz: bill, great to see you. your ideas are illumina, teledock. the dow closes near session lows with niece out of the oval office. "after the bell" starts right now. connell: we're going to start with a "fox business alert." the president taking questions from the oval office. this is moments ago. the dow at the close, sitting next to iowa governor kim reynolds. some comments coming up we're listening for on china trade moments ago at the white house. >> working through the department of agriculture, employing cdc personnel to these meat processing plants, we're doing that. this president, you talk to a great heartland governor like governor kim reynolds, one of the great stories of the coronavirus outbreak is our food supply continued to work every

day from the field to the fork, to the grocers, to the meat processers, and thanks to the president's decision to use the defense production act we now have uniformity. the objective is work every day to keep those meat processing plants and ones coming down going back online. >> while we're trying to keep workers safe an healthy. >> we've done that. so with the testing, with the ppe, with the restructuring in the facilities they're also doing a lot of that as well to social distance where they can, put in shields, look at lines to separate the shift. partnership, really. >> kim, we had great talk with owners of the plants, the top people, big people, big companies, actually. you wouldn't believe how many plants they have. i believe it was a very strong talk and i think they got the message. so within a week 1/2 we should be in great shape, maybe sooner. >> another piece of it is, as

the price for -- price of boxed beef is really skyrocketing. there is a huge price differential disparity. farmers are hurting while meatpacking plants are making a lot of money. is there something federal government can do? >> i asked the justice department to look into, okay? i asked them to take a very serious look into it because shouldn't be happening that way. we want to protect our farmers. but they are looking into that very strongly. reporter: what exactly, sir? >> i asked the justice department to look into it. for whatever. why is there disparity? what's going on? are they dealing with each other? what's going on, okay? it shouldn't be that way. supply and demand shouldn't allow that to happen by normal supply and demand. thank you, jeff. any other questions? reporter: protect these workers -- >> say again? reporter: are more steps being taken to protect the health and safety of these workers? advocates for these workers say they're not being protected.

60% infected at the perry plant, right? extraordinary. >> each of these plants, operate from the cdc employs a team on the ground. we also worked with the governor and other governors around the country to deploy personal protective equipment to allow the workforce to safely return once testing is done. in most of these meat processing plants we end up testing everyone in the facility and people that are healthier are able to return with new counter measures and new protections, new facemasks or gloves as the case may be. we're also working with the companies to put new countermeasures into place. but as the secretary said, our objective is two equal goals. number one, safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, to insure the strength of the food supply by getting people back to work, keeping plants open. kim? >> no, i would completely agree with that. as i said i was on a call with most of them yesterday.

thank you for the conference call you did i think this week, last week, with our producers and governors across the country specifically addressing this processing issue. so i appreciate that very much, mr. vice president. i asked if they were having trouble getting ppe? no, they were fine. we're seeing the supply chain open up. appreciate what the administration has done to make sure they have the adequate ppe to protect their employees. you know this is, this is their teammates. this is an essential workforce. they know how important it is to take care of their workforce. if a big part of it was providing them the confidence to go back into the facility knowing that they either tested positive or recovered or on a shift with other employees that have tested negative. we'll continue to work with them. we made it very clear, if they want to do additional testing we'll be happy to do that. but they are testing them before they enter the plant. they're doing a temperature scan. they're doing an assessment. they have to have the mask on when they enter a facility. many times they have the mask and face shield. they're doing social distancing.

they're relaxing. >> feel so much better about that. >> they feel better. it is a partnership. we're all working together to make sure we're providing them the confidence of a safe environment but at the same time we're making sure that the food supply chain is moving and that the country is being fed and we're continuing -- >> will they moving the plexiglass partitions? >> they are fairly close working arrangement. they are trying to separate with some additional space between the workforce. that is some things they're looking at. they are doing it where they can. they put some shields, partitions in place, yeah. reporter: mr. president, follow up on the task force. what will dr. fauci's role be in the task force? >> same as now. reporter: okay. >> he has been doing a very good job. we're very happy with dr. fauci. he will be doing the same. deborah will be doing the same. i know you will be staying. i hope you will be saying. we would miss you otherwise. she has done a nan fantastic job. both, same thing.

we're just adding names. we take off a couple frankly, their expertise really no longer applies but, i think mike, you will announce your names monday maybe? >> yes. >> or sooner. good names. now we have very distinguished person who really knows their business. reporter: follow up, apparently wendy's has a shortage. >> call nelson peltz. i will call nelson peltz. they will be okay. they will be all right. basically you're saying in a week 1/2 you think everything is going to be good or sooner? would you make sure, please? >> [inaudible] >> you will have to push -- >> they're ramping up capacity. >> okay? reporter: mr. president, you said earlier when you were talking about closing down the task force you heard from a lot of people who wanted to keep it -- >> [inaudible] rather not say, because some of them will not be able to make it.

people want to be on, they want to be on everything. you know, i have never seen anything like this. anything having to do with this they want to help, everyone. the biggest people. they want to be on. they want to be on the committees. they want to be on the financial committee or the sports committee. i heard of, heard, all i do, i get calls from people, the biggest people. they all want to be on. enemies of mine, people that don't like me want to be own the committees. i said that's strange but they all want to do and they all want to help. we'll be announcing some very good names. now in this case we want professional names that can help us, not just names where we put it off with the status of the task force. we don't need status. we need results. reporter: mr. president, last week when you were in east room i asked you about regarding sources of virus. you suggested that you would seen some intelligence that behave gave you confidence that eminated from institute of virology.

the secretary of state on sunday said the same thing. where are you now on that? >> no different. no different. reporter: seeing anything else? >> i don't think there will be a big difference. if you ask me that question in two months i don't think there will be a big difference. i think we know and i think you probably know too. okay, any other questions? reporter: one follow-up on china, sir. related to intelligence but more specifically to how you will respond to china, you talked about tariffs. woe you like to put tariffs on china as a punishment or would it be more related to china not actually -- >> i don't want to talk about that now. port okay. >> we're in the myth of very big things. i don't want to talk about that now. reporter: are you satisfied with china terms how it is fulfilling the trade deal, phase one? >> i will be able to report on that the end of next week. they're buying a lot of farm product but are they buying to the level they were supposed to? you know they were going to buy $50 billion worth, the most they

ever did was 15 or 16. now they're going to 50. anywhere between 40 and 50 in terms of farm. but 250 billion overall. that never happened. no president has ever even talked about anything like that. it is about time. but i will be able to report in a about a week or two as to not only with the farmers but with many other industries also. okay? reporter: ag numbers -- >> i will like to have that i will report them as they come in but we're watching closely. they understand, they have a deal. hopefully they are going to keep the deal. we'll see. they may, they may not. we'll find out. we'll know soon. reporter: own ventilators you say you will give to other countries, how do you decide who gets them? do they have to be friends? >> we have thousands of ventilators right now under development and already in storage as you know. we're stockpiling. we have over 10,000. we sent them to states. the states are all, you have plenty of ventilators right?

>> yeah. >> did you ever think that was possible? >> no. >> they never wrote a story. that is a tough one. >> 80 to 85% availability. >> that is not like a swab that is a piece of cotton. this is a big deal doing a ventilator. so countries know that we have tremendous amount, tremendous volume, and they have been calling. nigeria just called. we're giving them 250 ventilators. we have many countries, i'd say, 12, 14, countries are called. we're sending quite a few to france. we're sending quite a few to spain. and italy. and we have other countries. we have four african countries. countries located in africa, who are really in bad shape frankly. very bad shape. and, we're sending them quite a few. so we're in a position where we can help other people. because, basically, what are you talking about, you're talking

about people dying. not a question of countries. talking about a lot of people are dying. we make a great ventilator as you people found out. you people told me. there are good ventilators and not so good. we're making top of the line. we're making all top of the line. we're sending them to a lot of countries as they need them. they call. reporter: [inaudible]. >> so we're working on that, and, in a certain kay i like them to be donations i really do, i think it is good wil. hard to say you have to pay us in or to save people from dying. i'm the first one to say you've got to pay, but this is something that's a little bit different. i think it is something they really appreciate more than normally. like you're doing trade for linen or whatever it is. a ventilator will save lives. they are really, some of these countries have none. larry kudlow knows. you know the kind of calls we've been getting. they're like desperation calls.

can't make them. takes you months and months. we got them in weeks. people did an incredible job. i was very proud of them. there has not been something like this since world war ii. especially that. big piece of equipment. very expensive and very complex. you know, it is very highly complex piece. the air has to flow at certain level. everything, it is very, very complex piece of equipment. so it is a good question. but we have many countries calling. we're helping as many as we can. reporter: when you said a good while ago here this was worse attack than pearl harbor and 9/11. are you suggesting covid-19 is actual act of war? >> i view it, i view the invisible enemy as a war. i don't like how it got here because it could have been stopped but, no, i view the invisible enemy like a war. hey, it has killed more people

than pearl harbor and it killed more people than the world trade center. world trade center was close to 3,000. well, we're going to beat that by many times, found northly. we view it as a war, a mobilization against a war. in many ways it is a tougher enemy. we do very well against the visible enemies. it is the invisible enemy. there is an invisible enemy. we're doing a good job. reporter: what is your assessment, mr. president, of -- [inaudible] put in place to ramp up ppe? indeed, it has been charged, a couple of news articles, favored people with political connections? >> so i just heard that. i can only say, these were young brilliant people that were brought in because they have great expertise with this. people that love the country. people that i don't think we're paid anything. in fact some of them were very rich people where they were able to sell their company. some people would say nerds,

okay? this is what they do. and you think they helped us a lot on ventilators. i wasn't involved but they helped us a lot. they look at ventilator it is simple machine. someone else looking at it they have no clue. i think they did an incredible job. i don't know anything about details of it, but it was a well oiled machine. they were able to get things nobody else was able to get. they got good pricing. pricing was not most important element. but pricing is still, pricing is pricing. we were able to get gowns, gloves, masks. you saw we're making masks at honeywell. but you will say, deborah, you saw it too, the level of ramp up-we saw so quick i, i wasn't involved in the details but i

can saw, planes pouring in from all over the place. reporter: did the program in any way favor political suppliers who had political connection. >> i have no idea about that. i don't know who bought. i wasn't involved in that. we have a lot of support in our campaign. a lot of people are supporting our campaign. they want to see us win very badly. i don't know do they have companies, not have companies? i can tell you, i don't believe these kids would have any knowledge of any of these companies. any of these companies, i see this dr. bright. i never met dr. bright. i don't know who he is. i didn't hear good things about him. i did not hear good things about him at all. to me seems like a disgruntled employee trying to help the democrats win an election. he has a pretaped sermon about, you know what he thinks and, i can tell you they didn't think he did a very particularly good job as i understand it. i just got this morning.

i'm saying, who is this guy? i never met him, i don't know anything about i will. i think he is disgruntled guy. i don't think disgruntled people should work for a certain administration. he is certainly, he is certainly seemed to have a very well-packaged deal and he has got the same lawyers that some other well-known people had and he comes up with whistleblowers. i thought whistleblowers was secret thing. everyone knows who he is, why is he whistleblower. reporter: protection -- >> protection from what? protection from what? everybody necessary who is. everybody knows about him. you look at his lawyers, are the same lawyers other people used. i don't know of about it but he seems like a disgruntled employee. reporter: mr. president about the fillings now -- >> which figures? reporter: death toll figures in the united states, over 70,000, do you believe those figures?

>> i think, it is what it is from, are you saying it is 70,000. it is approximately now0,000. so do i believe, them, yeah? i don't believe them for china. i don't believe them from other countries where i see, you know, very tiny number of people died but you're watching news, you see what is going on. but our numbers are, you know, essentially certified numbers. individual hospitals are putting out the numbers. i don't imagine there would be a big variation. it is a big number. but also a number at lower scale. deborah, you could say it is lower scale of any number that was predicted. if you look at predictions, they said from 100 to 220,000, if we did big shut-ins. if we went to a total shutdown. now it is time to open up our country. we haveopen up our country. okay. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> thank you.

melissa: so that was president trump speaking there with vice president pence but you also see there the governor of iowa kim reynolds. she actually fielded some questions on the food supply chain. saying that things were now running smoothly. they talked about some of the meat processing plants and she said there was enough ppe and enough systems being distributed within her state to get people back to work safely. that they were being tested, as they went out on to the floor, so that everybody would know, that everyone working on that day was safe. there were also some questions about china and if they're fulfilling their obligations as part of the trade deal and if there were going to be retaliatory tariffs. the president didn't want to get into that right now. we got indication we'll know more by end of week or next week. let's go to edward lawrence who is at the white house.

as press secretary kayleigh mcenany prepares to speak to reporters in about ten minutes. edward? reporter: melissa, near the white house. let's be clear where i am. i'm near the white house, but yes, very interesting, we talked about the end of next week, they will have an update from this i tell you why. because this will be three months, exactly three months after the phase one trade deal from china went into effect. we've been told from trade representative robert robert lighthizer after the signing of the phase one trade deal with china there would be an update and how things are going, if they are implementing the way they should. talking about soybeans, talking about purchasing $200 billion worth of goods and services from the nighted, a large part being agriculture, soybeans being in particular, the first three months of this year was a huge spike exporting from the united states to china. some 2 10%. however the, in the month of march there were two weeks in march, according to the u.s.

agriculture department where there were no shipments at all from soybeans going to china. that is when the coronavirus was hitting but still those numbers have fallen off in april. also a very small number of soybeans have been exported. this is something the administration is watching very closely and there has been one voice unified basically from the u.s. trade representative's office from china, that they must meet the trade obligations. up with senior u.s. official tells me they are in contact with the chinese almost daily to get them to realize they need to follow through what they have signed and agreed to. one of the issues, financial services issues. i heard lobbying groups say there are no guidelines put out how the markets are open for the financial services section of this agreement and there are things that definitely need to be worked through. this bump in the road with china and the sort of increased tensions with the coronavirus, might exacerbate things.

we'll have to see what happens at the end of next week. back to you. melissa: i don't know how it wouldn't exacerbate things. edward, thank you. let's bring in steve moore, freedom works economist and member of the great american economic revival group. steve, i like the title. it makes me hopeful just hearing it. we heard from the governor of iowa. part of what you're group is trying to do get on calls with governors from different states to help them reopen. you say if states open aggressive we could see the economy turn around in six months. where does that stand? are the governors prepared? do they know what to do? do they need more things? >> so governor reynolds is an interesting case there in iowa. we did a little report grading the governors, which governors have done the best job opening up the economy and getting ready to get businesses back to work and workers back on the job and governor reynolds is one of the six governors who has done the best job. we gave her an a.

glad to see her at the white house. what you're seeing, melissa, the division between the states where red states are opening up two or three or four weeks earlier than some of the blue states. iowa, nebraska, georgia, florida, texas, tennessee, are opening up. you still have new york, connecticut, new jersey, illinois closed down but even that is changing. i live in maryland and just before i came out on the air with you i got a post that our governor is opening up the economy to golf, swimming, tennis, so we can get in the outdoors now. so you actually, i think you're starting to see just in the last few days, melissa, some momentum in states even in california of opening up things on a slow basis but at least moving in the right direction. melissa: did you only give as to red states? >> no. actually there was a governor -- good question, melissa. jared polis of colorado has done

an excellent job. he is a democrat. he got an a. colorado is moving swiftly forward opening up their economy. the governors that got fs, governor murphy of new jersey and governor wolf of pennsylvania and oh, governor -- of florida. there are governors lagging behind, but i think what is happening, this is the wonderful thing, melissa, about our federalist system, this idea, i think the president made a very smart decision to let the states take the lead in opening because that is creating a kind of competition effect. some states in the midwest, see iowa opening up. they were the people in illinois right next door is saying if iowa is opening up why can't we open up? it is creating a competitive effect where states feel like they have to get their businesses reopened. now that being said, melissa, we know as part of the task force for the white house this will be a slow process. it is one thing to tell businesses they can start to

reopen. as you reported, melissa, it is very different thing to get people actually to go to the stores and that will take a little bit, a lot longer. melissa: did you just give fs to states opening slower? was it based on speed? because obviously people would push right back on you, some of the places where they open up too soon they will end up having another outbreak and end up economically behind, i hope that is not the way you did it? >> so we took into account, we did three divisions of states, melissa. we did high-risk states. you're there in the tri-state area, there in new york. obviously states like connecticut and new york and new jersey have had a lot more cases than say iowa or nebraska has. so you know, we took that into account how many cases there are and how many deaths there are in states because you're right, you have to obviously new york has very different situation than some of these states in the south but you are seeing just a different attitude among the

governors. i don't know whether it is republicans are more pro-business or pro-commerce or what it is but democrats have been slower to act but it lists true that, if you look at the recent polling americans, half of americans are still worried about going outdoors. so that will take a while to overcome that fear factor. melissa: well, that's okay. those half of americans who are afraid of going outdoors can stay inside. the other half goes out. that means places are not crowded, that is fantastic. maybe it is that those states that don't want to open up as you said, maybe the other ones are more allergic to government paying people and more allergic to government programs and more about people getting out there and suring the economy on their own and market forces and natural way. i will give you the last word. >> well this ties into this whole issue's coming over the next coming weeks, melissa, about the blue state bailout or

the bail out of the states and the state has are first in line wanting more money are states that don't want to open up their economy. the red states are saying look, we're open for commerce. we've got revenues coming in now because we're open. you have chosen not to. why should red states that are open pay money to blue states that aren't? melissa: yeah. not to mention they could borrow from the federal reserve. means they have to pay it back. they don't want that. want a handout. connell, over to you. connell: shift to "fox business alert on earnings. fox company reported, numbers on the screen, lauren simonetti gives us insight on the media industry. lauren. lauren: good afternoon, connell, adjusted eps better than expected at 93 cents a share. revenue of $3.44 billion, better

than expected, gain of 25% over last year. fox corp says revenue growth across all segments. advertising revenue grew 44% in the quarter thanks to the super bowl. the stock is up 3% here in the after-hours. it gained about 3% during the session as well. a strong day for fox corp, however the stock is down 32% this year. connell, back to you. connell: all right, lauren, we'll watch current quarter for companies like our parent company. lauren simonetti on that one. another company just reported lyft, the raid sharing company. its stock is gaining ground it is up 16% in after-hours trading. it cited the impact of covid-19 saying it is a formidable challenge to the business and promises an aggressive cost reduction plan in order to weather the crisis but on a relative basis looks like it is

weathering the crisis okay here and wall street certainly likes those results. ridership obviously has been dropping overall and lyft says the number of active riders that took a trip on lyft actually declined by more than 21 million in the first quarter from 22.9 million in the october through december period. so down to 21 from almost 23 there. but anyway, revenue better than expected and that is kind of the name there, if you can beat expectations which lyft did, the stock is up 16%. melissa. melissa: all right, defying the state's closure order. we're going to talk to one minnesota gym owner who says he was left with no other choice but to reopen. plus why travel experts are predicting this summer could bring a massive boost to small businesses. connell? connell: yeah, also i accepted your challenge there, melissa, combat covid-19 challenge that has been going around. i stopped by long island cares earlier today, it is a food

bank. the ceo says demand is up almost 150% from same time last year. my daughter was with me. we donated groceries. we passed challenge along to colleague at fox, dagen mcdowell and my friend tony riali at espn. they have to do a good deed with the community. good stuff. helping out a little bit. we'll be right back. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.

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♪. connell: another state fast tracking the reopening an plan to some extent. greg be a got moved update for certain businesses after some criticized him for not opening up fast enough. here to discuss the search for that balance, is ken paxton, the attorney general of texas. how do you find the balance being safe obviously, you devices talked about it, you want to do it that way and giving in to business owners who say we need to get open, we can't afford to stay closed much longer? >> you might have asked the impossible question. it is so difficult, no plan to follow, no one has been through this before, ball lantzing health interests, safety with people's desire and need to work. obviously there are negative impacts to either way you go. i don't think there is a governor in america that could have done this perfectly.

even with all the right intentions or greatest wisdom. difficult to get the exact right match. we don't know how the virus will play out in each place that we're responsible for. connell: now some health experts say we need to look at new cases, how quickly they're being added. in texas, you fared better than some other states, in some businesses case count was going up and being steady. what do you think about the decline, two weeks of declines that some people said you should look for? >> it is a balance. people are without jobs. longer we need to stay closed, it impacts their lives and it impacts health other ways. we have opened that up for the most part. so again, it is really, really difficult balance that i don't know anybody can get exactly right. i don't think anybody can. but i think we're moving in the

right direction. we're not opening superfast. but hopefully we're on the way totally reopening and giving people choices so that they can make their own decisions about what risks they want to take, economic versus health. ultimately will be in the hands of individuals like everything else is. connell: also, the type of business, we have a guy with a gym in minnesota, wouldn't supposed to open but he did it any way. we'll see his explanation and a hair salon, the case in texas where the owner, apparently what i said the judge put the owner in jail, should go to jail for opening up a hair salon. you weighed in, chief law enforcement officer of the state, you didn't think should go to jail. can you tell us about that. >> she basically said i need the money, need the job. need it for my family and my children.

so the county code enforcement came in and shut her down and basically took her to court. the judge held her in contempt because she refused to shut down and put her in jail and fined her. all i was saying the governor just now said that by friday. connell: hair salons can open. this woman needs to be released especially since governors opened it up by friday. secondly, she already has been fined. there is no reason to put her in prison for wanting to take care of her family, in light of dallas county, who doesn't prosecute people who are shoplifting. connell: right. this is a case of prison being an overreach, not enforcing a rule, like you would have said, a fine would be okay or appropriate in that case? >> yeah. i mean it is just too much. this woman should not be in prison. she needs to be freed, and you know, allowed her freedom. whatever other consequences she has to deal with she has to deal with. you know, she will be able to work in a couple days anyway.

connell: right. that is friday of this week, right? >> correct. connell: those businesses are open. we appreciate the difficult position you guys are in. we thank you for coming on and explaining it to us. concern paxton. >> anytime, thank you. connell: melissa? melissa: hitting the road. we'll talk to one food truck owner about his move to leave big cities behind amid the pandemic. it is interesting idea. that is next.

♪. melissa: americans are asking where's the beef? as butchers trying to keep up with the demand for beef. grady trimble is outside of winning ham meats in illinois. grady? reporter: melissa, several grocery store chains limited how much customers can buy. this butcher shop had not to do that unfortunately although they say some products are hard to come buy. bone-in, to and bacon are hot commodities.

they're having trouble finding that. they urge customers, please do not overbuy while they scour suppliers for whatever they can find. >> a lot of scrambling. we've been in business over 75 years. so we have good relationships with all of our suppliers. they have been able to keep us stocked with meat right now but you know, i'm still dancing around looking for product everywhere. reporter: of course the reason for these meat shortages, that meat processing plants across the country have had to close. tyson reopening the largest pork plant in the united states partially i should say, with several safety moifications including an on-site clinic. sonny perdue said a few minutes ago, in seven to 10 days the supply chain of meat should be back to normal, something a lot of people are looking forward to. amid this shortage i shut point out beyond meat is surging. that stock closing up 26% today

as apparently investors were hoping people would turn to plant-based meat alternatives. they say it is a good time to buy. some people wonder about that, because that beef, plant-based beef is a lot more expensive than regular beef. by the way, one of the shipments back at the butcher shop was beef. plenty here to make burger patties. people saw reports, melissa, learned it from the owner a few seconds ago. they got 40 new orders because of this. they were happy to fill them and were able to. melissa: good to know, grady, thank thank you connell? connell: a man who was desperate to have his business not go under. he own as fitness center in plain view, minnesota, he opened despite a statewide close order still in effect.

we are talking to brandon, first of all, brandon i want your thought process. i'm assuming you're not someone who goes out to break the law very often. you must have been in a terrible financial situation. so what were your conversations you were having with people, before you decided, i will do this, reopen, even though they're telling me not to? >> yeah. good question. you're absolutely right. you know, i applied for every type of economic relief, loan, that was available. and obviously, myself and a lot of other small businesses pretty much got the dear john letter, there was no funds left. having our governor continuing this extension, i kind of crunched some numbers and decided to open up on the 1st of may, kind of as a last-ditch effort before ultimately i would go bankrupt. connell: so it was either that or go under and you chose to give it a shot even though with the state saying no, no, it is

not time or safe yet, correct me if i'm wrong, we reached out to local authorities, we have not heard back, that they would fine businesses $1000 a day. have you heard that? have you had any conversations with them? you say if you're crunching numbers, you would have rough figures if you have to pay a fine? >> absolutely. i received a letter from the county stating that, if i didn't close from the 2nd of may, it would be up to $1000 a day i remained open under the executive order. after i herd that the deciding factor, hey, i'm kind of, you know, with no more skin in the game i guess, right, why not open, you know? all these big box stores have certain safety protocols and guidelines in place that run thousands of people through a day, right? living in a rural community, i applied those same type of guidelines and protocols to my business, to keep everyone safe. those that wanted to come to better that are health and mental well-being are more than

welcome. connell: are people coming in? >> absolutely they are. that is what is nice about a small town. you have a lot of support so. connell: hmmm. what about if they do fine you, that could go on, i'm not sure in minnesota if they are opening gyms or they have announced that yet, say they go on, 15 grand in fines something like that, then you have to pay all the fines what if they do fine you? >> you know, at the end of the day, that was the deciding factor, right? i would rather go down fighting for a business that i worked hard for in my freedoms and my beliefs than not do something and end up going bankrupt as well. connell: what happened with ppp, the paycheck protection program? you applied after the money already had run out, and when you applied what happened there you couldn't get a loan, you know? >> yeah. i applied for that as well. and the response that i got is obviously being a small

business, i took a net loss last year. so that was an automatic disqualification for funds. connell: from your bank? >> yes, sir. connell: man, tough, we'll check back in with you, brandon, in that state and hopefully everybody stays safe. it comes back to the gym, but brandon reiter, state order, no, you are not allowed to go into gyms but he defied that, and people are coming back and we don't know if any fines will be put in place and we'll see how many states and businesses deal with similar situations. melissa? melissa: wow, tough story. all right the city streets are still mostly empty amid the coronavirus shutdowns. local food trucks are leaving behind their urge hot spots and parking their businesses somewhere new. joining us now is jason tipton. he is owner of the dirty south deli food truck. you know, we were really focused on the store in new york city because we have a lot of amazing

food trucks with huge businesses. they were, as the city shut down, they were really struggling but you took a different approach. you were in d.c. you found a crowd outside of the city. how did that work? >> i'm sorry, the audio is a little choppy. melissa: how did you find new customers? >> oh, we found, so, for us our brick-and-mortar restaurant was, our cafe that we operate was shut down when we had the stay-at-home orders. so we had always run a food truck because we knew that, you know, most, you know the trend in fast casual for the last 10 years is towards off premise sales. so we knew that. we had a truck and we, you know, we used to sell people lunch where they were eating lunch, which was downtown in an office building. so the next logical step for us was to hit the suburbs and go to residential communities now that everybody was working from home.

just because you're working from home doesn't mean you don't want a good sandwich for lunch. we knew it was only matter of time before people were eating cans of tuna and ham sandwiches for lunch every day, right? >> the point is everybody is spread out at home, as opposed to go in front of a big office building, you know there will be a whole bunch of people in there. how did you find a big enough crowd in a residential community? >> to go what we would do is, we started at spreading the word through friends of ours. we posted on community list serves, next door, local neighborhood facebook group and would advertise on different social media outlets, twitter, instagram, facebook, push it out through our square marketing. we also set up an online store for people to be able to order ahead. so they would place orders a day in advance.

we would also accept orders throughout the day and that way we have actually been able to, to keep our revenue stream level throughout the crisis. we haven't, you know, the first couple weeks we had a little bit of a dip in sales but, since then we've been doing as well as last year at this time, if not, a little bit better. melissa: that's incredible. that was my next question, is how is your revenue comparing to before. are you going to stay on this model? will you go back and open up the brick-and-mortar location when it is over? >> we'll reopen the cafe but really, my business partner, and i, we've been in the restaurant industry for, each for about 30 years. so we've noticed that you know, same store traffic has been down, same-store sales has been down and trending off premise for the last 10 years. and so, really what happened when the stay-at-home orders

went in place, it just accelerated the natural process and forced every restaurant in the country to go off premise at the same time. so we know as a fast casual concept that is really, that's really where the future is. we've got a concept we're developing that will allow more concepts to go out and do that. melissa: i saw a little person run through your background. i have a couple of little people working next to me as well, i don't mean short, i mean children. obviously you have someone there you're supporting. do you think you will get another truck when you talk about, when you have business going forward? will you get another truck? has it been that big of a change? >> we do have other truck. we're, you know, we're going to, we don't want, we don't want to go too quickly in that direction. so we're, you know, we're going to be adding those over as time goes on, yeah.

melissa: okay. jason tipton, thank you so much. appreciate it. say hi to your family for us. connell. connell: very good on the little people. "fox business alert, melissa, much bigger company here, costco just reported its april sales results. 11.39 billion in overall sales which was down 1.8% from the same time year ago. now it is april comp sales, sales for stores open at least a year, that number was down 4.7%. costco obviously citing negative impact of covid-19 for the drop in april sales. the stock down by a little bit. as most travel remains at a standstill all around the world, industry experts are predict the summer could bring much-needed good news for struggling small businesses. we have that next.

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and people you can rely on. i'm a dell technologies advisor. me too. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. we are with you. we're with you. we want to help. so we'll be right here. at home. answering your calls. providing support. and standing by you every step of the way. bye bye. "show me what you're made of." so we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone... our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. how we're helping restaurants open pop-up markets. and encouraging all americans to take out to give back. adversity came to town. so we looked it in the eye. and it won't be us... that blinks first.

connell: the coronavirus is having an impact on just about every aspect of our lives, and that certainly would include vacations. the thinking is is many americans will think twice about flying this summer. so if they want to take a vacation, you know, it might be closer to home. jeff flock is at the dunes national park out in indiana today. jeff? >> reporter: it is the nation's newest national park, actually, connell. there are dunes, sand dunes, giant ones that kind of line lake michigan here just on the edge of indiana to the north. it's beautiful country. and, yes, travel experts say it's locations like this, national parks, state parks and just tourist gems in the u.s. that could really get a lot of visitors this year. we talked to our old friend janine, former editor at orbitz, now outside insider.com who says it could be an old word that we

might remember from not too long ago. take a listen. >> i think the biggest trend that we're going to see when travel does get back to its new normal is the rise of the staycation. the fact is that at least for the foreseeable future, travelers are going to likely be spending less due to an uncertain economy. >> reporter: and, you know, the thing is spending less but, you know, gas right now less than $1.80 a gallon, cheap gas. what does that mean? people get in their cars, take a ride. they're reluctant to fly, travel to europe this summer probably nonexistent. even the airline executives are saying it's going to be a rough summer. in fact, the fellow that founded jetblue recently said it's going to be the year of the car. just like the 50s, remember that old commercial? maybe connell doesn't and maybe melissa doesn't either, but there was an old commercial for chevrolet e that said see the usa in your chevrolet. that may be what we see this

year. good time to -- connell: well, you are lucky. you took a pause there. you were pausing there for a second, and you said, well, maybe melissa doesn't -- melissa does not remember that, jeff. [laughter] >> reporter: you know, i know i didn't insult you, i don't know about her. melissa: yeah. connell: real quick, what are your summer plans, jeff? >> reporter: you know, i bought a big old house, and i'm renovating, that has been my recreation for quite some time. and i do enjoy it, actually. but i don't actually have a house that's not too far from this location here in indiana. i love the dunes. kind of like being on the ocean if you can't be in the ocean. congress copp the ocean in indiana. looks good. you're one of a kind, mr. flock. the great jeff flock in indiana. dunes national park. so check that out, especially if you're in the midwest. we could also go to the statue of liberty this summer. we have a lot here to do this

new york. thanks for joining us, melissa and i will see you back here at the same time. i'm telling you, she's not old enough to remember that -- melissa: yeah, thanks. he thought i was much older than you. [laughter] lou: good evening, everybody. the adam schiff era of rank political corruption and abuse of power appears to be nearing an end. the lying schiff is now in a showdown with the direct or of national intelligence -- director of national intelligence, and it is a confrontation that schiff can only lose. richard grenell is a top official in the u.s. intelligence community. he's called out the thuggish chair of the house intelligence committee for blocking the release of transcripts for two years, transcripts that are reportedly exculpatory and in one instance reveal ares,sedly, that vladimir -- reportedly,