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>> president biden now has his head in the sand. that's a dangerous precipice for the u.s. economy, and we need to make significant changes for the stability of the u.s. economy. >> the gop has gotten off to the a terrific start, many come pleat contrast to the what you're getting from the white house. >> we haven't had a landing yet. they keep telling us, yellen included, that we have a great economy, but i don't remember having three bank failures in a great economy. >> i think an earnings recession is a real possibility. i just don't see a macro environment right now that you have justifies a premium -- that justifies a premium for stock prices. ♪ i'll never dance with another, whoo -- ♪ til i stand saw her standing there. stuart: yes, the beatles, when i saw her standing there. when i was just 17, you mow what i mean. [laughter] it's 11:00 in the morning. that's fun.

s it is tuesday, it is april the 18th. on the markets, a little bit of red ink, not that much. dow's down 120 largely on the weakness many goldman sachs which is way down this morning. it's a dow sock the. it's taking the dow down with it. fractional losses on the s&p and the nasdaq. big tech, mixed picture, mostly lower this morning. we cough apple to the upside, but microsoft, meta, amazon, alphabet all now down. the yield on the 10-year treasury, that's staying at lofty levels, 3.56%. show me southwest i airlines, please. they've requested the faa pause the airline's departures. hay a blame intermittent technology issues. more than 1200 flights delayed so far. we have just heard this, the austin airport says the ground stop has been lifted. we're working to confirm that, but southwest's stock is still down 2%. now this. you may have noticed that we do

not do many ceo interviews on this program. i just don't feel i get much out of them, and they always seem scared of saying anything their lawyers might object to. ah, but then the there's elon musk. he count seem scared of anythind of anything. he was interviewed at length by tucker carlson, and here's what we learned. he's not afraid to kiss the miss the old twitter as just a glorified activist organization. thank you, elon. his words, we knew that. their product development was nonexistent. he says it took a year to the add an edit button, so he fired 80% of the staff. absolutely overstaffed, says musk. he doesn't hold back on anyone. he callek zuckerberg for giving $400 million largely to democrat causes. does that sound unbiased to you, he asked? if he was cheerily unhappy with larry page, the cofounder of google. musk says he's just not taking the risks of a.i. seriously.

he thinks a.i. could lead to sievizational destruction. he'll support, quote, a normal person with common sense in 2024. clearly, the man had a lot to say, and i brick it to you because elon musk is the most compelling chief executive in america today. he expresses opinion. he offers a straightforward analysis of what's going on. no holding back. how different from most ceos. there will be a second episode of the interview running on tucker tonight,st it's worth watching just to see musk unflukinged -- unplugged. third hour of "varney "starts right now. ♪ ♪ stuart: doug las murray joins us this morning. all right, douglas, welcome back. good to see you. >> morning. stuart: seems like musk gives us a headline every single day, gives his opinion, never holds

back. he's like a brent of fresh air in corporate america, isn't it? >> yes, that's right. he certainly is letting himself fly now. he did so with tucker in this interview, the rest of it tonight. he did so, of course, last week with that embarrassing interview with the bbc journalist which embarrassed great britain the interviewer saying, well, what about hatey words on twitter, isn't it a mean place to be? [laughter] he was totally unprepared for the interview and musk just said i call you out and say you don't know what you're talking about. stuart: you're lying. >> you're lying. that was a breath of fresh air. not many ceos or anyone else has the gall, the guts, actually -- stuart: he's not going away. >> no. stuart: this man is not going to go. he's got them between the teeth, and he's running. >> well, because effectively they've thrown everything they can at him already are. the new york times has already run the piece claiming that because he was born in south africa, he must be

pro-apartheid. [laughter] the left has has already done all of the nasty character assassination attempts that they could. he's survived them, so now he's just kind of flying free, and you can see he actually enjoys it. stuart: wonder what's coming next. who's he going to buy? who's he going to unseat? >> yeah, great stuff. it really is. stuart: change the subject. congressman james comer, he says six additional members of the biden family, quote, may have benefited from hunter's business dealings. six new members of the family. roll tape. >> this isn't just about the president's son or the president's brother. we've identified six new biden family members involved in shady foreign transactions. we believe they were a direct result of influence peddling. that brings number of biden family members now to nine that were involved in the biden family influence peddling, and we still have more family members that we suspect were involved. so this is a family affair.

this is something that should be troubling to every american. stuart: douglas are, we've often wondered does china is something on president biden -- have something on president biden and hunter, what they've got on him in. >> well, they certainly have a knowledge of how much it costs to buy a biden. [laughter] i mean, that's for sure. stuart: ooh, that hurt. >> this isn't something entirely new in american politics, of course. we had the whole issue of everyone was forever speculating on whether the trumps sort of got into office to make money. i didn't see much of that. if it was the plan, it didn't work. [laughter] but we had that with the clipons, the clipon the foundation, of course -- clinton the foundation, of course. the more possibles for the cash spigot to benefit you and everyone in your built. but this is something different, of course, because it's the to do with our chief adversary, the country which is currently doing deals like the brazil deal, deliberately circumventing the u.s. dollar. china is doing all of that.

if it has compromising information on biden family such as the cost of effectively buying them up, then this is very serious for america. one additional thing which is the house judiciary committee, of course, now in a totally different bit of terrain. ever since the trump indictment, ever since the claims against him, him appearing in court downtown the other week, well, you know, the scene has changed, habit it? we're no longer talking about let's investigate the clintons, lock her up, no. you talk about a scenario the republicans may coto the democrats what the democrats just did to the republicans. stuart: can't wait. you have got a british accent -- >> you picked up on that. stuart: i did, indeed. you've got to comment on the royals. >> you're forever if trying to downgrade me to the royal correspondent. stuart: is that a downgrade? >> oh, yeah. of. [laughter] stuart: okay. [laughter] william and harry, the two princes, will be separated at the coronation. >> yes. stuart: what do you make of that? >> it's the very sad.

sad percent family, sad for the brothers. i mean, harry should be pleased that he's not living a few centuries earlier. he'd have been knocked off by now, and his body would have been put in a port wine barrel. stuart: two princes in a tower -- >> yeah. his seat being a couple rows back in the abbey, he should thank his lucky stars. stuart: are you going to go back may 6thsome. >> i haven't been asked. stuart: not for the coronation -- >> you're prying into my relationship with the royal family. i wasn't going to reveal that -- stuart: do you have a relationship with the royal family? >> i couldn't possibly comment. stuart: all right. thank you very much, douglas. [laughter] we've got to get to the markets because the man sitting next to me is a very important market mare, it's mike murphy. you agree with me on something, i believe. >> i agree with you on a lot of things, stu. stuart: this one in particular. we both think that the market just wants to go up. but a lot of the people who appear on this program say you've got it dead wrong. what do you say?

>> i think we are 100% correct. stuart: correct. >> there's a lot of negative news out there, and from the headlines and some negative economic news, news out of fed, the market shakes it off and resumes its zoom higher. we're at about a 2-month high on market, so there is a bit there the. people want to put money to work. stuart: have you ever invested in any musk operation? because you go way back as an investor. he goes back maybe 20 years. did you ever put any money into my -- any of his enterprises who? we're many some details -- deals together. he's selling some of his holdings many some other companies that he's not in control of, so we've done transactions with elon musk. stuart: you dealt with him personally? >> no. stuart: not yet. >> not yet. stuart: stay there, mike, you're here for the hour. and we do have netflix coming up after the bell today. all right, movers including teledoc, it is up 10%, and lauren's going to tell us why. lauren: why do you think?

stuart: i have no idea. lauren: weight loss drugs. so heir the expanding their services to weight management and pre-diabetes programs i inchewedding being able to -- including being able to virtually prescribe those new weight loss medications that are typically used for diabetes. stuart that is really a making a difference -- lauren: quick fix. and as far as i know, i mean, i'm not a doctor, clearly you don't take these drugs forever, but people might be inclined to keep the weight off forever. stuart: okay. nio, that's a luxury ev maker. lauren: correct. stuart: from china. lauren: and they are not going to join tesla in a price war. s tesla cutting prices on certain models, nio's not going to do that, and that might not be good for its market share or stock price, as you can see today. stuart: full disclosure, i own some blackstone stock, and it's in the news today, and i just love it because it's gone straight up. lauren: morgan stanley says blackstone could be included in

the s&p. it means your stock would be more widely held. stuart: great company, isn't it? >> great company, pays a great dividend, it has great management, and the stock has had a big selloff. i think blackstone has a lot of room to run here. i think they will end up in the s&p 500, but there's a lot more for them. stuart: comment. do you want to co-anchor show? >> sure. that's what i'm trying to elbow in for. stuart: you couldn't take the pay cut. all right, thanks, lauren. and thanks, mike. before you go -- lauren: me. stuart: yeah, you. hold on a second. if i fall over doing this -- lauren: my birthday was on friday. i'll stall for you. oh, there. you promised me flowers. stuart: i did promise, they didn't arrive. happy birthday, lauren -- lauren: that's so sweet of you. stuart: it is the, isn't it? i didn't buy them -- the. [laughter] lauren: thank you. thank you. stuart: you're most welcome. happy birthday. lauren: so sweet. he's a man of his word. [laughter] stuart: you sound shocked.

all right. paid vacation and lunch breaks, they're not good enough for some workers anymore. they want timeout days, respite rooms in the office. we'll tell you all that about -- all about that. speaker mccarthy trying to curb inflation, but he can only do it if the republicans stand united. will they stand united? good question. the tension between disney and florida's governor reached a whole new level. desantis the just threatened to build a state prison next to the theme park. now, there's a threat. we'll be back. [laughter] ♪ a whole new world, a whole new world ♪ the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products... ...designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder - that orders fresh beans for you.

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i screwed up. -mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. ah! now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! -woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck.

i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck.

muck this magic moment. ♪ while your lips are close to mine. stuart: wait a minute, who's singing the? goes way back. drifters. that's back to the 1950s. i remember this and murph, you do not. >> i do not. no comment. [laughter] stuart: lucky you. all right. that's clearwater beach, doesn't it look beautiful? there's the beach. beautiful. the feud between ron desantis and disney, that is escalating. hey, ashley are, what is desantis doing now? >> reporter: yeah. well, it's round three. desantis versus disney, and not only has the republican leader vowed to eliminate disney's latest legal maneuvering, he's also threatening to the build a state prison next to walt disney world. tongue in cheek a little. but he's making a moment. desantis promising that the state legislature will nullify

disney's last minute legal moves that basically neutralized his power. listen. >> it's basically like a legal fiction. they negotiated with themselves to give themselves the ability to maintain their self-governing status. now, that's in direct defiance of the will of the people of florida. ashley: well, the governor says more crackdowns are to come including a bill that would end disney's exemption from statewide safety inspections for the park's monorail and transportation systems. desantis also noting that the state owns undeveloped land in the same district as disney and, oh, yes, considering some of the options of what to do with it. >> people have said, you know, maybe have another, maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks. someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison. who knows? i mean, i just think the possibilities are. ed endless.

ashley: yep. making that point. desantis says the new board could set up disney world's utilities to save money and also stop disney from being able to appraise its own land for tax purposes. the district board, by the way, going to take up a lot of these issues at a meeting tomorrow. as for disney, no response to this latest broadside, but hours later disneyland in california announced it first ever after-hours pride night event to be held june 13th and 15th. mickey, minnie and rainbow costumes, a cost for a ticket, $119. coincidence with this announcement after mr. desantis the yesterdaysome i maybe not. stuart: and i v.a. no comment, ashley -- have no comment, ashley. thank you very much, indeed. kevin roberts is the president of the heritage foundation, and he joins me now. kevin, disney goes political, anheuser-busch goes political. are companies operating in the best interests of their shareholders when they take on political issues?

>> stuart, thanks for having me on. the answer to your question, very can candidly, is no. you and your audience know well that the only job that companies have generally and for their shareholders is to make a profit. what we at heritage are hopeful is that the companies like disney, like anheuser-busch that have stepped into woke products putting that really radical agenda that's so out of step from the everyday american at a higher priority than that of their shareholders will finally realize when you lose as anheuser-busch has done, $5 billion in less than a week, then maybe you need to get back to selling your product. stuart: is it pressure from their own employees? is it pressure from the administration? why are they doing this in such large numbers? >> well, i talk to a lot of corporate ceos, those whose companies are privately held and those who are publicly held. and what hay tell me, many of them sort of closet

conservatives, if you will, is that there's a lot of pressure from two segments. first of all, internally by a lot of their employees. that was the case with anheuser-busch, with that particular vice president whose agenda seems to be very much out of step with that of the ceo of anheuser-busch. but secondly, there is a group of activist shareholders who for the better part of the last decade have been pushing an agenda known as esg, environmental social governance. that is not in the best interests of the american people. the good news is everyday american has sort of become aware of all of this, and it's really important that they themselves continue to be active. so we push these companies in whom we're invested to get back to worrying about their bottom line rather than wokism. stuart: 30 seconds to go. would you say that the anti-woke movement, the anti-esg movement is beginning to gain some real steam? >>s the, and i'm so grateful -- it is, and i'm so grateful that at heritage and other organizations around the country fueled by just common sense,

someone doesn't have to be a conservative to subscribe to the anti-woke agenda, that we can celebrate and maybe until anheuser-busch gets their act together, we can buy some bud light, pour it into the river, and maybe they can get back to doing business as usual. stuart: kevin roberts, president of the heritage foundation, thank you very much. a valuable contribution. come back soon. take a look at the markets, please. i still see some red ink, but it's not terrible. dow's down 150, nasdaq down 14, s&p down 8. big tech, show me please. most of them are down. i've got apple on the upside but only just, 166 there. amazon's down, meta's down. i think microsoft may be holding on to a fractional gain. no, it's lost it. it's down a buck. there you go. what have you got? >> i was going to say real interesting, you don't put nvidia up there with big tech? they're a larger company than meta, but they're at a new 5 522-week high -- 52-week high. stuart: i'll remember that. it'll go on the list in the

future. murph, you're all right. some companies are giving their employees extra personal days to deal with stressful events outside the workplace. they call them timeout days. they're offering on-site respite rooms for staff to take breaks and rest. this is all in op hopes of atracking workers. all right, mike, you've got the duty of staying here for the hour. what do you make of that, timeout rooms? >> it's been around for a long time, stuart, but they used to call it kindergarten. [laughter] that's how you would treat children. in a work force, the way i see it is i hire you to work for me, i'm required to pay you, give you a safe, comfortable place to work, you're tried to do your -- required to do your job. and if neither one of us is working, we're tree -- free to part ways. this idea that you have to cater to every whim of certain employees, it's not the bulk of employees, it's certain individual employees, i think, creates a very bad precedent because what seems to be happening, you can never satisfy them. if you give them an inch, they

want a yard, and i don't think there's any place for it in the workplace. stuart: fair enough. thank you very much, sir. a secret chinese police station uncovered in new york city. the justice the department calls it a, quote, significant national security matter. we've got a report on it. we just got word from the faa that southwest airline's grown stop has been lifted. another bad day, bad morning for southwest. they're getting back on track, we hear. full report from connell mcshane is next. ♪ ♪

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stuart: it's time now for this day in history, "american built." on this day, april 18, 1923, yankee stadium opened in the bronx. that was in new york, of course. 74,200 fans attended the game and watched the yankees beat the boston red sox 4-1. now you know. you can watch "american built" on mondays, 9 p.m. eastern only on fox business prime. southwest airlines issued a ground stop earlier. it has since been lifted. connell mcshane with us. what happened this time? >> reporter: internal technical issue. they had some sort of a pyrewall problem. it -- firewall problem.

st been resolved, and the flights are resuming. that's the bottom line. the stock reacted, by the way, obviously as soon as this happened. but southwest just sent us a statement moments ago to often the what had happened, and in that statement they said they resumed their operations after they had temporarily, they temporarily paused them. there was a technical issue on the internal systems. at the airline's request -- this is from the faa, actually -- says today resolved the issue, the pause has been lifted, the service resumed. southwest's statement says there was a vendor supplier firewall that went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. and, you know, that's why they had to put this pause at issue. now it's resumed. maybe we have -- there's southwest east statement that is literally hot off the presses, that e-mail just came out from the southwest media department moments ago. i mentioned the stock reacted, of course it did. luv was getting hit and now it's only down by 22 cents, but you see green at beginning and then

the red, that was the moment, i guess around an hour ago, give or take the, when the headlines started crossing. there were some user complaints before that, but the official headlines maybe about an hour ago. we've been keeping an eye on some of airports, st. louis among others where there have been southwest planes on the tarmac. many of those planes should start moving again. we had a problem at southwest. for context, you'll remember over the holidays they had a lot of problems, all those staffing issues that resulted in millions of people's holiday plans being disrupted. today's plans have been resolved. stuart: we've already been warned that the faa lacks air traffic controllers, there are going to be delays. southwest has another problem today. okay, it's fixed, but just doesn't make you feel good about traveling by plane. >> reporter: the faa also lacks an administrator, somebody in charge -- stuart: that too. >> reporter: so that issue to be resolved. ed you're right. it's one thing after another with not always the same airline, but also not the first time southwest has gone through this.

stuart: for sure. connell, thank you very much, sir. speaker mccarthy ramping up the pressure on the president to address the debt ceiling. jacqui heinrich is with us. has the white house responded to the mccarthy's pressure? >> reporter: yes but maybe not the way that mccarthy wants to hear it, stuart. speaking at the new york stock exchange yesterday, the house speaker outlined his proposal which would raise the debt ceiling for one year in exchange for sol drastic cuts to future -- for some drastic cuts to future federal spending, also i clawing back unused covid money and conduct future means testing for welfare programs. but the white house is still the demanding that congress pass a clean bill to the raise the debt limit before there are any kind of talks about future spending cuts. and the president is still refusing to meet with speaker mccarthy until house republicans produce their budget proposal. white house spokesman is saying speaker mccarthy is breaking with bipartisan norm he followed under president trump by engaging in dangerous economic hostage tack the-taking that

threatens jobs and retirement savings. a speech isn't a plan, but it did showcase house republicans' prior eyes. -- priorities. biden says he will speak to mcthink eventually, but by refusing to do it until republicans produce a budget, biden is seizing on the reality right now that the gop conference has yet to agree on one. >> of course i'll speak to him. show me his budget. that old expression, show me your budget. you know, we agreed early on i'd lay down a budget, which i did on march 9th, and he'd lay down a budget. i don't know what we're negotiating if i don't know what they want. >> reporter: mccarthy is pushing back, accusing the president of brinksmanship and saying he knows very well that a no strings attached debt limit proposal just can't pass. >> he told the democrats he's going to negotiate with me, he told me at a prayer breakfast he's going to negotiate with me. the only time i've seen him, he wouldn't talk about the debt ceiling. >> reporter: but there is one reality check coming from the

senate. the senate majority leader, chuck schumer, saying even if mccarthy gets the gop conference in line, the democrat-controlled senate backs the president's position that there should not be any negotiation about spending tied to the debt ceiling. of course, we should note there is one senate democrat who has historically foiled all of schumer's best laid plans, that's joe manchin. of course, we can't say one way or another how he would get himself involved in this, but that's the stakes right now, stuart. stuart: there is also senator sinema who pie something to say about enormous spending. thank you very much, indeed. see you soon. right now the senate budget committee is holding a hearing on tax dodging by the wealthy and big corporations. senator mike braun is the republican senator from indiana and joins me now. budget committee member too. senator, are wealthy people and wealthy corporations really dodging taxes? >> they're doing what the tax code says they can do, stu, so

if we want to fix it, democrats and republicans ought to be for what i'm for, get rid of all the loop holes, all the tax credits, all the stuff that's been built into our tax code. simply arefy it so you can't -- simplify it so you can't do the lawful things that you're tempted to do. so that's called avoidance, not evasion. but the big issue is we're now spending 25% of our gdp with the enterprising that's been going on where historically it's been closer to 20. and regardless of how much we spend, if you look at revenue that we generate over 50 years, high rates, low rates, we only average about 18% of our gdp. so this whole idea that we're going another the anything, i haven't seen it in the little over four years i've been here and, sadly, it's driven by the defense hawks and neo-cons on our side, 14 of them or so, that

line up with almost every democrat who's unapologetic about borrowing and spending the money, and now we're doing trillion and a half dollar deficits annually. st the shameful really. stuart: a real mess. peeker mccarthy, he want -- speaker mccarthy, he wants to limit spending to the levels of 2022 and just 1% annually from here on out. you can get this if the republicans remain united, but i suspect, senator, they're not united. >> well, let's look at what's happened in the past. generally, i i put a budget out there, privileged motion about a year ago, that would balance us over 10 years. that would be so easy for a ceo to do, say, if they were out of line in their business. you'd get it done in two or three years, and there'd be cuts involved, not 1% increases. but we'll see. will we hold together, are we the party of fiscal conservativism? it's going to be on the line.

i think kevin is going another the what they need to do there. they'll get it through. let's see what we can do in the senate. stuart: are you critical of your leadership in the senate? mitch mcconnell? >> you know, i'm critical of whoever's been here for a long time that now democrats say modern monetary theory which means deficits and debt don't make any difference. at least 14 or 15 republicans buying into that when they hold defense sacrosanct. that's the most important thing we do as a federal government. they did an audit recently on their assets of $3.5 trillion, could only find 39% of what's on their balance sheet. room for improvement. you waste as much money there. until we hold the line across the board, don't expect anything to the change here in the u.s. senate. stuart: i think we've had this discussion before. senator mike braun -- >> we have. stuart: many times. thanks for joining us, senator. i know we'll see you again. thank you, sir.

now this, a mob, maybe a hundred people, ransacked and damaged a gas station in california. the police say they were too busy to respond in time. we're on it. one congressman says the president is essentially inviting china to invade taiwan by not providing the weapons we promised. watch this. >> i would hope the administration would wake up and start getting these weapons in. weakness always invites aggression and war. stuart: my next guest says biden must clarify his taiwan policy asap or face dire consequences. we'll be right back. ♪ there are some things that go better... together.

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ashley: very intriguing. two men are being charged in brooklyn federal court with conspiring to act as agents of china's government and obstruction of justice, as you say, while operating a covert chinese police station in manhattan, remarkable. according to the criminal complaint, the suspects are accused of helping chinese security officials locate kiss dents living in the united states -- dissidents living in the united states. they've also accused of trying to obstruct the investigation by deleting their communications with an offie chinese ministry of public security after they found out about the fbi probe. 44 other defendants have also been charged, accused of operating a so-called troll farm that creates fake online accounts to spread chinese propaganda. ah, but those suspects remain at large. why? because they're in china. we do have two in custody here in the united states. stuart: got it. thanks, ash. the federalist's helen raleigh

joins us now. helen wrote an op-ed titled biden needs to clarify his taiwan policy as soon as possible, as in asap. helen, welcome to the program. why because he need to clarify his position? >> good morning, stuart. because the timing is urgent. the chinese military and the chinese leader said recently that they are ready for a fight, ask and our allies are abandoning us like french president macron. he made it career that we're on our own defend taiwan. and in the meanwhile, the biden administration is still focused on ukraine and our military support to ukraine has depleted our weapons and donations. so it's urgent that president biden come to talk to american people and our allies about what our policy is regarding taiwan and why. stuart: as i understand it, taiwan has bought weapons from the united states, paid for them, but they've not been clirred. is that accurate? >> that's what i heard to too.

that's why president biden's taiwan policy is full of ambiguity and contradictions. he promised to increase weapons sales to taiwan, but he has failed to ramp up production. as i said earlier, he's focused on ukraine, and ukraine's depleting our weapons and ammunitions. stuart: do you want, does taiwan want our president to turn around and say we will defend taiwan, and we will use american troops if necessariesome is that what you want? >> i think it's very obvious that that taiwan cannot defend itself, and the least we can to do is to help arm them to help strengthen them. and i think there's a strong case that it's in america's interests to help defend taiwan to protect our economic interests. most importantly, protect the rule-based world order. if we lose taiwan, the order will collapse. americans will be less prosperous and less safe. stuart: yeah.

i'm just going to run a sound bite for you. i want you to listen to how former president trump said he dealt with xi jinping. roll tape. >> i took in billions and billions, hundreds of billions of collars from china. no -- dollars from china. no other president took this thinking, and they respected him. i told him, you can't go into taiwan, you can't. you can't do it. i won't tell you exactly what i said, but it was something that probably a lot of people wouldn't like if they heard it, but it was very tough, don't go into taiwan. if you do, we're going to have problems. stuart: trump's, helen, trump's approach was to threaten xi jinping, but at the same time to flatter him, give him face. he said he's a brilliant man. is that the kind of approach you like? >> not necessarily. because there's something we need to understand. china, xi jinping will take taiwan one way or another. it is the communist party's obsession since 1950. they always wanted to control

taiwan because taiwan's existence, taiwan is a thriving democracy, it's a threat to the communist party's legitimacy. so the path of dedeference is we show our resolve, we have our military ready at the same time. that would serve as a deterrent. nothing elsewhere will because xi model himself after chinese emperors, and those emperors were all remembered for territorial conquest, and xi will not stop at taiwan. stuart: okay. thank you very much for joining us this morning, helen. hope you can come again soon. thank you. china says that their economy grew at an annual rate of 4.5% in the first quarter, their best growth rate in about a year. mike, that sounds like a pretty solid rebound with from the covid lockdown. >> very solid rebound and, you know, it has global impacts, you know, for u.s. companies like nike, like apple, like tesla that are selling a lot of products over there.

a strong chinese economy is good for the global economy, we just immediate to make sure that we also have a strong u.s. economy. stuart: that would be nice. >> yes. stuart: thanks, mike. show me the dow 30, please. with the dow jones average down 109 points, this is what the dow 30 look like. most of them are inned red, that that means they're selling. the dow itself is down 100 points, one-third of 1%. i'd say two-thirds of the dow 30 are in the red. and there's this: a pair of thieves smashed the windows of beauty supply store in california. they steal $25 the ,000 worth of merchandise. it is the sixth time it's happen at that store the, and the owner is now closing up shop for good. the owner joins us next. if. ♪ ♪ oh, something bad, oh, something bad ♪ the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...?

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away. by the time they did arrive, the crowd had scattered, no arrests have been made. the store's wrecked. after 12 break-ins, the owner of yvette's beauty supply stores this california has decided to to close her doors, all five of her stores closing. the owner is i yet -- yvette ingram, and she joins us now. why are you closing all five of them? were all your stores hit by criminals? >> in some way, shape or form or fashion, yes, they were all hit. stuart: did you get your start way back, 2016, supplying wigs to people with cancer? that's how you started, right? >> yes, that's exactly how i started, and i developed a passion for it. and now my passion has been stolen. stuart: well, you can't go on. they've taken all your stuff? >> i mean, i still have a lot of inventory, but i'm tired. i'm tired of the theft, the

break-ins, i'm tired of the retail theft. on two different occasion cans, i have had customers pull a knife on me, and i'm pretty much tired. stuart: what do policet this? >> well, there has been one arrest so far in one of the cases, but the other ones, no, there hasn't been any arrests that i've heard of. stuart: how many times have your stores been attackedsome say -- just which store's been attacked the most? can i put it like that? >> the tarzana store, which was the recent break-in. stuart: how many times? >> six. stuart: nobody caught, nobody rested for all six break-ins? nothingsome is. >> in one case, yes. stuart: o.k.. you've also got a store in,. is that closing too? >> yes, that's closed as well. stuart: has that been subject to crime? >> no, there were other issues with that store, so we decided

to close it. stuart: so you are done for good and you're retiring largely because of crime and criminals, is that it? >> correct. stuart: nothing convince you to reopen your stores again? >> maybe, i mean, i sill have a lot of invenn our. i'm thinking about -- inventory. i'm thinking about doing online. it really depends. stuart: how do you really feel about this? >> i feel heart broken. because i started business to -- first of all, because it was a passion and, second, to create generational wealth for my children and my granddaughter. and my granddaughter loved coming from minnesota to work in the stores in the summer. and now, you know, that's been taken from her. so i'm feeling pretty bad. stuart: i'm sure you are. look, we thank you very much for coming up on show because we want to show people what's happening in the real america. what's happening to you is not good. of we feel for you, yvette, i wish you could get back on your

feet, but you come back and tell us if you can sell off your invenn our the online. you might make some money. >> thank you. thank you. stuart: see you again soon. all right, let's change the subject. the trivia question this tuesday is the following: which state has the highest average elevation? colorado, alaska, wyoming, utah? what is it? the answer, after this. ♪ you can't buy great conversations, or excuses to unplug. you can't buy possibilities, and you can't buy moments that matter. but you can invest in them. . . t. rowe price, invest with confidence.

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stuart: tuesday trivia question is a good one, which state as the highest average elevation? ashery, we'll start with you. >> you know everything in alaska is just so insane. i will go alaska, number two. stuart: i was going to say, alaska, full of mountains all over the place. what did you say there, he knows the correct answer. so he is hedging. he is not saying it. >> i will go with number four, utah. >> the answer actually is colorado. you knew it because you cheated. it is colorado. the average elevation is 6800 feet sea level that is the average in colorado. >> wow. >> i don't like going there. i get altitude sickness every time i go. >> thank you, mark, ashley indeed. "varney & company" is don't. "coast to coast" starts right now. neil: it is ta