to finance that growth. anybody if can do that -- a monkey could grow the economy if given or $834 billion of debt. maria: that's a great point. caroline, final thoughts. >> it look like the macroeconomic vitals are pretty decent, stock market is still sort of rallying and there's good signs, but it remains to be seen whether that will translate to voter acceptment because i still feel a malaise over this economy x i know a lot of voters do as well. maria: joe, final thoughts. >> look, the transitory inflation is still in transit. we're still struggling here, so, look, the american people know what's going on. wall street's doing well, but their bank account, not so healthy. maria: they're tapping into the 40 401(k) and credit cards. thank you all, great show, great conversation. we appreciate it. and thank you so much for joining us. we will see you again tomorrow. "varney & company" picks it up now. ashley webster in for stu. ashley, take it away. ashley: good morning, maria. good morning, everyone. i'm ashley webster in for stu

today. president biden traveling to new york city if for a campaign fund if raiser with barack obama and bill clinton. finish bind will once again ignore if the migrant crisis in the big apple, choosing instead to collect cash and take pictures with the elite. so as joe biden focuses on that, we're going to focus on this: a new fox poll spelling more trouble for the president. lauren will run through all the numbers in a minute, but here's a preview. when voters were asked what the administration's top accomplishment is, the top answer, yeah, nothing. let that a sink in. we'll check the market. as a maria said, the last trading day of the first quarter. the markets themselves looking just a little flat. turning to the upside, but we'll call it flat if for now. the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq, the dow up 45 points, the other if two major exchanges essentially flat. taking a rook at the 10-year yield, up 2 basis points at 4.21%. compare that to the 2-year

yield. it's interesting to keep track the of the difference between the two and, yep, the 2-year's still up there, up 4.6 basis points at 4.6 11th. and how about -- 6 -- 4.if 61%. how about bitcoin in back above 70,000, up more than $1700 at a $70,7558. 7558. by the way, this is the sentencing day for sam bankman-fried. the crypto fraudster will learn how much time he'll be spending behind bars. that's happening this hour. make no mistake, we are live outside the courthouse with the latest developments. and remember this video showing migrants rushing the border? nine in that mob if are now reportedly facing charges for inciting a riot, property damage and assault. we'll have all the details on that. it is thursday, march 28th, 2024. it's a rainy one in new york city, but we'll brighten up things ii you. very any and company about to begin. ♪ ♪ nobody can drag me down,

nobody, nobody. ♪ nobody can drag me down ♪ ashley: it's a little damp this morning as we listen to one direction, one of stu's favorite bands. he's talking about them all the time. that's midtown manhattan. people still milling about. of course, the the markets will be closed tomorrow for good friday, so this is the last trading day of the first quarter, and let's begin this morning with politics which always, of course, has a big impact on your money. some new fox polls on president biden and the race in the white house, very interesting, indeed. good morning, lauren. lauren: morning, ash. ashley: take we through them. lauren: 41% if approve of how joe biden is doing in office. that's not a great number. if you look here, you can see the numbers are moving lower as november draws close closer. whenned asked what are biden's

biggest accomplishments, 38% said nothing. and more than half of voters say they were better off four years ago when donald trump was president. look at this, trump 5 points ahead of biden in a a head to head a matchup. 50 for trump, 45 for biden. and this lead remains even if you factor in the third party candidates, ashley. ashley: very interesting. all right, lauren, thank you very much. well, here's or that poll that that you mentioned, and it's really quite striking, isn't it? voters were asked what's the administration's biggest accomplishment. a lot of people thought about the it, 38% said absolutely nothing. todd piro with us this morning. great to see you, todd. i'd love to see kjp defend that one. >> and, of course, you know how she's going to do it, she's going to talk about them putting in the work and how good the economy is, and she's going to make that equivalence between the stock market expect economy. i will say this, joe biden's america is doing well for the e it heats. but they're called elites for a

reason. there aren't a lot of them. when you look a poll, it's the reason the poll numbers are all going down, and when asked to name an accomplishment, most people say nothing. it's because for the average american, man or woman, white, black, brown, it doesn't matter, this administration if has not been good for them either now or in the long run. the elites, the one he's across the street taking pictures with for thousands of bucks a pop, they love him because he caters to their white liberal wish lists over and over and other the course of the last three and a half years. ashley: i always thought the democrats were the working people's party and the republicans were off with the concern request yeah, that switched. ashley: boy, what a switch. all right todd, bill clinton and barack obama joining joe biden tonight in new york city. apparently, it's not for your birthday that they're shutting down streets in midtown. happy birthday, by the way. >> thank you, sir. ashley: it is for a campaign event in new york city tonight. they're expected to rake in around $25 million.

that's a lot of cash any way you look at a it. >> it is, and that is it is, to my earlier point, the elitist notion of, one, the democrat party but, two, this sort of cobble that that the you have -- cabal that you have here. biden, mr. i'm running the trains, riding the trains. no, you're not. you're catering to the same obama and, quite frankly, the late clinton years crowd. that said, ashley, donald trump does need to pay attention because money does matter many elections. yes, we talk ad nauseam about a how everybody has their vote more or less baked in, but there's a handful of people many those swing states for which campaigning up until the last minute will be important. getting out the ground vote is so important right now. getting your people that you can pay to go shake hands, kiss babing byes because, obviously, trump and biden can't be everywhere, that's going to decide elections in the swing states and that's why money is important. donald trump and the republicans need to work harder on that.

ashley: you know what,? the new york types says obama apparently heart attacks quote, grave concern that -- has, quote, grave concern that biden lose to trump in the upcoming election. that's probably because he wants a fourth term because, god knows, he's probably the one that's been operating in the third term the of, you know, his presidency while joe biden fronts the administration. >> obviously, that certainly feels like speculation. ashley: yes. >> but to the earlier point, to lauren's numbers before, what is that signature accomplishment? if you're obama watching biden, you're thinking to yourself, my god, what is the accomplishment of joe biden? i too would be worried if i were pulling for joe biden, and and i have trump no matter what you throw at a him keeps rising, rising, rising in the polls. the next seven months will be really interesting to see if that continues. ashley: it's going to be fascinating. todd, thank you, sir. now on to some sad news in, former senator joe lieberman has passed away at the age of 82. he was quite the accomplished man, wasn't he, lauren this

many. lauren: sure was. joe leiber or orman was a or four-term senator from connecticut, vice presidential nominee to al gore back in 2000. he also came close to being john mccain's running mate eight years after that. he was a democrat, later switched parties to independent. pro-third party and a founding member of no labels. according to his family, joe lieberman died of complications from a fall. he was 82 years old. tributes from fellow lawmakers are pouring in. senator susan collins says he was her absolute favorite person to work with, and former president barack obama says he was a man that, they didn't always agree, but he always stuck to his principles. ashley: yeah, very true. and, todd, come back in here. you live in connecticut. i had the great opportunity to interview joe lieberman a couple of times, and he was always so gracious, ask and he was in this day of such divisive politics, he was a man that that really tried to find common ground, didn't he? >> yeah. and i know you lived in connecticut, you know that well.

while democrats toward the end especially may not are liked him from a policy perspective, he was always well loved within the state and still is. and that's why you're seeing this outpouring of support. i had the opportunity on his last day in the senate which he actually spent in the hartford capitol to interview him. he will be missed. he was a good hub, and we need more more -- human being and we need more of those in politics regardless of the number in front of your name. ashley: very well said, todd. thank you. let's get back to the markets now. as as i said at the top of the show, kind of flat for now. the last trading day of the first quarter, and and that's the very definition of flat, just the dow up about 36 points. let's bring in iowa lis is corrin to talk about this, last trading day of the first quarter, we've seen quite a rally. the s&p up about 10% for this quarter. the dow up 55.5%, the nas -- 5.5%, the nasdaq up9.3%. all very positive. the question is, do we have legs in this rally to continue into the second quarter?

if. >> yeah, i think we do. it might be a sleepy finish to the month and the quarter with the old day trading week here -- holiday trading week here, but we sure started out the year with a bang in q1, and i'm looking back to early november. that's really when this rally started. over the last five months, the nasdaq is up almost 30%. so in terms of whether we have legs from here, that's the golden question, right? are we going to take a little break? i'm actually looking at 2003 as a historical precedent for this current market. we're tracking very similarly. and in 2003 up about 28 in five months, that was just halftime. ashley: well, let me ask you this, we've talked a lot about the magnificent seven, nvidia in particular. are those big tech names starting to wane a little bit, and are we going to see some other sector or names kind of pick up the what baton to run with? and if so, who would that be? >> so i think nvidia is clearly the leader here.

and you have to remember heading into week that leading stock was up 11 weeks in a row. so i think it's due for a little bit of a break here, a little bit of a rest. i think that would actually be healthy to see some rotation out of these leading a.i. names when it's on the chip side or the software side is. we want to see more participation, and that's a exactly what we're getting. we're starting to see small and mid cap stocks participating more in this market. the russell 2000 having a great week, getting to its highest levels in about a year, so i think the that's exactly what the doctor ordered for this market rally. and if we can we get the fed to stay on track with those rate cut expectation, that's going to definitely be a tailwind for those small and mid cap stocks. ashley:ing right. and quickly, alyssa, a couple of medical names that you like. intuitive surge call and dex come. why do you with -- dexcom. why do you like those two stocks? >> have strong fundamentals and technicals. those are definitely needed for any trade that i'm going to make beyond just the compelling story.

but the compelling story for both of those is they recently got fda approve priewfls, for intuitive surge call for their robotic surgery device. so that's a big milestone for this company, to have that fda approval. and 10,000 times or the compute -- so the computing power as the previous device. i think the 400 level here is a good level to watch for intuitive surgical. and dexcom, i'm looking at the 140 price level, fda approval for type ii diabetes patients that are not insulin dependent for glucose monitor, and i think that's going to open up the way for others who are not diabetic to use this continuous glucose monitor as well, so a come compelling story there, no doubt. ashley: very interesting stuff. alyssa is, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. coming up, transportation secretary buttigieg nation his

biggest -- facing his biggest test yet with the baltimore bridge chance, but he's warning of the long are -- collapse, but he's warning of the long road ahead. >> rebuilding will not be quick, easy or cheap, but we will get it done. that does not necessarily mean it will take five years to replace. we will come together around baltimore, and we will rebuild. ashley: in other words, he has no timeline for the roping, so so it's going to be -- reopening, so it's going to be a tough go. to the border crisis, we've showed you this video of migrants storming the border at el paso. well, now nine of those migrants have reportedly been charged with assault and inciting a riot. texas congressman tony if gonzalez will react to that next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: well, the markets will open in just over 12 minutes' from now, and the futures market shows we'll have a very modest, perhaps slightly higher opening. of course, the market's closed tomorrow, so we'll see what investors decide to do today. essentially, flat as we speak. now this, nine migrants who stormed the border in el paso last week tearing down razor wire, running over national guard troops, well, they have reported by -- reportedly been charged with assault and inciting a rye9 got are, which seems appropriate. -- riot, which seems appropriate. congressman tony gonzalez joins us this morning. let's begin with nine arrested, but there were certainly a lot more there. were many others able to get into the country? >> good morning ashley, thank you for having me. yes,sing they were. and this is the part that's frustrating. of course those nine people that were, that were charged should

immediately be deported, but honestly anyone who comes over illegally whether they assault someone or not, they have broken the law. there has to be repercussions for our laws, and if they must be deported immediately. what i've been seeing, as you know, i represent two-thirds of the texas/mechanic coe border. i've seen the -- can mexico border. i've seen the people coming over illegally getting more and more dangerous, more and more brazen towards breaking laws and showing throughout the country more and more cities are unsafe as these people get spread around. ashley: you look at the video, congressman, it just looks like adult single males, apparently many of them had weapons on them, makeshift knives and so on. i mean, this is a group that poses a significant safetyish, to -- issue. of the your point, we have no idea what they're going to do. >> you're exactly right. and don't take my words for it. if you listen -- i recently met with the direct or orer of

i.c.e., and hing told me that these venezuelan gangs are causing more trouble, and they're a threat. the fbi director has testified and said, look, or these transnational criminal organizations are getting stronger, and he's seen every light blink red. so this is what i worry about. we know joe biden is m.i.a. a, he's not going to come save the day. this is exactly what they want with. if anything, they're going to add gasoline to the fire. as a member of congress, what i've done is go how can i protect my district and and my state, and one of the things that i've been doing is working with the federal government, the federal law enforcement agencies and local law enforcement agencies to start these, to start these task forces that specifically go after -- [speaking spanish] these are these venezuelan gangs. they're popping up everywhere. we have to get ahead of it because three years from now tda is going to be the new ms-13.

ashley: it's fright ifennenning. i want to move on to this one, elon musk chiming in after every senate democrat voted no to an amendment warring the administration -- can barring the administration from using taxpayer dollars to fly migrants into the u.s. musk called it insane. you know, congressman, why would democrats not support the amendment? flying in migrants from around many countries. it makes no sense that the a taxpayer pays for this. >> i think elon's a friend of mine, i hosted elon at the border several months ago, and i think elon's right. i think every democrat is insane to pay, to use tax the payer dollars to fly these people into your community when some of these people are going to cause chaos with, and they're going to suck your cities' resources, and and they're going to create an environment that a doesn't feel safe. so elon is exactly right. it's absolutely insane of to have anyone on any party think that this is okay.

this is the further thing from orderly and is humane, but this is exactly what the femme democrats and joe biden want in this america. ashley: you know, we also should point out we got record apprehensions on the northern border. we don't talk about that much. in the first quarter this fiscal year, we've seen 114% increase. i understand you're joining other lawmakers in calling out secretary mayorkas for doing nothing to address the northern border. what do you want to hear from the secretary? >> i'd like for him to do his job, but we know he's not going to do that. but i think this is where congress needs to be more vocal. we need to force the administration to do, to do what they have to do. otherwise we hold them accountable. i am the only southerner on the northern border caucus, and the reason i'm on this caucus is because so much attention gets put on the southern border, and rightfully so is. you see those images of all these people just bum rushing and creating lawlessness.

but on the northern border, more is and more is happening. it's almost as if it is a year or two behind the current crisis. and what i don't want to see, what many of us don't want to see is what's happening on the southern border to happen on the northern border, because it's all fun and game when you're watching the images from aa far until it is in your -- afar until it is in your city, your community that is being overwhelmed by this chaos. ashley: and just is ask new york and chicago and other cities. congressman, thank you so much for your time today. continue to fight the good fight. i appreciate it very much. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: thank you. as we head to the break now, take a look at the futures. we've been saying pretty muted right now. be interesting to see what kind of volume we have today. the market's closed tomorrow. that looks like it's going to be very flat opening. guess what? if we're going to find out next when the opening bell rings. stick around. ♪ ♪ if

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ashley: as we can see, the markets essentially flat as with we get ready for the last trading day of the first quarter. let's bring in d.r. barton. d.r., it's been a very good first quarter for the major indexes. finish second quarter kicks off on monday. do we keep the momentum going? because in your notes you say that, by the way, april is historically pretty strong for the markets, right in. >> yeah, very much so, ash. and you're dead right, we had a first quarter to remember. 21 new all-time highs for the s&p 500 so far this year. that's already a huge a amount of momentum. but you're with also right that april's the strong, one of the strongest months and, in fact, in a presidential election year it is the strongest of all the months dating back to 1950. so there is some historic seasonality that's pushing us forward, and it is also typically a really good time to start looking at things when

you're coming to an easing cycle even if we keep coming with the we don't know when it's coming from the fed -- [laughter] discussion. ashley: a couple of stocks you like. let's look at the first one, des moines r.. you -- department r.. you like concern d.r., you like microsoft. why do you like it in particular? >> yeah, and why right here. i think anywhere a little bit below where it's trading right now, i have two key levels at 420, which is about where it's trading now, down to 400. i think in there we have a buy zone for one more turn up, ashley. heir doing a lot of things -- they're doing a lot of things behind the scenes that aren't just big a.i. things that could push this thing well beyond $500 a share over the next year where, year. that. ashley: wow. very bullish e, indeed. all right. now you like a name in the defense sector, raytheon. >> yeah. i've been concentrating op

defense sector stocks for the last 9-12 months, and you know that from the times we've been together, ashley. and raytheon i talked about a last august for the first time. they've had a rocky road since then, but they're pushing up to new, to new 9- month highs right now, and they a make sting ther defense -- stinger defense surface to air missiles. and i think that's the place that we're going to continue to see more and more spending. ashley: are good, indeed. we'll leave it there, d.r.. thank you so much, as always. appreciate your time. the opening bell coming up in about 15 seconds. and d.r. mentioned all the a records, the s&p closed at a record high yesterday with. what can we do today? any gain will be another record, and the s&p, by the way, up about 10% this quarter. all right, everybody's happy. again, the market's closed tomorrow, and there's that. it'll be interesting to see what what investors decide to do. maybe cash out and sake take

some money with them. we'll see. right out the opening gate the dow up 611 points. you can -- 61 points. you can see the laggards, apple, salesforce.com on the top end, i think i can see travelers, chef on, am a general at the top of the dow -- amgen. let's take a look at a the s&p, see which stocks, see how the exchange is doing, for sure. it's up -- no, it's essentially flat, 5248 on the s&p. and let's take a look at the nasdaq. the big tech-heavy nasdaq. that slightly lower, down 26 points, about a tenth or two ors slightly lower on the nasdaq. and talking of big tech, let's take a look at those names. they've done so much of the heavy lifting over the years. and for the moe part, the big tech -- most markets the big tech stock are moving lore. amazon is the exception which is socially flat p. the others all -- essentially flat. the others moving slightly lower. let's look at some of the individual stocks, web bush

lowering their price target for tesla. lauren, why is that? lauren: the stock's at $1777, and web -- 177, and web bush says they're cutting their price target from $315 to $300, so they're way above where tesla is trading now. [laughter] why? china. this is a dan ives call. he says it's, like, a code red moment for elon musk in shanghai, their biggest and if most profitable factory. and he says, look, i underestimated the severity of this slowdown in gland for evs out of -- in demand for evs out of china. the guidance would be because they still have a buy on tesla, they still see many catalysts in the future, but right now the near term struggle is for management, for elon musk and the cfo, to guide investors with a strategy through this rough patch. just to put some numbers on the rough patch because with everyone's worried about the q1 delivery numbers next week from tesla. you name it, deutsche bank cutting their forecast, rbc

slashing their forecast by, like, 50,000 vehicles in some instances. so this is a big deal. i would say looking forward, last point on tesla, their full self-driving, elon musk is pushing this. you know, a free month, right, if you want to try it out because apparently it's just so cool, you've got to have it. if he can convince more people to use that option, to buy that option, that's a service. ashley: yeah. lauren: and having a service on top of the car that to you sell is a huge deal. so absolutely, that is a catalyst. but right now tesla's down 1.7. %. i'm done. ashley: all right. good stuff, lauren. yeah, that was a lot. i hope there's not a test on it tomorrow. [laughter] let's move on to amazon. amazon just completed a $4 billion investment into an a.i. start-up. i think it's called an drop theric. -- anthropic. lauren: correct. and their chat bot is called cloud? claude, i think, right? ashley: claude are. lauren: competing directly with

chatgpt. former a a.i. executives founded this company. what could claude iii do? it can outperform the best gpt4 in reasoning, math, encoding. you get instant generative a.i. responses in under three seconds. so if you have this service that useses amazon chips and you go and and deploy this generative a.i. software capabilities, you allow other companies who use amazon serviceses to create their own a.i. applications. so it's a big with deal. it's also amazon's biggest investment in another company since they were founded three decades ago. ashley: wow, that is a big deal. the stock not moving very much but interesting stuff. all right, let's move on. walgreens. there's one on every corner, right in they reported before the bell. how did they do? lauren: well, not so -- look, okay. the stock is up 4%. 4.1%. ashley: yeah. lauren: the problem is customers are going in, they're spending

less on beauty and personal if care. and wall. green's is taking a hit on the village md clinics. they have a majority stake in those. but because they took a multibillion dollar hit, they're exiting 140 different can locations. that's cost cutting, and and that's why the stock is up 4%. they're forecasting their comp sales were actually going to fall about 3% in 2024. ashley: till moving higher, all right telephone -- still moving higher. walmart refiling the paperwork for their acquisition of vizio. what when's going on here? if. lauren: they're refiling because they're buying time. they want the ftc and the doj to give them another 30 days to review this $2.3 billion cash deal for vizio, the tv people. ashley: wow. yeah. lauren: walmart doesn't really a want to sell more tv thes. that would be a perk but they want advertising to sell -- opportunities to sell advertising from the vizio tvs

and look at the ftc that they're facing. they don't want any mergers, today want to keep companies smaller, and walmart is anticipating that, so they're trying to buy themselves some time by refiling. ashley: got it. now another big deal, home depot acquiring srs distributing. i have no idea what this is about. tell me. lauren: i'm going to play with you, todd, jump in, if you want. do you guys know -- okay, blank the appropriator. do you know what hd pro is? todd thinks it's something in television. do you know what it is, ashley? ashley: well, we're talking about home depot, so is it something to do with contractors? lauren: correct. so you can probably remodel a bathroom. >> i'm both offended -- ashley: not even close. >> and our audience who are contractors. well done, pyro. [laughter] lauren: so do it yourself not working for home depot. the growth is in that hd pro contractor business. so now home depot is investing in it, buying this company that

we've never heard of, srs. it's a building materials supplier, and they're buying it for $18.25 billion. it's their biggest deal, and today say it will expand their total potential market by, this is, these are huge number, by about 50 billion to roughly $1 trillion. i don't have a time frame on that, but like we just said with the walmart-video story, they have to get regulatory clearance for this even though it's really a different market. i mean, it's an ashley versus todd kind of market. >> this is not my experience. the piro dropped about eight a large into home depot yesterday. lauren: what are you doing on the house? >> we bought a refrigerator and i bought some rag. but anyway, i digress. happy birthday. lauren: what a present. [laughter] ashley: you know how to celebrate, todd piro. [laughter] lauren: there could be champagn- ashley: if rags to are riches. all right. we've got to move on, they're telling me. we could do this all day. let's do it. no, we can't. lauren, thank you. very much. coming up also, don't forget to send your friday feedback.

if you want to comment on that last segment, and i'm sure you do, e-mail your questions, comments, critiques -- we love the critiques -- to varneyviewersfox.com. you can say anything, we can take it. biden is hitting the campaign trail. his campaign hopes to pin basement strategy on trump now, but the only reason, of course, why trump's not constantly on the road is because democrats are keeping him locked up in court. hmm, we're going to get into that. then to the war in israel. the white house says talks have restarted to bring top israeli officials to washington. we'll have the very latest from israel right after this. ♪ ♪

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ashley: israel is looking to reschedule the scrapped meeting with the u.s. to discuss military operations in rafah. trey yingst joins us this morning from tel aviv and, trey, i guess the question is, is this meeting going to happen? >> reporter: yeah, hey, ashley, good morning. it looks like the meeting will take place after all, but we don't know when. 17. 4 days into the war, israeli officials remain focused on gaza, but they're dealing with security threats from a variety of other locations. the morning in the west bank gunmen opened fire on a bus that was carrying israeli children to school. at least three people were injured, and the shooter has not yet been caught. the israeli mail -- military says they've launched a manhunt in the jordan valley to try and track down the suspect. on the northern front, there was more rocket fire from ez hezbollah this morning, the daily exchanging of fire along the border risks dragging the region into a much larger conflict. yesterday us israel struck back

against a series of targets, or reported arely killing 16 people in lebanon. the world does continue to watch what's happening in gaza and how it will affect the rest of the region. usaid now warning of an imminent famine in northern gaza as doctors battle malnutrition e in palestinian children. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i see crisis every day. it's a daily struggle. my shift in the intensive care does not go without three or four cases of this kind. from bad to worse. and the result is death. >> reporter: the civilian population in gaza continues to pay the highest price amid this war, and there are questions today about if and when that israeli operation will happen into the southernmost part of the strip. ashley? ashley: all right. trey yingst in tel aviv, trey, thank you. breathe9 velicovich joins me now brett, good to see you. it's pretty clear the relationship between the white house and israel deteriorating

pretty rapidly. of how much of a concern is that for you? >> you're exactly right. i mean, tensions are clearly growing over this looming israeli military operation in gaza's southern city of after -- rafah. the u.s. is calling on israel instead of focusing, frankly, on the core issues which is rooting out hamas. this administers seems to want to convince -- administration want seems to want to cob vince the israelis to stop their operation in gaza. it's as if we've forgotten about the october 7th mast kerr. we need the -- massacre. we need to let disaillies to what's necessary to root out terrorism in gaza and hamas. they're a terrorist group that needs to be put down. this isn't just a threat to israel, it's a threat to our own way of life. so we need to focus our attention on helping israel crush hamas, remove their combat power, destroy their military operation centers, their tunnel networks, their air defense weapons. this is a case where they need

to fully eliminate the enemy, not just detain them, reestablish deterrence, and we need to give the israelis the time and space to crush hamas without condemning their next actions, their responses and, you know, look what happened to the israelis when they did nothing for years. i just don't see these future talks between our administration and the israelis going really well at all especially when only a few days ago the u.s. administration stood aside and allowed the u.n. security council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza which was against the israelis' wishes. so of course netanyahu's going to cancel the planned trip because he sees the u.s. attacking him. ashley: i want to move to another part of the globe where there's perhaps trouble brewing, the taiwanese navy just commissioned two new naval corvettes, they're called. they're mauler cat -- smaller catamaran-style ships, i think they can only take up 2 21 people. china ramping up its military efforts around the island.

i mean, where do you see this going? is an invasion imminent or certainly a real possibility? >> i think it definitely is a real possibility, and the taiwanese are moving out with that thought in mind. i mean, they are rapidly building their defenses for what they believe is an imminent threat from the china. there's a lot of money moving in to buy up defense tech. i'm seeing this firsthand. many defense technologies, u.s. defense contractors that are flooding into taiwan to, you know, also -- and the u.s. is quietly spending money there to beef up taiwan's security. they're starting to fast track production of fighter jets in tie warning submarines, warships, drones. tensions are clearly rising there. you've got taiwan's air force, their navy, their missile corps responding to near daily incursions by chinese ships and planes. their defense ministry is on high alert, they believe there's potentially going to be chinese surprise attacks. nine plane, six ships operating around the island recently, and

right to now their military has got to get bolstered quickly by new weaponry if new technology. frankly, they're going to need it. heir outgunned by china. china boasts the world's largest standing military and biggest navy right now. their military budget has increased in recent years, they're a saying it's now the world's second largest military budge behind us, so taiwan's got to move fast to be paragraphed for the threat. ashley: they certainly do. going to have to leave it there. brett velicovich, great insight. appreciate your time. >> thanks, ashley. ashley: now this -- thank you. a host at ms or nbc asked treasury secretary janet yellen if elon musk poses a national security threat. help explain this one, todd. >> they're having a pretty solid week will across the street. the left's latest assault on elon musk comes in the form of this loaded question by andrea mitchell to the treasury e secretary. listen. >> she is really dependent on

that chinese market, very tied in with them. he has huge defense contracts, his satellites are -- the satellites we rely on for so much of our communication, is it a national security problem for -- and his octobers -- rockets, of course, is it a national security problem for our government if to have so much are relicense on this one entrepreneur? >> look, we take national security very, um, seriously and want to protect our national security. we need to make sure that the playing field is level, and we are concerned that chinese subsidies and the impact on our firms. >> two things, ash, to conclude. one, was she asking the treasury secretary to take some sort of action implicit in her question in that's concerning. and two, we tried to find the tape where ann drink ma if itch el -- andrea mitchell asked

asked a similar question of the president of the united states, but we couldn't find that a tape. we'll continue to look. ashley: yeah. you're going to take a long time to find that. never. all right, or todd, thank you. as we head to the break, i wanted to mention this, the wake for the new york city police officer who was killed monday night during a traffic stop will be held today. donald trump is planning to attend to pay his respects. jonathan dillon was just 31 yeareds old. years old. to sharpen their skills with tailored education. get an expanding library filled with new online videos, webcasts, articles, courses, and more - all crafted just for traders. and with guided learning paths stacked with content curated to fit your unique goals, you can spend less time searching and more time learning. trade brilliantly with schwab. this small thing, is the next big thing in diabetes.

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ashley: the wake for fallen nypd officer jonathan diller is being held today. diller was killed monday night during a traffic stop in queens. bryan llenas is live from maas if peek what park this morning with the details. bryan. >> reporter: ashley, it is a difficult morning, indeed. the wake is being held today and tomorrow for officer jonathan dill canner. he was just 31 years old -- diller. it is difficult for his family, his colleagues and particularly his community here. a massapequa park, long island. you can see american flags, blue ribbons, a tin blue line that's 10 -- thin blue line that's 10 miles long that has been painted on the street in this community to honor officer jonathan

diller. he leaves behind his wife stephanie and his infant son. now, last night hundreds showed up for a vigil to honor that, many first responders live in this community. officer diller was killed monday during a traffic stop when he was shot in the stoppage act below his bulletproof vest. he joined the police force just three years ago. here's his brother-in-law at last night's vigil. >> he loved what he did. he was born to be a cop. he was born to be a hero. he died being a hero. he died doing what he loved. i will forever, forever be a better person because of him. >> reporter: the two suspects a arrested in diller's murder have dozens of prior arrests and yet were out prix on the streets. the driver was charged yesterday with criminal possession of a weapon and for possessing a ghost gun. former president trump will be coming to today's wake. his campaign says he was moved

by the invitation to join diller's family and and colleagues on truth social trump offered his heart felt if prayers and said the suspect should never have been let back out on the streets. the president of the nypd sergeants' union is warning new york city politicians who, quote, detest cops not to attend the wake or funeral. >> so who seems to believe that criminals in today's day and age a should be considered to be the victims of crimes and that the police department and the police officers that come and give their lives day in and day out, they're the ones who are the villains in the story. >> reporter: ashley, over 7550,000 -- $750,000 has been raised for the officer's family9. ashley? ashley: thank you very much, bryan. very sad story. i want to also thank todd piro for joining us on his birthdayed today. enjoy the rest of the day, my friend. >> thank you, sir. ashley: thank you for being here. still i ahead in the show, ben

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