Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, April 3, 2025

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Major breaking news tonight on two fronts. President Trump's tariffs send the stock market tanking and we're tracking a massive tornado outbreak across the south. The biggest stock market wipe out in years as the president's tariffs spark a brutal sell-off, investors fearing higher prices and escalating trade war, even a recession. How bad will it get? Our team is covering everything you need to know to protect your money. Tornado outbreak, gigantic twister after twister tearing across the south, this shed slamming into a house. The tornadoes flipping cars into trees and flattening homes, the urgent water rescues today and fears floodwaters will get even higher.

Also breaking tonight a stabbing rampage in Washington, six people hospitalized after a man with a knife attacked them in our nation's capital. Trackmeet turns deadly, the football star, stabbed to death. allegedly by another student at a high school competition. The victim's father speaking out in an emotional interview. The new Tiger King, the Las Vegas man accused him, keeping seven tigers at his home, now in jail. He says they were emotional support pets, what he told our station in an exclusive jailhouse interview. And the cliffhanger caught on camera, the dog falling down a 100-foot cliff, how rescuers saved her, sending her off with barely a scratch.

Plus, why Bruce Springsteen is releasing nearly 70 new songs. Top story starts right now. And good evening. Tonight, the meltdown on Wall Street, as President Trump's sweeping tariffs send stocks plunging to the worst day in five years. At this hour, the U.S. is bracing for other countries to strike back with many Americans left anxious about what the impact's going to be on their wallet. Take a look at this. The S&P 500 dropping nearly 5%, the Dow tumbling, nearly 4%, and the NASDAQ plummeting nearly 6%.

Investors showing signs of concern that the escalating trade war could lead to a recession. This all coming less than 24 hours after President Trump displayed his list of tariffs sending shockwaves across the global economy. And just a reminder, we want to show you this as well. The U.S. is the biggest importer you know of the entire world. So the new tariffs you see right here, like 54% for China, 20% for the European Union, that's expected to drive us costs for us back home. We spoke to several people who had mixed views on the president's new move. I wonder what our grocery bill is going to be like. I wonder if we can afford to upgrade our car when it breaks down.

All those things are on my mind. I have stocks on the market and everything else, and I don't want to hurt that either, but sometimes you have to give the receiver. So which products will be affected by tariffs? Everything from your groceries to furniture, to clothing, and electronics are expected to take ahead. Just ahead will break down what you should purchase now before those prices sprike. We also have so much to get to, but we want to start tonight with NBC's senior business correspondent, Christine Romans. Tonight, Wall Street sending a clear message about President Trump's effort to dramatically reshape the global economy.

Major losses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, President Trump taking the drop in stride. The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom. And on Air Force One tonight, saying he is open to negotiations if other countries offer something, in his words, phenomenal like a deal from China on the sale of TikTok. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. Always have. I've used them very well in the first administration, as you saw. But now we're taking it to a whole new level because it's a world.

worldwide situation. After he slapped steep tariffs on trading partners like China, Vietnam, and India, administration officials fanned out to make the president's case. For 40 years, we've had an economy that rewards people who ship American jobs overseas and raises taxes on American workers, and we're flipping that on its head. The administration now defending the formula it used to determine tariff levels. President Trump said it was half of what those countries charged the U.S. through taxes and currency policies, but critics saying it was more arbitrary.

This is the reordering of fair trade, and what happens is people think it's all about tariffs. It's about those non-tariff trade barriers. The United States buys everybody's products. We buy everybody's goods. You just have to treat us fairly. The European Union and China now preparing countermeasures. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney today vowed to mass. 25% auto tariffs on imports from the U.S.

Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over. Already today, signs prices people pay are rising, Volkswagen announcing it will add an import fee to vehicles to reflect the 25% auto import tariff. Hyundai telling its dealerships, prices are likely to rise. Democrats on the Hill are calling the President's trade policies a national sales tax. We estimate families will be charged five. thousand dollars a year on the purchases they make of imported products and despite this promise from the Rose Garden event yesterday jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country there's near-term disruption automaker

stalantis today said it will pause plants in Mexico and Canada and that 900 workers in the US will be temporarily laid off and while the president says companies will start to make more products in America economist Mark Zandi says that will take years if it happens at all. The tariffs are done under executive order, they're not under law, and they can be changed by the stroke of a pen or the whim of the president. So I just don't see any major company making a big investment in the United States based on these tariffs. All right, Christine Romans joins us now alongside NBC News, Business and Data Correspondent Brian Chung

and senior White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell, the economic super friends here tonight on top story. I thank you all. Christine, I'm going to start with you. this was the worst day for the market since 2020. I guess the big question is how much lower do we expect this plunge to go? Well, and that is the big question. It depends on what happens next. It depends on whether the president is open for negotiation, as he hinted on Air Force One tonight.

It depends on whether there's retaliation and how much from America's trading partners. And it depends on how companies respond. You have so many CEOs who are frozen in place here. They're not exactly sure. what is going to happen next? So they're not making hiring plans. They're not making investments. That's very bad for an economy.

You mentioned CEOs, or Brian Chung here, has been talking to businesses all day. What are you hearing? Yeah, I looked into the toy industry because that's one industry where a majority of products in the United States are actually imported from China and Asia. And one founder of a company called Basic Fund, they make Care Bears and also Tonka trucks.

They were saying they're already planning on raising prices, Tom, from $29.99 for their classic truck to $39.99 by the holidays later on this year. but then there are some other competitors, like, for example, Ohio-based Simplay 3, where they say that they are entirely a supply chain in the United States. They won't have to raise prices. So this is really closing up the borders and kind of defining who has to raise prices and who don't based off of where they're done. Yeah, those companies that are completely made in America smiling, but again, so many are not smiling today. Kelly, the White House had have been anticipating the backlash, right, both in Washington and Wall Street.

But this is quite a drop, right? We're getting back into sort of pandemic territory where the market dropped so much. The president has publicly said he's committed to these tariffs, right? He said that. Is there any sense he may change course because we know that's one of his scoreboards as a president? Well, what is striking is that top advisors were saying this is not about negotiation. And then as Christine pointed out, the president left that door open today. And at the moment, he is at the center of a world adjustment.

And so he is talking about how world leaders are wanting, to reach out to him, wanting to negotiate, wanting to make a deal, which puts the president in the driver's seat in many ways, a place he likes to be when it comes to using his powers of the presidency. The striking nature of how big the drop was today was not something that officials were talking about. The basic message from here is whether it will get better. Christine, you know, we never hit a recession during the Biden administration. There was all the talk about the soft landing, the hard landing, but we never got into that recession. Obviously, today is not the day to look at your 401K, but if you're looking to buy a home or make a big purchase right now, and there are those worries about the recession, what is your advice?

So look, if you're a retirement saver and you're close to retirement, you should be talking to a financial professional about when you need to tap that money. Similarly, if you have a 529, a college savings plan and the kid's going to go to school in a couple years, make sure that it's adjusted correctly for when your kid is going to need that money. super important. If you're doing a big ticket item, like a house, right, or a car, make sure it's in your budget, know what the interest rates are, and make that purchase if it's right for your family. But it's just a reminder. Over time, stocks go up. Young savers, you know, young investors, they can weather it up and down. But the older you are, I mean, the more nervous you are tonight. Right. No, we totally get that. So, Brian, I do want to ask you, everyone's sort of worried about when prices are going to go up. We don't know exactly. Do we know when the sort

The empire strikes back, if you will, all these other countries coming back and putting more tariffs on our stuff. Yeah, well, I mean, this could be the beginning of a ratcheting up tariff war. I want to point out that we've already heard from the likes of Canada where Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he intends on doing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. cars going into Canada. But I want to point out that the tariffs that were announced by the White House yesterday haven't taken effect yet. Actually, the baseline 10% takes effect on Saturday. And then the reciprocal quote-unquote tariffs take place Wednesday. Maybe the retaliatory actions are after that, Tom. And Kelly, before we go, there's some reporting out there.

I want to make sure we get this right for our viewers that apparently there were tariffs put or levies on two islands in Australian territory that have no permanent human residents but lots of penguins. What's going on there? Well, that's one of the things where you, when you do a big plan like this, there can be some what happened here moments. And we've certainly seen that. Also missing from all of this. No mention of Russia. That's because there is a war going on. And there's not an active problem. trade relationship between the United States and Russia. And so there's sort of a novelty about penguins being tariffed. But the president is saying these are sweeping. It is global. And there will be some kind of unusual moments, and that's certainly one of them. Even the penguins are

feeling it. Okay, guys, we thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. We know we're throwing a lot at you there at home, so we want to dig into this a bit more on where American consumers may see those price hikes first. Japan now facing a 24 percent tariff on U.S. X. including on goods from some of its biggest manufacturing names. Electronics giants like Sony, gaming company Nintendo, and camera firm Nikon. Trump puts some of the highest tariffs anywhere on Vietnam, a levy of 46%. That's where tech companies like Apple and Intel make many of their products, as well as furniture brand wayfair.

However, the biggest tariff impacts in the world during this Trump administration are reserved for China, as we just heard earlier. One of America's biggest trading partners exporting roughly four. $440 billion in products to the U.S. last year. Yesterday's tariffs added to previous levies, so it now totals about 54%. And that loophole that allowed online sites like Sheehan and Temu to send super cheap goods to the U.S. without a tariff, guess what? That's now close as well.

Our Janice Mackie Freyer, she's on the ground for us in China tonight, inside of a factory that makes apparel for the American market, reckoning in real time with an exploding trade war. Inside this factory in southern China, Ace Headwear is trying to keep up with both demand and this week's seismic change to global trade. The factory sows, embroidered, and finishes hats for well-known brands sold in the U.S. like Wilson and Fila. This is for U.S. market, see.

And has licenses for the sort of Major League sports gear that Americans buy or wear every day. This one company is making more than 2 million hats a year, and 40% of them are going to the U.S. But now that President Trump has slapped at least 54% tariffs on all goods made in China, from toys to plastics to car parts, basically everything. That's the result.

Ace owner Jeffrey Maas says he can't absorb the costs. As I told you, manufacturing property is very low, even in China very low. so we can order for those tax. It means those tariffs will show up as higher prices for his American buyers. So anyone who buys a baseball hat, a trucker hat, a fishing hat, anything. Anything. So you can compare.

That's why USA, I mean, the prices goes up. Water products prices goes up. And it won't be just these hats. With an abundant supply chain and cheaper labor, cheaper labor, China has long been the world's factory. 80% of all toys sold in the United States are made in China. That's not just imported toys, but 80% of all toys sold in America. For clothing and footwear, 29% of what sold in the U.S. is made here.

Major brands are set to take a major hit. Adidas has 82 factories in China. H&M makes half its clothes here and in Bangladesh, which was hit with a third. 37% tariff and Nike 18% of its products are made here and a full half of it made in Vietnam which will see tariffs of 46%. I think all of us in the supply chain from the brand to the manufacturer in the in the supply chain I think all of us are influenced are affected the ace headwear strategy sell more to China and other markets in Asia as the costs of doing business with the U.S. and the stakes go higher.

Janice Mackey-Fraer, NBC News, Guangzhou. Okay, we're also tracking some other breaking news tonight. We're following right now police investigating multiple people that were stabbed in Washington, D.C. It happened in the northeast part of the city, about 20 minutes north of Capitol Hill. D.C. police say they've arrested a suspect. For more on this, I want to bring in Walter Morris from NBC4, Washington. Of course, our owned an operated station there in the nation's capital. Walter, break it down for us. What exactly happened here? Well, Tom, when we heard from the chief of police here earlier, she described this as a senseless assault.

Now, police say that suspect, a man was under the influence of something and walking down the street here this afternoon. And then just before 3.30, they say he began stabbing himself and then random people. The chief, when we heard from her, she says he started by going after a woman who was walking with him. And then he turned his attention to strangers on the street, including. a grandmother who was getting into a car with her grandchildren. Now, we're told that's when two good Samaritan saw what was going on and jumped in. Unfortunately, they were also injured. Police say officers were here within minutes, and they eventually located that suspect just down the street from where we're standing,

as well as we're covering a knife. And then, Walter, before you go, do we know anything about the condition of those victims? So in total, there were six victims, four women and two men. We're told they are all in stable conditions. they should be okay. Now, as for that suspect, the chief says he was taken into surgery and again, placed under arrest. All right, Walter Morris for us from D.C. tonight. Walter, we thank you for joining our broadcast. Also tonight, the dangerous weather ramping up dozens of tornadoes, ripping through communities across the Midwest and the South, tearing apart homes and downing trees.

This has heavy rain triggers flood emergencies in Michigan and Tennessee. Authorities are seeing several people have died so far. NBC News correspondent Kathy Park is in the storm zone with the latest. Tonight, round two of crippling weather striking the same region already battered by severe storms. At least 34 reported tornadoes tearing through the Midwest and South, shredding homes and upending lives. In rural Arkansas, J.P. Delanga survived and recorded this large funnel cloud on his phone last night as it closed in. We looked outside and it was over there. Just outside Nashville, this home security camera capturing what appears to be the moment of impact. And across Michigan, the relentless rain triggering flash flood emergencies.

Cars submerged, and the powerful floodwaters cut straight through the street. Parts of Kentucky, a disaster zone. An industrial park ripped apart. Roofs peeled off. The debris scattered for miles. Our crew is there with a closer look at the damage. Alarms are still blaring inside this absolutely destroyed daycare. You can see toys on the ground.

a sign warning babies are sleeping. Thankfully, we're told no one was inside, but that roof is completely destroyed with the rain picking up here. In Indiana, punishing wind sent part of this warehouse crashing, trapping a worker. Officials say they were able to safely rescue her. And it hard hit Lake City, Arkansas.

But this saved your life. Yes, it is. A storm shelter became a lifeline for Morgan Ernest and her family. Their home leveled in minutes. My son's like, I want to go home, Mommy. I want to go home. You don't register because about 10, 20 minutes later, he'll say the same thing again.

Does that break your heart? It does. Because it's like all their stuff's there. Kathy Park, NBC News. Tens of millions remain in the crosshairs of this life-threatening weather. Let's get right over to NBC meteorologist Bill Karens, who's tracking this for us. Bill, talk to me about the current tornado threat tonight, and some of these same areas are bracing for flash floods? Yeah, typically storms will be on a move, so at least they'll hit a different

area. But this is an unusual case where the same locations are going to get hit three or four days in a row. And this evening, we have an isolated threat of tornadoes, but the flash flooding is widespread, almost as about as widespread as I've ever seen it. Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, all under flash flood warnings, all the way to Charleston, West Virginia. Everywhere in Maroon, there is life-threatening flash flooding going on now. At one point, that was stretching about 700 miles. And so that's going to continue. And that's only going to get worse in the days ahead because after we're done with tonight's rain tomorrow we get it again then another huge batch on Saturday additional rainfall in this storm zone area we'll call it another five to 10 inches

some city specific totals we're expecting another seven inches of memphis so it's a flash flood threat and then the rivers are going to be a mess as far as tornadoes go not an outbreak tonight but we will see isolated tornadoes maybe even an isolated strong tornado from shreveport all the way here through tennessee we do have two active tornado warnings in tennessee so here's nashville And here's one tornado warning that's radar indicated, also the one radar indicated to the south. The reason I don't like this one, it's as that one in general. We'll head to Nashville in about 20 to 30 minutes from now. So everyone in the Nashville area, Tom, has to pay close attention.

And as far as tomorrow goes, tornado outbreak likely. Once again, unfortunately, Arkansas looks to be hardest hit. All right. We'll stay tracking that. We're back in a moment with the deadly confrontation between two high school students had a track beat. One star athlete now dead. his father speaking out tonight. Plus, the man now in jail after police saying he was keeping seven tigers at his home illegally. He says they were emotional support animals. We'll stay

with us. We are back now with new details in a deadly stabbing at a high school track meet. A 17-year-old star student athlete dying in his twin brother's arms. Their father now speaking out. Another student arrested in charge with murder. It happened yesterday in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas. Our Priscilla Thompson has more. His brother was holding on to him, trying to make it stop bleeding, and he died in his brother's arms. Austin Metcalf's final moments, his dad says, were spent in his twin brother's arms. I rushed up there, and I saw him on the gurney, and I could tell. The 17-year-old died Wednesday, police say, after being stabbed by another student.

at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Not conscious, not breathing. He was stabbed. His twin brother, who was there, told their dad the incident began when the pair asked a student to move to a different seat. He brought a knife to a track meet, and he murdered my son by stabbing in the heart. Police are not saying what caused the altercation,

but have arrested 17-year-old Carmelo Anthony. A student athlete from a rival school now charged with murder. Anthony has not yet pled. The North Texas community in shock. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. Grieving alongside Austin's family, who are remembering the high school junior as a bright student athlete who was MVP of his football team and had a 4.0 GPA. He was loved by many.

He was a leader. He believed in God. He was a great kid. Made me the proudest father in the world. Tonight, his family leaning on that faith to forgive. I already forgive this person. God takes care of things. God's going to take care of me. God's going to take care of my family. Priscilla Thompson joins us tonight from Houston. Priscilla, anyone's seen or hearing your report is going to ask one question. Why? How does a simple request to move over turn into murder? Do police know what set that young man off? Well, Tom, if police do know they are not sharing that information publicly, I reached out to the Frisco Police Department today.

and ask them if they could verify the victim's brother account of what happened and what led to this argument. And they declined to comment on that, only acknowledging that there was a confrontation. So still a lot of questions there, which makes sense because this is an active investigation. But I should note, we've also tried to identify an attorney for the suspect and reach out to his family to get any information about his version of events but have not heard back. So certainly still a lot of questions about how this argument between two. student athletes led to this outcome. Tom? Okay, Priscilla Thompson first. Priscilla, we thank you for that. Up next, the man who would be Tiger King, arrested for keeping seven of the dangerous animals at his home. His exclusive interview with our station, and buy now or pay later, we break down what you should be

purchasing right now before tariffs send prices higher. Stay with us. All right, we're back now with power and politics, and our top story tonight, the stock market plunge. The biggest one-day drop in years since 2020 during the COVID pandemic, almost entirely driven by President Trump's sweeping tariffs. It's a story that cuts across politics and business, so we have the right people to talk about all of it tonight. Also, the president with some high-profile firings, and the race for New York City mayor is heating up. I want to bring in the former mayor of New York City, Democratic mayor of course, Bill de Blasio. Tiffany Smiley, she's founder of Endeavor PAC and a GOP strategist, and CNBC

contributor and a good friend to top story, Ron Insana. I thank you all for being here tonight. Ron, I'm going to start with you. You were down on Wall Street. What were you hearing from investors and traders? Well, I think they were so taken aback by yesterday's announcement from the president. This was far beyond what anybody had anticipated in terms of putting tariffs on both our friendly trading partners and even our adversaries. This was way above, even the worst-case scenario where it was assumed he might put 20 percent tariffs across the board. This is significantly higher. Shocked the system. We're hearing about retaliation. from other countries. And so it deepened worries about both recession and inflation simultaneously.

And so the market really responded more forcefully to the notion of recession. Not only that stocks fall, the dollar fell, but interest rates fell all simultaneously. And that's a warning that these policies could lead to weakening growth. Tiffany, you know President Trump, the base, better than anyone else at this table. Do you think the tariffs stay, or do you think this is a negotiating tool? Well, clearly Trump uses tariffs as a negotiating tool, and he's been very effective at it. We know that the market likes stability, and I think we're going to see it go up and down and then stabilize some. We're actually in a better place now today than we were last year at this time. So I believe it will stabilize as it kind of plays out.

But Trump is making sure that it's fair for Americans. And anyone that supported the trade policies, the former trade policies, they supported us losing manufacturing and jobs in this country. And President Trump is bringing that back. you have to put pressure on these people to bring them to the table, and he knows that. Not only that, you look at the automakers who are reinvesting back into our country. That's huge for America. It's huge for our economy and American workers. And these tariffs will bring revenue into our country so we can focus on tax cuts and delivering for the American people. Mayor, you know, you may have heard at the top of the broadcast.

There's a lot of Americans across the country that are looking at their 401 case, people who are maybe retired, looking to retire, worried about their kids' college savings plans. How did Democrats sort of get this time right now, which it's not a crisis yet, but it's getting pretty bad? How do Democrats take this and not look like they're exploiting it, but use it politically? We saw those special elections in Wisconsin and Florida. Democrats gained some ground there, not winning the elections in Florida, but gaining ground and then winning that Supreme Court seat. What do you think Democrats do now? What should they do? Well, first of all, this chaos is not what the American people voted for.

So I think what we're seeing is a lot of Trump voters in the heartland, auto workers, farmers are looking at this and they're saying, wait a minute, this is going to hurt my family. This is going to hurt my business. And I think this is where it starts to actually spin out of control for President Trump. What Democrats need to do is talk about what working people are going through. Bluntly, Tom, we failed to do this in 2024. We failed to show that empathy and connection. This time in 2025, Democrats have a chance to say, hey, this is what the average American worker is going through right now. They're seeing their savings disappearing before their eyes. They're worried will their job be there. There are layoffs right now in Michigan. Auto workers are going to be

laid off in Michigan starting this next week. This is real, and I think Democrats need to speak to it. Tiffany, the political ad is probably written right there. It's going to probably have that type of language. What's the counter argument? Well, look, President Trump is going to make an economy that actually works. I think Biden's biggest mistake was labeling Bidenomics. I think it was his downfall because the American people, there we go, because the American people knew that the economy was not working for them. And now there's an energy and there is hope that the future will be better. You look at the investments, trillions of dollars coming into our country the first time in a very, very long time. So I like to say, you know, Biden brought along his Bidenomics.

He brought, I call it the Inflation Production Act. It wasn't the Inflation Reduction Act. I also want to make a point, too, to energy independence. There are other factors that will play into our economy as well. And becoming energy independent will lower the price of gas. Also, the tariffs will help in lowering the price of gas for American workers. So there's a lot of hope and energy looking forward. You know, Ron, another thing that happened with Biden was that he said inflation was going to be transitory. Clearly it wasn't. I'm curious, what do you think the Fed's role is in this, right?

Because the president's not going to want the Fed to raise rates. The dollar is softening. Inflation is still very stubborn. What happens there with policy? Well, the Fed could very well find itself in a box. Now, the market's currently anticipating three Fed reserve rate cuts after today. market meltdown, not two. Do we think that's going to happen, though?

We don't know. If these tariffs push inflation up, and there's some estimates that it could push core inflation up, the underlying rate of inflation up by as much as 1 to 1.1.5 percent, which would take it closer to four, four and a half, and weaken the economy simultaneously. So the Fed would have to decide, does it fight recession or does it fight inflation? I would argue that, with all due respect to Tiffany, I don't think that inflation was solely the result of Biden's policies. In fact, for more than two years, we had a 4% unemployment rate.

We had rising wages that for the last 18 months of the Biden administration were above the rate of inflation. And we had actually a very strong economy coming into this period. And now we're seeing the markets begin to discount or anticipate possible recession and maybe even a global one if these tariffs remain for a long time. Tiffany, I want to ask you something else, too. The president also made news today with some high-profile firings in a meeting at the White House with Laura Lumer. She's a far-right activist, who you may know, she made some headlines during the campaign when she was spotted traveling on the president's jet to a 9-11 memorial after she promoted conspiracy theories that the 2001 terrorist attack was an inside job. New reports say that Lumer met with the president, included national security advisor Michael Watson, focused on why she believed multiple national security team members should be fired. Ultimately, after that meeting, three officials were fired after that.

What do you make of this? Well, I do know President Trump does whatever he wants, regardless of what people tell him. So this is his administration. All presidents hire and fire on a regular basis. So I want to— But it appears that this woman has not— Maybe power is the right word to influence the president and say, these guys are bad. President Trump does what President Trump wants to do.

And clearly he realized that he needs a new team. I want our president of the United States to be surrounded by people that he trusts, that he can work with, especially in our national security realm. But, Mayor, I mean, can you run an administration if your staffers are concerned about what's going to be written about them on X and someone like this can come in and get you literally fired? You know, this is another version of chaos. And I think what's happening here is Donald Trump's going to end up owning all of this. You know, there was Biden not, Bidenomics we talked about a moment ago.

Now there's going to be Trumponomics, the tariffs, the chaos, the stock market falling. But there's also going to be another form of chaos, taking away jobs from national security experts. who are the kind of people that should serve in a Democrat or Republican administration because they actually know how to protect the country. But then a far-right activist puts the finger on them and they're gone, the American people are, by their nature, moderate. They're looking at this and they're saying,

that looks extreme, that looks unpredictable, that looks dangerous. And I think you're starting to see. The Wisconsin results, the Florida results are in part a response to too much chaos. Tiffany, I know you want to jump in here. Well, I was to say, you know President Trump. I do.

And he is not easily influenced. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that. He makes his own decisions. He may make his own decisions. On what's best for our country and the American people. And so I believe that's what was at play in the situation. Tiffany, he's also historically been susceptible to certain voices.

And in the end, look, presidents of both parties and all ideologies have agreed that national security is a place where you say, there are some people who serve regardless of administration to see that undermine. China loves that. Russia loves that. to see the real experts taken out, and so political hack will be put in in their place. He obviously had information that we do not have. And so I trust the President of the United States to surround himself with people that he trusts going forward to protect this country. Mayor, I want to stay with you because there's some big news here in New York City.

The current mayor, your successor, Democratic successor, Eric Adams, not going to be a Democrat anymore. He's going to run as an independent for the mayoral race reelection. Is there a path for him as an independent? It's a tough path, but let's put this. in historical context. Michael Bloomberg was a Democrat, became a Republican originally to run for mayor, then became an independent. There is some history around this in New York City. Now, Eric Adams is in a much tougher situation. It doesn't happen to have all the spare change that Michael Bloomberg had to apply to the campaign. But I do think it's an interesting factor because it clarifies the Democratic primary now. I think you're going to now see, obviously, Andrew Cuomo is the frontrunner. You're going to see a lot of energy now directed at him that might have been directed at Adams, meaning tough, hard-hitting. critique. Adams could be an X factor in a general election. Today, you don't see it, but you never know. Between now and November, any number of things could happen. I want to put up on the screen a stat for our viewers that just came out there. The new crime stats in New York City,

Eric Adams, of course, you as well, had to battle the crime statistics that started to rise after the pandemic. They're down 34%. This is just one, the second lowest number of murders in history. Is there enough time for this narrative to help Eric Adams? that crime may be coming down in the city? 10 years ago or 20 years ago, you would say no. But with today's news cycle, with today's reality, where I think voters are so concerned, and they see so much uncertainty around them,

that even events that happened in the last few weeks before the election could have an outsized impact. To be fair, at Eric Adams, and I served in that role. We drove down crime, too, before the pandemic. But that's a pretty amazing achievement. Yeah. So he'll have something to say. It's tough for him, no doubt.

On Eric Adams' run, I do want to ask you, you know, post-pandemic, businesses fled New York City, people were living office buildings. We're seeing people move back, we're seeing people come back to the office buildings. Is that enough of a push? Is business back in New York City? It's, well, populations back in New York City. So we're seeing rents at new all-time highs in New York City. We're seeing some businesses and some employees return to work as mandated by their bosses. But there's still surplus office space in the city, which may or may not be converted to residential. tough to do in New York. Only about a quarter of the empty space can be converted to apartments or condominiums. So, yeah, business is back, but there are still places that

have been shuttered that, you know, would be expensive to reopen or may not be economically viable. So it's kind of a mixed bag. But New York is back in a bigger way than people had anticipated immediately after the pandemic. One thing I'll say about the race, Donald Trump won with every, you know, criticism that could be leveled against him. I think this is a personal opinion only, I think Andrew Cuomo is going to smoke the field. Well, you know, you segue, you jumped me one, but I did want to ask you, Mayor, does Andrew Cuomo lock up the Democratic primary? It's right around the corner. No, because, and again, I have my biases, but I think this is an objective. You don't like each other. We should make this very clear.

You guys don't like each other. I'm perfectly open about it. But I also think my objective view is you rarely have a candidate who comes in with this much political skill, but also with this many negatives. 13 women who said he harassed them. That's an extraordinary reality, verified by the Justice Department, the deaths in the nursing home, in the nursing homes during COVID, the cover-up of those deaths, which has been documented. These are not normal negatives. So today, he's riding high, but now all the other candidates are going to train their fire on him, and it's three months away. But you just said it, we live in a crazy news cycle. People forget things. Ron just brought that point about what happened with President Trump. He had a ton of baggage,

too. If you were one of his critics, he was able to win the presidency. Do you think people have forgotten that? I think they've forgotten today, but after millions and millions of dollars are spent by multiple candidates with a message questioning Cuomo, and one more scandal, I mean, we remember Anthony Weiner, who made a real credible run for mayor after a first scandal, then a new scandal came up, end a ballgame. It's a volatile situation. Tiffany, what is President Trump's role here? Because I may get ahead of myself here, but let's say Cuomo wins the primary. Let's say he wins the mayor's race. I think he then runs for president. I think he will want to run for president eventually.

If that happens, does President Trump stay out of this race? Does he support Eric Adams? Does he know that he's toxic for a lot of people that live throughout New York City? This was his city, President Trump's city. He lived here, no longer does. He's got his place in Marlago. I'm sure he'd love to return. What do you think his role is in this race?

Well, you know, I think the question is, With Eric Adams, can he pull enough votes away that a Republican sneaks through? I know that sounds kind of wild, but... A Republican? Like, not even an independent. You're talking about... Like, he pull enough votes away from Como and a Republican... Like a coalition?

Yep. And a Republican sneaks through. I don't know. There are so many Democrats, though, in this race that it sort of reminds me of this weekend the final four. I think it's anyone's game. Real quick, Mayor, where's the money behind? Who has the money in this race?

Both Cuomo and Adams, or who has the most money is right? No, the fact is because we have a very aggressive matching fund system, which is a great reform. A lot of these candidates are going to be pretty fully funded. So this is where it gets interesting. If everyone's putting millions and millions of dollars into advertising and the public starts to hear doubt about the frontrunner, this is where I think people should not get too comfortable that this die is cast yet. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Always great to have you. Tiffany Smiley.

Welcome to Top Story. Awesome to have you. Ron Insana. Always a pleasure, my friend. Nice, Tom. All right. We have more headlines. here on Top Story, which means it's time for news feed. We're going to start with an update in the death of former Yankees player Brett Gardner's 14-year-old son. Officials now saying Miller Gardner died of carbon monoxide poisoning during the family's vacation in Costa Rica last month. Tests for carbon monoxide and his blood coming back at 64% saturation, 50% is considered lethal. An investigator in

Costa Rica says there was a machine room next to where Gardner's son was stained that is believed to be the source of the high levels of carbon monoxide. And a consumer alert to Tony's Chaco Lonely bars recalled after complaints of small stones in the chocolate. Several tons of Tony's dark almond sea salt and everything bars pulled from the shelves in both the U.S. and Canada. The company saying the stones were not filtered during third party almond harvesting and the almond processing. The recall bars were distributed between February 7th and March 24th and sold that large retailers including Walmart and Target. Okay, SpaceX releasing these new images, the first views of the north and south poles from their space capsule. The fourth, excuse me, the four-person crew on

SpaceX Dragon capsule making history as the first humans to orbit over the poles of the Earth. The mission was launched Monday and is expected to include 22 science experiments designed to increase our understanding of long duration spaceflight. Okay, and Bruce Springsteen will share 83 unreleased songs this June, 74, which have not been hurt publicly ever. The singer announcing the details for the collection titled Tracks to the Lost Albums. Today, the songs were written and recorded between 1983 and 2018. This comes as a biopic starring Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen gets ready to hit the screens. There's no release date yet for that movie. Okay, now to a headline that could be pulled straight from a TV show. Seven Tigers seized from a private property in Las

The owners of those big cats speaking out from jail, claiming the tigers were his emotional support pets. And some were rescued from the one and only Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic. Dana Griffin has this one. A big cat raid 60 miles outside of Las Vegas. The public wasn't in danger in January. In an exclusive jailhouse interview with NBC's Las Vegas affiliate KSNV, Nevada's own Tiger King sharing his side of the story after seven tigers were seized from his property. They used to come with their machine guns and their bear cat and ram my gate, and none of that was necessary. Big Cat enthusiast Carl Mitchell filming as deputies arrived Wednesday morning.

They don't have a right to take these tigers. No, they don't. The sheriff's office has for years. Mitchell has owned those animals without the proper permits. We have received information over the years that he has been seen walking the tigers loose around the problem. off the property in the desert. There have been social media posts from him with people interacting with the cats,

which is also in violation. But Mitchell says he shouldn't need permits, telling KS&V the big cats help him cope with PTSD. My tigers are my emotional support animals. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not recognize tigers as emotional support animals animals. And wildlife experts say they shouldn't be. So you don't buy the emotional support animal thing, do you? No, I mean, it's very, very difficult to try to interact and live with a tiger. So there's no way that

it's emotionally supporting. It's more like a dangerous thing that you're spending every minute trying not to get hurt. If this all sounds like an episode out of the hit 2020 documentary Tiger King, my name's Joe Exotic and this is thunder and lightning. Well, it could be. I rescued those tigers. From Joe Exotic. The Tiger King. The Tiger King. Mitchell says some of his tigers used to belong to the show's star Joe Exotic, who is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence

in a murder-for-hire case involving animal welfare activist Carol Baskin. Mitchell was charged with resisting arrest from Wednesday's raid. He has since been released on bond. The sheriff says he may face additional charges after what they discovered. Things like there were water dishes with no water. for the animals. Water dishes that had algae growing in the dishes. One or two of the animals were noted to be visibly appeared to be underweight, skinny. Mitchell denies any allegations the tigers were mistreated. They've been taken to an undisclosed animal sanctuary. He's

vowing to sue the county and fight to get them back. All right, we thank Dana for that one. We're back in a moment with what you need to do to prepare for those upcoming tariffs. Our expert, breaking down what you should buy right now to get ahead of rising prices and why you may want to lock in a new auto insurance plan, plus the daring cliffside rescue to bring this dog back to safety. We are back now with Money Talks, what consumers and investors need to know from the business world and beyond. As people around the country wait to see how President Trump's tariffs will impact their bottom line.

Tonight I wanted to talk to a personal finance expert and ask, what should we all buy now before prices go up? Or should we stay on the sidelines and wait it out? Tonight, my good friend is here to help us out, CNBC, senior personal finance correspondent, Sharon Epperson. She joins Top Story. Sharon's so great to see you. Great to be here. So I don't know, I feel like, do we need to be preppers? Do we need to start buying and hoarding things right now?

What's your advice just top line on people watching all the news on tariffs? Well, don't panic and run out and buy a bunch of stuff right now that you don't need or that you can't afford. I think the most important thing that people need to think about is what they actually need to have right now and make sure that they can afford to get that and be saving up to do so. But if you don't need it, don't buy it. Great advice. If you don't need it, don't buy it. I've got to remember that one. But some things are going to go up.

So what are you recommending that people maybe start to look at or start to buy it? now. Many things are going to start to go up. I think one of the things that people need to first think about is cars. A lot of people are worried about what price of a car is going to be, and we're definitely going to see a substantial increase in car prices. But again, if you don't need the car right now, you can't buy it. This may not be the time to do it. Things to think about are things like car insurance, because as car parts prices go up, we may see higher premiums for car insurance. That is significant, and that is something you may have control over. automatic renewal doesn't always have to be the same price if you shop around and you get another

insurance carrier. So know that those prices may go up too, and maybe that's a place that you can shop around. So much of our clothes, you look at your tags, they're made in China, Vietnam, everywhere overseas, but the United States, unfortunately. So what about clothing? What should we be looking at? Well, clothing prices are definitely going to go up, but what people may not realize is that there will be a significant increase in the price of footwear, about six, more than 60 percent. Footwear, of all footwear comes from China and Vietnam. And so we're looking at tariff prices that may be as high as 50% for products from Vietnam. That doesn't necessarily mean that $100 pair of sneakers is now going to be 150 for you,

but it will be in terms of the price that we're getting for the input. So clothes, shoes, cars, be thinking about all those. What about electronics? Electronic smartphones prices are going to go up there. The top line iPhone could be go from $1,600 to $23. according to some of the analysts that we're looking at, as much of a 40% jump in the price of an iPhone. So that's something to keep your eye on. But it's not only that, it's also computers, it's also laptops, video consoles, all of that.

Okay. And then finally, if you're out, you're trying to have a good time, you're going out to eat. It's already expensive to go out to eat. But if you kind of want to knock the edge off a little bit, our top story viewers do sometimes. You want to have a drink. You want to order a beer, glass of wine. You've got to be mindful, right? Got to be mindful. And so a lot of people think if it's American made, it's going to be great.

I'll save money there, at least. Not necessarily. The cork, the bottle, so many parts of what go into, say, the wine industry are imported. So that could also have prices, even for American winemakers to go up. All right, Napa cabs, local IPAs on draft, we got it. Sharon, so great to have you here. Great to be here. All right, when Top Story returns, the cliffhanger in Colorado, the volunteers who saved this dog after she fell off a 100-foot cliff

And get this, she barely has a scratch. We're going to show you. Stay with us. Finally tonight, terrifying moments on a Grand Junction Colorado cliffside. Rescuers rush into the scene after a dog plummeted more than 100 feet to the bottom of a canyon. Luckily, that dog is largely unscathed and making a speedy recovery. NBC's Ryan Chandler spoke with those rescuers who pulled that pup to safety. A dog's daring assent.

after a terrifying fall. One moment, Yogi and John were enjoying the view at Colorado National Monument. One step too close to the edge sent the three-year-old border collie tumbling over 100 feet down the cliffside. It's a long way down. What was going through your mind when you saw her? Honestly, I just, my heart sank.

I felt so much, I was scared. I thought she was dead. Over three agonizing hours, Brave volunteers, volunteers of the Mesa County search and rescue ropes team repelled to the rescue. She was pretty shaken up. John held on to hope as they hoisted her up. Finally safe on the ledge, Yogi's tail still wagging. She got lucky.

She did. Very lucky. And it helps that she was such a good dog. The miraculous moment, a man and his best friend reunited. So utterly thankful for everything they did. Like it kind of makes me a little teared up a little of this. to think about how selfless they were. After a rush to the emergency vet,

Yogi left with nothing but a few scrapes and bumps and an incredible tale to tell. Like nothing even happened. Ryan Chandler, NBC News. All right, our big thanks to Ryan Chandler for that one. And our thanks to you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamison, New York. Stay right there.

More news on the way.