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Erin Burnett Outfront

White House: Trump Now Has Nobel Peace Prize Medal Given To Him By Winner; ICE Agents Fire Pepper Balls In New Clashes With Protesters; Trump Admin Apologizes For Deporting College Student By "Mistake". Aired 7-8p ET

Aired January 15, 2026 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:22]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The breaking news, Trump gets his Nobel Peace Prize. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado bringing the medal to the White House, says she presented it to him. Does this mean he'll back Machado to lead Venezuela?

Also, breaking, ICE agents firing pepper balls at demonstrators in Minneapolis. Our CNN crew on the ground hit, too. All of this as Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act.

And a rare apology tonight. The Trump administration admitting that it made a mistake -- that's their word -- when it deported a Massachusetts college student. That student is our guest.

Let's go OUTFRONT. And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, Trump gets his Nobel Peace Prize. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado brought the medal to the White House today. She says she offered it to Trump. Yes. This happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, as for Machado, she really didn't have a choice. All right. She needs Trump. And Trump cares this much. He cares this much about this prize. So much that he had demeaned her ability to lead Venezuela. I mean, you may remember that in his incredible press conference after he removed Maduro.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect.

REPORTER: Mr. President, is it possible that the --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now subsequent to that, two people close to the White House told "The Washington Post" that if she had turned it down, referring to the peace prize initially and said, I can't accept it because its Donald Trump's, shed be the president of Venezuela today.

Now, then Trump was asked about that report by NBC News. He denied it, but his denial is quite revealing. He told NBC she should not have won, but that had nothing to do with his decision.

Of course. Tonight, Trump was given the prize he felt he'd earned, the one thing that has eluded him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me. And I don't want to be bragging, but nobody else settled wars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. Now here's one really crucial caveat to this whole thing, which, you know, it may or may not matter. Maybe he just wants the physical thing, but maybe having the actual prize itself is the prize. I mean, he's got maybe the prize in his possession. Okay? So maybe he's holding it, but that does not mean he won it. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which was concerned that Machado could share the prestigious honor with Trump, issued this statement, which, by the way, I really encourage everybody to read it in full.

There is a lot in here I cant share right now. It is worth reading it. But they say once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others. The decision is final and stands for all time.

And then they continued to say that the decision to give Machado the Peace Prize was because she kept the, quote, "flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness". They praised her tireless work for promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.

But back to today, and the spectacle and the fact that Machado didn't have a choice. Trump had questioned whether she could run the country, right, whether she had the support. And Trump, of course, posted a mocked up Wikipedia page of himself this week saying that he is the acting president of Venezuela, so that the true irony here is that the road to any potential democracy in Venezuela does run through Donald Trump right now, an independently verified vote counts in Venezuela's presidential election in 2024 showed that Machado's party beat Maduro by a wide margin.

Maduro, though, of course rubber-stamped the winner. Right now, though, Trump has replaced Maduro with Maduro's V.P.

So, if giving Trump a physical peace prize affects the outcome, does she have any choice? Because Trump's obsession with the prize is just that. Do you remember just about six weeks ago when Trump very openly celebrated what he called one of the greatest honors of his life, and that was winning the FIFA Peace Prize?

(BEGIN VIDEEO CLIP)

GIANNI INFANTINO, FIFA PRESIDENT: And therefore, FIFA, the Federacion Internationale De Football Association, awards the 2025 FIFA Peace Prize, football unites the world, to Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America, in recognition of his exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world. Friday, December 5th, 2025.

[19:05:01]

This is the certificate. It's yours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Just to be clear, that was the first and the only year that FIFA, the soccer organization, has given out a peace prize. But the world, and certainly leaders from everywhere, they know that sometimes you got to do what you got to do when it comes to Trump. And that may be showering him with the one thing that seems to matter more than anything else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Is it meeting someone who impresses?

TRUMP: No, it's not meeting someone. It's doing something. It's achieving something. It's the thrill of doing. When I buy the Plaza Hotel, to me, that's exciting, because it's a trophy. It's a total trophy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: It's the trophy.

And Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House to begin our coverage.

Kristen, it is a stunning moment to just take a pause and think about with everything going on in the world at a moment like this not only happened, but might really matter. Is there any sign of the impact of this in terms of his relationship with Machado and his support of her?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I do think its very interesting that we haven't seen or heard anything from President Trump since this happened. It's an award that he has long coveted. And I will tell you, I just heard from a source familiar saying that Machado did, in fact, leave the Nobel Peace Prize here at the White House for President Trump, an indication that President Trump is going to keep that prize despite, of course, what you have said, that the committee itself says that, sure, you can give the prize to anyone. However, you can't transfer the title of the Nobel Peace prize winner.

It is interesting that he has not commented on that or on their meeting at all. But I will tell you, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt today was asked specifically about what would have to be said or what would change Trump's mind when it came to Machado after he said that he did not think she had the respect or support of the Venezuelan people to actually lead that country.

And Leavitt said that nothing had really changed in terms of President Trump's mindset. Now, again, this was before the meeting and before this presentation of the Nobel Peace prize. But what she said going into it was that that was based on intelligence, that was based on information that the administration had gotten. And none of that has changed.

And one of the things that we know to be true is that President Trump has turned his focus, and the administration has turned his focus to this Maduro adjacent leader, Delcy Rodriguez, who is now the acting president. He actually said that she was a terrific person yesterday and said that the administration was working well together with the Venezuelan government and power, of course, we know that they are using all kinds of leverage over Rodriguez to try and bend her to do what they want her to do, or the country to do for the United States.

But it is quite a striking moment to know that Machado presented her Nobel Peace prize for 2025 to President Trump. And again, just days after he said that he believed nobody deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more than him.

BURNETT: It is an incredible moment however it plays out.

Kristen, thank you very much.

And everyone is here with me now.

Tim Naftali, this -- this obviously, you know, as we played what he said a few days ago, everybody knew that he wanted this. Now who knows what will happen. It may not change his support for Machado at all. She may have given up the actual physical prize for nothing. But it actually resulted in a person bringing in a prize to the White House to give it to him.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: You know, Louis XIV said, "L'Etat, c'est moi". In other words, the state is me, and we have this unusual and actually unprecedented in the case of the United States, spectacle of a president who sense of what he deserves is overwhelming his understanding of what the national interest happens to be.

Think of it this way. This is a president who at the very time he is angry at Norway for not recognizing his commitment to peace, is threatening war against Greenland. Indeed, we have -- I believe Europeans have started to send troops to show their solidarity with Danish Greenland and the president, while doing that, is still unhappy that the world didn't recognize him as a great peacemaker last year. That's number one. Number two, when we -- when the United States invaded Panama in 1990,

George Herbert Walker Bush did it to remove a dictator who did not recognize the results of an election. And what did the United States do? It installed the people who had been elected by the Panamanian voters.

We could have done that this year, in which case Machados party would be leading the country.

BURNETT: Right.

NAFTALI: Instead, we chose someone else.

[19:10:01]

This effort by her is a last ditch effort --

BURNETT: Actually, one of the architects and the center of the of the Maduro --

NAFTALI: Of the Maduro government. Yes. And they're in place. So the president, while seemingly unhappy the world hasn't recognized his commitment to peace, has been acting in a way completely contrary to peace in the last few weeks and doesn't seem to understand the tension.

BURNETT: So, General Manner, I want to just ask you, you know how -- how you see these and this plays out in public. Everyone has to see a moment like this, you know, whatever, whatever comes out of it, right? Who knows whether Trump will change his mind on Machado or not, right?

But this entire thing that we have just watched play out had to happen. She felt -- many people around her felt if there was any chance of his changing his mind. Right? So I guess, is this a situation where, truthfully, the end would justify a means?

MAJ. GEN. RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): She's very smart to be able to try to appeal to Trump's ego, and that's why she did what she did. As you said earlier, she had to do what she had to do.

The reality is, no American president in the past 50 years has done more to destabilize the world. Whether its invading Venezuela, whether its attacking Iran, Nigeria, Syria. And then, of course, the boats.

What -- someone who is actually deployed American troops against our own citizens, someone who's threatening NATO, threatening Greenland. This is a prize that he will never receive in his name ever at all. It won't happen. And it's -- and thank goodness the Norwegians and the Nobel Prize Committee know this.

BURNETT: Well, they made that excruciatingly clear in their in their statement today.

You know, Lulu, you've covered Venezuela for decades for various news organizations, and now you've got "The Washington Post" reporting, right, that that Trump's reluctance to support Machado in that unforgettable press conference was, at least in part because of her decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in the first place, instead of turning it down and saying, no, I cannot take this. It should be his. Now he denies this, but says she shouldn't have won it anyway, in his denial, as I mentioned.

So, is this truly what it all comes down to? Does this change anything?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think it changes anything because it is a symbolic handing over. It's also just I think people looking at this around the world are just going to think how embarrassing that you have to steal a, you know, this lady who has given her life to the cause of Venezuelan freedoms, Nobel Peace Prize that, you know, she had to leave it at his doorstep.

And at the end of the day, what I think we've seen over and over again with Trump, and I think this is what people miscalculate. We've seen this. The Europeans have done this. We've seen this just over and over that people go and they give him things, right? They give him a gold statue. They give him a Nobel Prize. And they think that that's actually going to eventually get them what they want. And he just takes it and sees it as a sign of weakness.

And so I think there's been a gross miscalculation that certainly the Europeans have had and I think also we're seeing here, I don't think you know, Machado had a choice in this. I think it was pretty clear that she had to give him the physical, you know, prize. But at the end of the day, I just want to quote something, that Delcy Rodriguez who is now running Venezuela in Donald Trump's name, said, who was the, of course, vice president of Maduro, the dictator. She said, if one day as acting president, I have to go to Washington, I will do so with my head held high and not on my knees.

So, she is there, aiming very directly at what Machado has done here. And the question, of course, is who is the United States going to back in all of this? The person who has, you know, absolutely destroyed the country, or this woman who really does feel and want the best for the Venezuelan people.

BURNETT: General, what are the implications of, you know, it's interesting Lulu's take on this, right? That people misjudge how this will work. But what happens? Trump goes to South Korea, gets the replica of a gold crown. He's gotten the gold golf balls. The CEO of Apple gave him a gold statue.

I mean, the list goes on and on. And frankly, I'm sure a lot of people involved in the giving don't ever want to watch any coverage of it, because it's very embarrassing for them, right?

I mean, it's cringeworthy, yet they do it because they think that they have to do it, right, for their shareholders, for their country, right? You know, they do it for, for decent reasons. Where does all of this lead us? This flattering and fitting of Trump?

MANNER: All it does is it makes him to be even more of a bully. It causes him to actually look at new opportunities to exert the power of our military around the world in ways where, while it is capable, it is not. It might be lawful in his eyes, but it absolutely is awful.

And so, I think it's going to embolden him. It's going to cause him to do more and more of these kinds of actions and activities on the world stage, which, again, is going to increase the instability in the world. And I think that's just a very dangerous thing. When people kowtow to him and feed his ego.

BURNETT: It's interesting, I think going all the way back to that, that just very, very important question Connie Chung asked all those asked all those years ago. Right? He said it then. It is still true. The trophy.

Thank you all very much.

And next, the breaking news, live pictures from Minneapolis where protesters are facing off against ICE agents, pepper balls fired at demonstrators. Trump threatening to use the Insurrection Act to send American troops to Minnesota.

And the Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is our guest. Wait until you hear what he has to say about -- well, the streets of Minneapolis and about his own experiences at the grocery store.

And RFK Jr. describing Trump's eating habits as unhinged. But are his eating habits really that different from the rest of us? Harry Enten tells us something we don't know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:25]

BURNETT: Breaking news, tensions extremely high at this moment in Minneapolis. ICE agents have fired pepper balls at demonstrators. There's been back and forth confrontations throughout the days, throughout the day today.

Tonight, the Trump administration is scrambling to justify the aggressive immigration crackdown at the heart of this -- a crackdown that is getting more aggressive. Trump is now threatening on social media, in fact, to invoke the Insurrection Act. Now, that has not been done in over three decades in this country. And the DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says that American citizens may need to show their ID to officers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: In every situation, we're doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they're there, and having them validate their identity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: To be clear, you know, requesting identity like that seems to be a violation of the -- of the Fourth Amendment. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blames this entire

situation right now on the protesters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If you look at some of the images out of Minneapolis last night, look at this vehicle, look at what it says. It says, "F ICE". You have these individuals who are putting their middle finger, proudly so at the camera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, the only reason I even play that is just because of the deep irony which is actually relevant here. It was less than 48 hours ago that the White House called it, quote, appropriate for Trump to do the same middle finger and an expletive at the Ford plant. So, it just bears mentioning.

Shimon Prokupecz is OUTFRONT. He is in Minneapolis right now.

Shimon, there has been so much tension through the day. And with this talk and fear of the Insurrection Act. What is happening there where you are?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, the talk of the Insurrection Act here, certainly, I've been talking to people here at the crowd that's been gathered outside this federal building here in Minneapolis. Certainly would escalate everything. I mean, they say that it would certainly escalate how they would react to it.

But, you know, this is where many of the protesters have been gathering in the last week outside this federal building. And I'll show you what happens here. Like, for instance, Erin, there's this car here that's trying to turn into the office building here. Presumably they all assume it's a federal official, so they will surround cars. We witness, you see, the officers, they have their faces covered in the car.

So they're driving in federal agents, and we see protesters hitting the cars, attacking the cars. That will then draw federal officers and tactical gear. See here again, they're trying to block the cars from going in. So that -- this is when things start to escalate here. And here's another car they're trying to block.

And then what happens is we start to see federal officers in tactical gear. Here's another car. And they're trying to block this car. So this is what we've been witnessing here. And this is how the protesters out here have been in many ways agitating law enforcement out here.

And when they do this, the federal officials in heavy gear, protective gear armed with pepper balls and tear gas will come out here. We just witnessed someone throw a bottle just before we went on the air. A frozen water bottle at a car that was leaving. And then a short time after that, we watched the federal officials come out and grab an individual.

And so, this is what we're seeing. Officers here in tactical gear like this come out. And then so this is how all of this starts up. And then the agitation begins. And then the federal officers will come out.

This has been mostly peaceful all night. Just I would say in the last 20 minutes or so, things have been flaring up. And we'll see. This probably will go on all night here, Erin.

BURNETT: And Shimon, you know, when you see the hitting the cars, I think we saw someone was driving by where you were when those officers were coming in. Someone kicking, right? So what are -- how exactly do they respond inside the car? I mean, how tense does it get? How many people have been surrounding some of those cars

PROKUPECZ: Oh, I mean, sometimes you get up to six people that will surround the cars. Now let's walk this way so you'll get maybe half a dozen to a dozen people surrounding the cars. The cars will stop, but here you'll see like this. What happens?

[19:25:01]

They'll start surrounding cars. But they'll -- you know, it's usually about a half a dozen people or so. Most of the people here are standing that are on this side are just holding signs. They're expressing themselves, but they're not approaching the cars.

It's this side of the crowd behind Lionel that is mostly approaching these cars. And that is when federal, those tactical gear officers, will come out and start pushing them back. If they don't approach the cars, if they allow the cars to just go inside, then those federal officers don't come out.

But this is how stuff starts to ramp up. This is how the agitation begins. And you know, many of the people who are going into this area are ICE officers, are here to conduct immigration activity, and many of the people know that. And so they're trying to prevent them from going in. They could only do so much because you're going to have the tactical gear come out and they're going to start firing pepper balls and tear gas, and then the folks are going to have to clear.

BURNETT: All right. Shimon, we're going to be checking back in with you here in these moments. And obviously interesting what that convoy was. It was possibly going into that federal building where you are, darkness now, obviously in Minneapolis.

So, as we get ready to go back to Shimon there, I want to go to Gil Kerlikowske. He is former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as Sofia Nelson, criminal defense attorney, also Vice President J.D. Vance's former Yale Law School classmate and friend.

So, I appreciate both of you.

Commissioner, let me just start with you and where we are. We're watching some of those images. We'll be bringing in Shimon, as more happens there on the ground in Minneapolis in these next moments.

But when the president of the United States, this is the image outside that federal building in Minneapolis, threatens to use the Insurrection Act. Commissioner, this hasn't been done, as we point out in decades. Is that at all warranted in Minneapolis right now?

GIL KERLIKOWSKE, FORMER COMMISSIONER OF U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: No, no, it's not warranted. I mean, there's a pretty simple fix when six people surround a car and obstruct and interfere with those federal agents doing their job, and that is they're arrested. They're told they're obstructing and they're physically arrested.

Police departments do this all the time without that, there's no reason to have the Insurrection Act, particularly when the vast majority of the people are standing at the side.

BURNETT: So -- and Shimon was careful to point that out. As you can see there, most of the people in the images lies images. While were talking about this are carrying signs, right, saying that's most people. And there are some people who come around the side who are more agitating, as you point out, right? You shouldn't be kicking a car. I think we can all agree on that.

Sofia, in this context, though, you right now have, according to the federal government, they could have 3,000 federal agents on the ground right now. That compares to, I think, about 1,200 between Minneapolis and Saint Paul combined for police. Okay?

So, you already have an incredibly fraught situation. And the DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says that those agents can ask people to validate their identity. Is that okay?

SOFIA NELSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY; MICHIGAN LAW PROFESSOR: No, Erin, and thanks for having me tonight.

I think what we're dealing with here is an escalation and a fundamental erosion of Americans constitutional rights. And the two constitutional rights at issue here are the First Amendment right to protest the government and the Fourth Amendment right to be free from search and seizure. These are very simple, straightforward rights that uphold our democracy.

And by saying that federal agents can stop whomever they want, demand that they identify themselves simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest, and then not release them if they refuse. I mean, that's when we were sliding into authoritarianism, especially in the context of the Trump administration saying that these federal agents have absolute immunity, which is simply untrue. It's legally incorrect.

But a federal law enforcement agency deployed to cities where there's political opposition to put down political protests without any accountability. That's fascism.

BURNETT: So, Commissioner, Joe Rogan, the podcaster, referred to some of what we're seeing happening is just the possibility of asking people for ID as the gestapo. Right? And he did so with incredulity that that would not be acceptable.

But when it comes down to it, Commissioner, do agents have reason to demand ID if they find someone on the street, then they think, well, maybe the people around them also are illegal because they the first person they know to be illegal. I don't even know if they know that. But even if they do, do they have the right to demand ID from others?

KERLIKOWSKE: They can go up to people. They can ask. They can identify themselves as federal agents, and they can ask for identification.

[19:30:00]

That individual doesn't have any -- they don't have to produce that identification.

And the other part that was interesting is that they're there to make an apprehension. They're going to be bringing somebody into custody. And these people are surrounding them. They can't interfere and they can't obstruct, and they should be. If they attempt to do that, they could be physically arrested. Well, then you're going to know who they are.

But other than that, there is -- there's no reason that they're going to have to produce ID.

BURNETT: Sofia, there's the issue of ID. There's also the issue of absolute immunity, which you just raised and said does not apply. Obviously, your former classmate, your former friend, the vice president has said it does. Let me just play something he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Do you see any layer where that would be true? Federal law enforcement engaging in federal law enforcement action because it's immigration related?

NELSON: Erin, no. I don't know if J.D. simply doesn't know the law or hes willfully misleading the American people about what he wants the law to be. But the reality is the law applies to federal agents. Just it applies to you and me.

If we break state law, the state -- the county prosecutor in this case, the Hennepin County prosecutor, should investigate with local law enforcement whether a state law was broken and if so, arrest and prosecute the person who did it, including a federal agent. They do have what's known as Supremacy Clause immunity, but that only applies to when they're lawfully acting within what's necessary to carry out their duties.

That doesn't include brutalizing citizens. It doesn't include violating people's constitutional rights. And it certainly doesn't include acts of excessive force.

And I think it's really, really crucial that local elected officials and hold the line here and uphold the laws of their jurisdiction because it might be one of the last ways we have to push back against this federal overreach.

BURNETT: Thank you both so very much. I appreciate you.

And next, the Trump administration is offering up a rare apology after it deported a Massachusetts college student. They say it was a mistake. Well, the student will join us next.

And the Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, on Trump's attacks on the Fed and its chairman, Jay Powell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:47]

BURNETT: Breaking news, mistake. The Trump administration issuing a rare apology tonight, admitting that it made a mistake, that's their word, in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student. That student is Any Lucia Lopez Belloza. She's 19 years old. She's a freshman at Babson College near Boston.

Now, she was detained at the airport while she was there. She was going to fly home to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. Well, as it grew up in Texas, after coming to the United States as a child seeking asylum. Now, tonight, a federal judge is weighing emergency action. And whether any will be allowed to return to the United States.

Any Lucia Lopez Belloso is OUTFRONT now in her first live television interview since the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported her. Her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, is also with us.

And I appreciate both of you very much.

Any, the government admitted in court that it made a mistake. Those are their words. I mean, here you are, months after this with what you've been going through.

What's your reaction to that stunning admission?

ANY LUCIA LOPEZ BELLOZA, MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE FRESHMAN MISTAKENLY DEPORTED: I was already kind of shocked because of everything that happened. But I'm also with hearing that they have apologized to the mistake that they made. I accept their apologies. And I hope that based on this apology, I'm able to return back to my studies, and also to be home with my parents.

BURNETT: Well, I think that's obviously incredibly gracious of you. You accept their apology, and you just want to come home. I mean, you're not home right now. You're not in the United States. I know you can't disclose your current location, but you're not home.

I mean, do you have any idea of when you can return?

BELLOZA: I don't have no idea. But I do hope to return as early as possible for me to start my semester. And also, like, finish my semester, my spring semester at Babson.

BURNETT: Right? Obviously, because you -- you were going home for Thanksgiving and then you didn't come back. I mean, Todd, the deportation here happened right when Any goes to the airport to go see her family at Thanksgiving. And then then they take her deportation happened in spite of a judge's order.

I think a lot of people just want to understand how does a deportation happen when it's in direct violation of a court order?

TODD POMERLEAU, ATTORNEY FOR COLLEGE STUDENT MISTAKENLY DEPORTED: Erin, thank you for having us on again tonight to talk about this tragedy. You know, for months, we were left thinking that this was purposeful conduct by the Trump administration. And we went to court on Tuesday and the government's attorney apologized on behalf of the United States on behalf of the Trump administration.

And we have to accept it for what it is. It's a -- it's a rare apology, and they can only make this right. An apology without a remedy is a hollow apology, in my view. And what happened here is she was traveling with her Honduran passport. That was her real ID, trying to board a plane. And it was a ruse.

TSA and immigration enforcement were working in tandem. Told her boarding pass didn't work. She was abruptly detained, taken to an ICE facility, deprived of phone calls for several days.

[19:40:00]

She didn't know she had a lawyer until Monday. And we sued Friday. I didn't know where she was because she was disappeared from the database, that would reflect that she was in the custody of ICE. We later learned in talking to ani that she was, you know, a few miles down the road at a military base held there for several hours when we were trying to find her and contact her and stop this from happening.

And what is apparently happened is an ICE officer received an email with a court order attached and thought that it didn't apply because the plane had already left Massachusetts. But she was flown to Texas. That's still the United States. And the next day she was deported over a weekend before we even had a court hearing.

So, the first court hearing we've had, we'll accept the olive branch, we'll accept the apology. And I'd like to work with the Trump administration here. They'd like to make deals. They'd like to make things happen. Let's make it happen. Let's bring her back home.

She goes to Babson College, one of the best colleges in the world to study business. Just like the president. He was a -- he's a business owner. She wants to be a business owner. She wants to help her father.

He's a tailor. They escaped persecution. These are great people, hardworking people. They pay their taxes. They have children that are citizens. Any's the oldest.

BURNETT: Any, I know your dad said immigration officials had showed up at one point at your home in Austin. One of the agents reportedly rushed at your father, according to "The New York Times".

Gosh, there's so much I want to ask you. Can I just ask you about what -- what happened then and how that even feels to think that that happened to others in your family while you're going through this?

BELLOZA: It was pretty shocking when I heard the news. It was more trauma for my end knowing that I got deported, being deported and then hearing that my parents are also going through -- through being chased basically by ICE, it was just a lot to take in. It's been so hard for us and my family.

We are like, been like trying our best to work this whole situation out as much as we can. But it's been so difficult

BURNETT: Any, you're a college student and you go to the airport to surprise your family, and then all of this happens. You get taken into custody, you can't make phone calls for days. You don't know where they're taking you.

Can I just ask you what that was like?

BELLOZA: It was traumatizing. I have never, never in my life experienced this at all. And I was so worried because I had a lot of assignments that I had to turn in, and I wanted to call at least somebody in my family to be able, like let the school know what's going on. But it was so difficult to try to work with them because I try to ask for phone calls and they were like, you have to wait and wait and wait until I was given one.

But it was so difficult just because being a college student, we I mean, we already go through a lot of stress with like finals and it was literally final seasons coming up. So it was so, so hard for me. I had more stress put into my shoulders.

BURNETT: I truly can't even imagine it. It's so glad to get a chance to talk to you. And I know Todd has been out making sure everyone knows about this story. And let's hope that the outcome here is going to be that you're coming home very soon with this apology. Thank you both so very much.

POMERLEAU: Thank you very much for having us.

BELLOZA: Thank you for having me.

POMERLEAU: The administration getting this right, because it's in their hands now, and we expect them to bring her back home.

BURNETT: Yeah. Well, next, the Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, hell talk

about his own sticker shock when he goes to the grocery store on Saturdays. He's next.

Plus, just how many people are on those weight loss drugs. And how could this affect the upcoming election. Harry Enten here to tell us something we don't know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:57]

BURNETT: Tonight, "I don't care". That's a quote. The three words that President Trump used multiple times today in this case, when asked if his actions against the Fed could send inflation up and hurt the U.S. dollar, his reply "I don't care".

And it came as Trump kept up his open threat against the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, telling "Reuters" when asked whether the DOJ is unprecedented criminal investigation into Powell could be used as grounds for Trump to finally get rid of him. He said, quote, "Right now, we're in a little bit of a holding pattern with him and were going to determine what to do. But I can't get into it. It's too soon, too early."

OUTFRONT now, Neel Kashkari, he is the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

And President Kashkari, I appreciate your time tonight. So, when the president says I don't care when asked if he's worried about the impact of taking away Fed independence on the U.S. economy, you know, what do you do with that as a fed governor.

NEEL KASHKARI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF MINNEAPOLIS: You know, all we can do at the fed are -- is our job. Congress created the Fed. Congress assigned us our goals to get inflation to 2 percent and maximum employment inflation is still too high. The job market is decent. It's cooling a little bit.

All we can do in these moments is continue to focus on our jobs and let the politicians deal with the politics. We focus on the data and the analysis.

BURNETT: Which, of course, is what -- it's what you need to say. It's what people want you to say. And we hope you can continue to say it.

You know, your colleague Austan Goolsbee, the Federal Reserve president for Chicago, said today, and I don't know if you saw this. He did a couple of interviews. I was listening to one of them. He said, anything that's infringing or attacking the independence of the Central Bank is a mess. He was worried that inflation will come roaring back. We're talking about the Fed's independence, you know, and he also spoke out about the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, of course, who you all work with, saying that he considers him to be a first ballot hall of fame Fed chair.

I mean, it's incredible to kind of think about these conversations. How do you see it?

KASHKARI: Well, I think the data is clear. If you look all around the world, every advanced economy around the world has concluded that keeping their central bank, their monetary policy independent of day- to-day politics, leads to better economic outcomes for their citizens. That is established all around the world. And we need to preserve that for the sake of the American economy and the American people. So, I absolutely agree with Austan on that.

And then in terms of Fed Chair Powell, I think he's done an excellent job. We have not been perfect. I have not been perfect. We had a big inflation run up. We were a little bit late to recognize it. Me too, by the way. I was too.

But I think Chair Powell has dealt with all of these various twists and turns, including COVID, including inflation, including shutdowns, about as skillfully as one could. And so I've got great admiration for Chair Powell as a central banker, as our leader, and as our colleague.

BURNETT: So grocery prices are up nearly 26 percent from five years ago. And that's something that I mean, that number is stunning, but that reality isn't something you have to tell anybody in this country, right?

[19:50:05]

People experience it.

Now, Trump's Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was talking about the new Trump dietary kind of food pyramid replacement. And she said you can get a healthy meal for $3. I wanted to play for you. What she said specifically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE ROLLINS, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Are we actually asking Americans, especially those who are living on the margins? Are we asking them to spend more on their diet? And the answer to that is no. We've run over a thousand simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli -- you know, corn tortilla. And one other thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Putting aside, I'm not sure exactly what a piece of broccoli is. In seriousness, is this realistic?

KASHKARI: Well, I'll just speak for myself. I have a family of four. We've got two little children. I do most of the grocery shopping for my family. I feel the sticker shock.

Even though I'm a monetary policymaker and I pay more attention to pricing data than most people, I still get sticker shock every Saturday when I go to the grocery store. And so, I think that for anybody, Republican or Democrat, to try to convince the American people that they're experiencing something different than what they are living and experiencing, I think that's a tough thing to do. I think prices have gone up a lot. Inflation is still too high. Inflation is running close to 3 percent. We need to get it down to 2 percent. That's actually a meaningful gap for a central banker.

We're missing almost 50 percent. I think that's the reality. And we need to continue doing our work to get inflation back down and hopefully keep the labor market strong at the same time.

BURNETT: Important what you point out, right? The difference between two and three is a very big difference.

You're in Minneapolis, of course, tonight and we've been seeing protests there now over a week. The tragic ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good at how all of this started. Some business owners are telling CNN shops are empty.

People are staying home because they're afraid of ICE. People are nervous. People are anxious. One restaurant owner was telling us President Kashkari that she had to close early because she said, ICE is using my business as a hunting ground. They're swirling around the block waiting for people. This is not sustainable.

And others who have closed are comparing this to the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic itself. You know, look, you're sitting here as the Federal Reserve chair for Minneapolis, what is the economic impact you're seeing?

KASHKARI : Well, you know, nationally, I think the economic impact will be negligible. It's like even a big storm doesn't really show up in the national data, but locally, its having a huge effect and people are feeling it.

I mean, we have to apprehend people who are criminals. Theres no question about that. And that needs to take place. And yet right now, there's so much anxiety amongst my own employees and staff at the Minneapolis Fed, in schools, you know, my daughter goes to she's in first grade at a local elementary school. We got a message from the superintendent, you know, just trying to comfort parents that they should feel confident that their kids are going to be safe at school.

So, I mean, that's alarming for a parent to get a message, even a message that's intended to be reassuring. It's alarming that that message needed to be sent. So, there is heightened anxiety across the Twin Cities region. And I hope our political leaders can come together to deescalate the situation, while also apprehending the people who have committed crimes.

BURNETT: President Kashkari, thank you very much.

KASHKARI: Thank you for having me.

BURNETT: All right. OUTFRONT next, Harry Enten is here tonight talking Trump's diet, which RFK Jr. just called unhinged and what the popular weight loss drugs have to do with the midterms.

So, Harry, you know you're definitely not on a GLP. You don't need one. This guy svelte tell -- us something we don't know after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:58]

BURNETT: Tonight, unhinged. That is how Trump's health secretary is describing President Trump and his eating habits. RFK, Jr. says, quote, I don't know how he's alive. All right, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE MILLER, PODCAST HOST: Who has the most unhinged eating habits?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: The president.

(LAUGHTER)

KENNEDY: Well, you know, the interesting thing about the president is that he eats really bad food, which is McDonald's. And then, you know, candy and a Diet Coke. But he eats the drinks, the Diet Coke all the times. He has a constitution of a deity. I don't know how he's alive, but he is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. Harry Enten is OUTFRONT to tell us something we don't know. The constitution of a deity. Okay.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Wonderful.

BURNETT: Trump's -- Trump's eating habits as they were described --

ENTEN: Yeah.

BURNETT: -- I mean, you know, may not be that different from many Americans. I mean --

ENTEN: I enjoy McDonald's, KFC, Diet Coke.

BURNETT: I love McDonald's, I like Diet Coke, I like candy, I eat more of them than I should. I mean, right, don't a lot of people?

ENTEN: Yeah, a lot of people do. But, you know, one of the things I think is so interesting that has happened over the past few years is, you know, America has an obesity crisis, but in fact, the percentage and the number of Americans who are obese has ally been dropping for the first time in the last 50 years. I mean, just take a look here. Obesity in America. Look, 100 million American adults are now obese.

But it had risen in the three-year period from 2016 to 2019 by 12 million, 21 million in the following three-year period. But look at that over the last three years. In fact, the number of Americans who are obese has actually dropped 4 million folks. They have dropped 4 million folks over the last three years.

BURNETT: Which is incredible. And I think anybody can think about why that might be. And so let's talk about GLP.

ENTEN: Yes.

BURNETT: Oprah Winfrey has been open and candid about her use of GLP drugs. I actually remember at the beginning, I'm not going to say she wasn't open about it, but she didn't talk about what she was doing, and now she's saying, look, I want to talk about it because this is a condition, right? People can do something about it. She talks about the shame she had felt beforehand.

Here she is this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Even when you think you've gotten to your goal weight, it's not the answer because you are -- what the medications do is manage the set point in your body. And so, I was off the medications all last year, and I gained 20 pounds because I wanted to test it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. So how many people Americans now use GLPs?

ENTEN: It's skyrocketed. And that is a big reason why the obesity rate is dropping. It has doubled. It has doubled in just the last year and a half. What are we talking about? We're talking about going from 16 million in mid-2024 to get this 32 million by late 2025. Folks like Oprah Winfrey going on those GLP-1 drugs. And that's a big reason why the obesity rate is dropping.

BURNETT: It's incredible. All right. Tell me something I don't know.

ENTEN: You know, I'll tell you something you don't know. And that is that Democrats, Republicans and independents all pretty much equally on GLP-1 drugs. President Trump is making a good midterm play by speaking up about GLP-1 drugs and dropping the price of them, because the fact is, it's something that unites Americans in a country that is very much divided.

BURNETT: It's incredible. All right. Thank you very much, Harry.

Thanks to all of you. Thanks for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.