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Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting Amid Outcry On Minneapolis Operations; Homan: "Not Surrendering The President's Mission" On Operations; Now: Senate Holds Vote To Avoid Govt. Shutdown, Expected To Fail; Rep. Castro: 5-Year-Old Held By ICE "Depressed," "Not Eating Well"; New Poll: 59 Percent Say ICE Is Being Too Aggressive. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired January 29, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They were OK. But we'll do it, but no nation is going to approve it because even if you raise the price by like on appeal, $10 to $20, you're doubling the price of their description drug. I said, no, they'll do it.

And when I got them on the phone, I said, if you don't do it, we're going to charge you very substantial tariffs, more money than that's going to cost you. And they said, we'll do it. And before -- I don't know that any other president even tried to do it, we can't find it, but if they did try, they wouldn't have gotten through the companies. They wouldn't have gotten through the company, and then they wouldn't have gotten through the country.

I spoke with Macron, who was the first one. He was not at that time, wearing sunglasses, and he said, no, no, Donald, I will not do this. I won't even consider you're asking me to double the price. I said you have no choice. You have to do it because you guys have been ripping us off.

In other words, the whole world. We've been subsidizing the whole world on drug costs. That's why they were $10 and with me at 130, as an example, there were many examples I could give you examples even worse. He said, no, no, no, I will not do that. And I said, yes, you will, 100 percent you'll do it. He said, no, I won't do that. Donald, you're asking me to double the cost of our prescription. We will not do that.

Look, you've been ripping us off now for decades. We're not going to do it anymore. You can do it under Biden and Obama and other people. You're not going to do it under us. We won't do it. I said, well, if you don't do it, I'm going to charge you a 25 percent tariff on all of your wine, champagne and everything else you sell into the United States.

He said -- like I said, I will do it. That was the end of the conversation, right? That was the end of the conversation. So now we have favorite nations that everybody said would be impossible to get. And I then had the same conversation with 15 other countries. Everyone of them agreed. After a short conference -- they all said no, and then within a matter of seconds, they said, we would be very happy to do that. Thank you for asking in such a nice way. And it's, you know, it's a great achievement. I think it's going to be one of the best achievements we've had in this country in a long time.

So, we're going to be knocking drug prices down at levels never seen before. I want to thank the drug companies, because once they agreed, they really did, they felt it was very unfair. One of them told me it's actually a relief to agree, because this has been just a rough thing for me, you know, to justify, because they couldn't justify.

I said, how come in London. I can buy something for $10 and in New York, I have to pay $130 and they go, well, you know, it's research and development. I said, yeah, but you have research and development from them, made in the same factory, made in everything. This is where my friend, who's very successful, I told you, seriously overweight person.

He takes the fact, the fat pill or the fat shot, and he was in London, and he said, cost $87 there, cost $1,300 in New York. What's going on? You call me up? And I mean, I knew that, but he put it in a very blunt way. I've known him a long time. He's a crude individual, but smart as hell, made a lot of money, but he just thought it was sort of ridiculous. He happened to be in London, and he got the shot, you know, Ozempic, I think, or whatever.

And I told him it wasn't working. And he brought up a good boy. He knows who I'm talking about. He's going great. He begs me not to mention --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is not talking about me.

TRUMP: He's not our great vice president. No, but he begs me not to mention his name, because he's become very famous without mentioning his name, and he is actually a very well-known business person but he did make a point, but I knew the point very well. We were always paying far more than any other nation.

We were subsidizing the world. Right now, there's no more of that, so we're going to be bringing the drug prices down at numbers never seen before. It's going to have a huge impact, positive impact on healthcare.

So, with that, we are going to ask a couple of people to say a few words, and we're not going to go through the whole table because the last time we had a press conference. It lasted for three hours, and some people said he closed his eyes. Look, it got pretty boring. I love these people. I love these people, but there's a lot of people. It was a little bit at the boring side, but I didn't sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of here.

Some of them, I didn't sleep. I don't sleep much, but, you know, it's funny. Some of them got me in a blink. You know when you go like, and they took me as at the close segment of my cycle. And besides that Marco between these two guys, if I was sleeping, they'd be waking me up. They'd be knocking me. Come on, you got to wake up, boss. But now we have -- we've had -- we've had great me, look, we're the most transparent presidency by far, and I love going around the room. But we're going to pick a few people.

[12:05:00]

I think I would like to ask Steve if we could just give us a brief description of how well we're doing in the Middle East, because we have peace in the Middle East. A couple of little, minor flames that we put out very easily. And very importantly, we got our last hostage back, which is incredible, unfortunately, something that nobody said could be done.

And I will tell you Hamas was a big factor in getting all of the hostages back. They had a -- we were not happy with them, and they had to bring them back and they found the dead hostages. The bodies of hostages were -- and those parents wanted their sons back, I think in all cases, sons, but they wanted their sons and their family. They wanted their sons back as much as the people that had living hostages that we got them back too.

So, we got the 20, but remember, we got hundreds back previous to that. But I always said getting those last 20 back is going to be very tough. And we got them back, and we got all of the bodies back, also, which to those parents, was just as important as getting back the son that was living. Steve, could you give us a little description please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, your policy of peace --

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: OK, we're going to continue to monitor the president in the first cabinet meeting he is having of 2026.

Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash in Washington.

You've been listening to the president as he opened up this cabinet meeting. He's now going around to some of his top advisors and members of his cabinet. But this meeting, of course, just comes hours after the president's border czar Tom Homan announced that ICE and Border Patrol agents are working on a plan too, quote, draw down operations in Minneapolis.

So far, the president has not mentioned immigration or Minneapolis at all. So far, his focus has been on the economy. That's where the American people, American voters, are very much focused. We're going to be monitoring this conversation that he's having with members of his cabinet, and we'll bring it back to you as developments occur. I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters.

Steven Collinson, I want to go to you. First of all, it is interesting, just kind of to stay on what we just heard for a moment that the president -- he talked a bit about Venezuela at the beginning, but his focus mostly was about the economy and the various parts of his economic agenda, which is going to be the end all be all for people on the ballot this year, and it -- because it's what people care the most about. And as I go to you, I just want to remind our viewers of where the American public stands and how they view this president. This is from a CNN poll just a few weeks ago. 61 percent disapprove. The president, of course, talked about, you know, the media not covering the numbers. We're covering all of the numbers. But not unlike the last president, who he beat because of the economy, it's not about reporting, it's how people feel.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. And the president spoke there about the expansion in steel production, which outpaced Japan for the first time in 26 years. He's trying to argue that the economy is doing a lot better than it is actually doing. He even said that Democrats can't talk about affordability anymore because he's fixed that issue.

People know that that's not true, but you know, a year ago, he might have been speaking about immigration, because immigration, when he was running for office and when he first took over was actually a positive area in his polling.

Now, of course, everything that's happened over the last year, specifically the last few weeks in Minnesota, that has turned what was a strength for the president into a negative just because of the way that it's been enforced. So, you know, if you're a Republican congressman in a tough seat, running in November, the president isn't giving you an awful lot to run on right now.

BASH: OK. So, as we continue to monitor what the president is saying, I assume that at some point immigration will come up in that cabinet room, either by a reporter who gets a question or by the homeland security secretary. In the meantime, we don't want to lose sight of what is going on, on the ground in Minneapolis that Tom Homan, who the president on Monday, put in charge of Minneapolis, he had his first press conference this morning there and listened to a little bit of what he said about the internal changes that are taking place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I do not want to hear that everything's been done here has been perfect. Nothing's ever perfect. Anything will be improved on. And what we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient by the book. The mission is going to improve because of the changes we're making internally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:10:00]

BASH: But he said, the mission is not over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMAN: With a prioritization on public safety threats. I want to be clear. I don't read a lot of social media. I don't read a lot of media. I don't believe half what I see. We are not surrendering the president's mission and immigration enforcement. Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal aliens doesn't mean we forget about everybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look in many ways, this was classic Tom Homan. This is the philosophy that he has brought to immigration enforcement in the many decades that he has been in it. Remember, he's a veteran immigration and customs enforcement official. So, he was coming into Minneapolis to try to tamp down the tensions in that city.

And over the last few days, sources tell us that he was in back-to- back meetings with federal officials and local officials, and there's two notable parts about what he had to say today. One, he wants to draw down the number of federal agents there, and they're working on a plan to that effect, recognizing that it is stressful for the community to see so many people there. It hinges, however, on collaboration and cooperation with local officials.

And the other part of this is that prioritization that he's talking about. Immigration and customs enforcement generally does do the targeted operations, the focus on undocumented immigrants with criminal records. They know who they're going after, they build a plan and they go there.

But that doesn't foreclose the idea that others can be swept up. Other undocumented immigrants can also be detained simply because of immigration violations. And I think that's a key part of all of this, because ultimately, the president's team is trying to execute on his mass deportation campaign. And by doing these targeted operations alone, they're simply not going to get to the numbers they want to get to.

So, there is a tension here between what they're saying and what they practically want to see with what the mandate is from the White House. And I think that is what we're watching to see how it squares in Minneapolis and also in many cities nationwide moving forward.

BASH: So that's the policy tension. There's also a very real political tension, Jasmine. And it's not just about the overwhelming opposition, if you look at the broad public to the way that the operation has been going so far in Minneapolis. But the flip side of that, it's a much smaller slice of the electorate, but it's an important slice, and that is the pure, raw MAGA base that doesn't want the president to put his -- to take his foot off the gas at all.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Yeah. I think if you were to pull Republicans who watched that Tom Homan press conference, half of them would be, you know, happy to see that the tension and the escalation is being brought down by somebody who the White House views as a real consummate professional.

And I think the other half would be concerned that this could mean that less enforcement is happening when it comes to the president's immigration agenda. I was talking to somebody outside the White House. We talks to the White House, and they basically made the point that, you know, the White House has to walk a fine line here, because the reason why the MAGA base is allowing President Trump to kind of do this more American expansionism when it comes to the foreign policy is because of the amount of deportations that they have seen and that they want to see more of.

And so, the White House has to really try to balance deescalating things in Minnesota. We know that the president was really unhappy with not just the visuals coming out of Minnesota, but what people were saying about what's happening in Minnesota, but also this need to try to, in some ways, increase deportations, because that is why they believe that the president was put in the White House in the first place.

BASH: I want to go to Capitol Hill because we're following some breaking news, the other end of Pennsylvania from where you see the president right now. But of course, Manu is there on Capitol Hill. The Senate is holding a vote to try to avoid a government shutdown amid a fight over this funding for ICE and Border Patrol. What's going on Manu, on the floor and with negotiations?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There are two different things that are happening. Right now, the Senate is casting a procedural vote that would actually begin debate on this massive package that would fund roughly about 70 percent of the federal government. It needs to pass by the end of the day tomorrow night to avoid what could be a damaging government shutdown. This vote is going to fail. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everything is going to collapse and that we are headed to a government shutdown.

In fact, on the -- on the flip side, there are actually serious progress towards reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown. Now, underneath all this is the issue of ICE. What Democrats have demanded all along is that they need some serious changes the way -- either way ICE is operating.

They've laid out a whole host of policy measures that they're demanding, all in the aftermath of Alex Pretti's shooting. And they said they will not agree to moving ahead until there's an agreement on ICE. Now, part of this negotiation that is happening. What they're saying is to peel apart one piece of this larger funding package, that is funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

[12:15:00]

They are talking about extending funding for the rest of the federal government through the end of September, but only on a short-term basis have funding for the homeland security department, so that allow them time to negotiate a deal on the issue of ICE and change it to ICE policies. I caught up with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is central to these talks. And he indicated, talks are headed in a positive direction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Senator Thune, do you guys have a deal to avoid a government shutdown?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, we're trending in the right direction, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you talked to the White House about what to do?

THUNE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what did they said?

THUNE: Well, this past -- their work, I think there are discussions going on between the Senate Democrats and the White House close in, and hopefully, that will land soon. But right now, I think it's been a bit of work in progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But just the fact that the White House is moving in the Democrats direction is a sign of where this issue is politically at this moment, Dana. In the last government shutdown, you remember White House Senate Republican leaders dug in. They said, no negotiations with Democrats whatsoever.

Now the White House is agreeing with the Democrats approach to allow for a separate negotiation over ICE. And that is the big question. What will they ultimately agree with Democrats on to clamp down on how ICE is being deployed across the country.

But just the fact that the White House is moving in the Democrats direction just tells you where they view this moment politically, which is trying to respond to the public outcry that is growing in the aftermath of those two deadly shootings in Minneapolis.

BASH: Yeah. That is such an important point, Manu. Thank you so much for that reporting. We're going to be watching this vote as well. Back here at the table, Lauren Fox, who also covers Capitol Hill for us. I just want to pick up on that last point, because that's really the most important takeaway.

There's a lot of process happening in negotiations, but the most important takeaway on the politics of the moment right now, is that it really does seem like the White House is on its heels. Republicans are back on their heels because of what is happening with the White House and with the operation in Minneapolis, and they are capitulating in a way that we haven't seen them to Democrats who are in the minority.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There are a few ways that you can tell, this is a very serious negotiation. One of them is how quickly. We saw the White House agree to potentially breaking out the DHS funding bill from those other five funding bills. They want to make sure most the government is funded. They realize they have an issue on DHS.

The other thing that you can see is the Democrats in their list of demands that they put out yesterday are making very clear demands, but also, they aren't trying to imagine -- reimagine all of immigration enforcement in this negotiation. They realize that they can seize on a political moment, but they have to be careful with overpromising to their base what's actually possible.

So, they were talking about things like reforming the way that the warrant system works in places like Minneapolis. They were talking about everyone needing to be wearing body armor as well -- excuse me, body cameras as well as identification of where they are working. So, I think that those are some of the things that you're seeing here. Said it's not just Republicans who are coming to the negotiating table. Democrats are very careful in what their demands are.

BASH: Yeah. Oh, that is such a good point, because the last time there was a shutdown, they demanded something that they never got, which is why there was a big backlash among Democrats in the base who were not happy about that, really important point. Great reporting.

Coming up. We are monitoring President Trump's cabinet meeting. We're going to bring you any developments if and when they happen. Plus, we have new information on a five-year-old Minneapolis boy taken to an ICE facility in Texas. His father says he's depressed and he's not sleeping. More information after a break.

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[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Now to an update on an image that shook the nation. Five-year- old Liam Conejo Ramos standing in his Minneapolis driveway after -- or as federal agents apprehended his father. Now today, Liam is at an ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas. The photo from this that you're seeing right now is from Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, who met with Liam and his father yesterday. Here is what the congressman told CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO, (D-TX): He said that he misses his classmates and his family and wants to be back at school. And he keeps asking about that hat and that backpack that are in the picture. I think they took that from him, but I'm concerned with him -- for him, because his dad said that he's been depressed and been despondent and isn't eating well and that he's been very lethargic. And you can tell in that picture. You know it was by that time, one o'clock, 1:30 in the afternoon, and he was asleep again. So, he needs to be released immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:25:00]

BASH: And my panel is back. Priscilla, before the shooting and killing of Alex Pretti, the country was focused on that image of Liam and he is still in this detention center, as the congressman was just talking about. And you know those questions that came up as part of his detention, they haven't gone away.

ALVAREZ: Right. And remember that this was happening at a time where the administration was justifying their actions in Minneapolis by saying they were going after the worst of the worst and violent offenders. And then this image came out, and it sort of cut against that narrative, because it was a father and his five-year-old son.

Now, what we're learning about this family is, you know, mother and another teenage son remain in Minneapolis. The father and the son are at the Dilley immigration detention facility. And Castro also talked about the fact that he misses his mother, and that was one of the points of conversation that the father shared with him.

But what was striking about all of this is that it's not an isolated incident. I have been covering Dilley over the court -- for many years, but especially over the course of the last year. And there are so many children just like this, five-year-old Liam, who were plucked out of their daily routines in the United States, and so, they really feel when they are in a different setting.

And the reason I say that is because we have migrant families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and they were the ones that would go to daily. So, they were just getting introduced to the United States. In this case, you have families who have been swept up in interior actions, who are there, and they maybe a few days prior, were at their preschool, at their elementary school, at their high school.

And we know about what -- we know about their distress, because there are attorneys who frequent this facility and gather declaration. So, we have heard via these attorneys what these children are undergoing. I will note, though, this facility for viewers to understand is equipped for families. It's a little different than the visualized facility. It has a classroom, a gym and a library, but that doesn't --

BASH: But it doesn't have his mom.

ALVAREZ: -- he doesn't have his mom. And when this child was used to going to preschool five days a week, and suddenly, is not. And you heard there from Castro, is lethargic. It's just a completely different situation. And it is, again, one of the questions that was raised last week in who are you actually going after? And it was also part of what Tom Homan was trying to answer for today.

BASH: Yeah. And I just -- as you come in, Jasmine. I just want to put up on the screen a Fox News poll that just came out that kind of gives a snapshot of where people are with regard to the ICE efforts. The question was whether they're too aggressive? Overall, almost six in 10 Americans say yes, independent 71 percent. Trump voters, even Trump voters, a quarter of them say too aggressive. And that you can see on the right, it's a big change since July, especially among those independent voters.

WRIGHT: And these are the numbers that the White House is obviously looking at, right? They have a pretty robust polling situation, particularly from the outside pollers -- outside pollsters that the White House talks to all the time. And I think that's why the fundamental message that Tom Homan brought. Yes, you know, I think we focused on this idea that they're putting together a plan for drawdown.

But I think for the American people, what they're focused on is that this operation is going to revert back to being a targeted operation, something that Tom Homan said, quote, it got a little bit away from because the question of who is being kind of wrapped up in these enforcement operations has been paramount, I think, to Americans.

When you ask a majority of Americans, not just necessarily those on kind of the far right, but a majority of Americans, whether or not they want to see more people deported from the interior of this country, a lot of times you get a yes. Overwhelmingly, you get a yes.

The White House would believe and that's why it led to President Trump being put in office. But they don't want, necessarily, to see folks who are law abiding citizens being caught up, folks who are respecting the laws of this country and who are just trying to make it. And so, a lot of the problem or the questions about that operation were, why are the other folks who are law abiding getting wrapped up and not folks who are just the worst of the worst.

BASH: Right. We're going to sneak in a quick break. Sorry, Lauren, because we're still monitoring what's happening at the White House. And coming up. We do want to get to an important story in Georgia, the FBI is chasing President Trump's unfounded 2020 election fraud claims, seizing old ballots. We're going to have new details after the break.

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