President Donald Trump appeared on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” just months after winning a $16 million settlement from the network for alleged “deceptive editing.”
In an interview with CBS host Norah O’Donnell that was filmed last Friday at his Mar-a-Lago mansion and aired Sunday, President Trump touched on several topics, including the ongoing government shutdown, the administration’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration, the U.S. decision to resume nuclear testing, and the trade war with China.
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Trump regularly appears on the right-wing media outlet Fox News, but his relationship with CBS, which is considered a centrist, is questionable.
In October 2020, the president left a 60 Minutes interview about the 2020 election he lost, claiming that host Leslie Stahl was “biased.”
Key takeaways from the interview include:
The interview took place a year after President Trump sued CBS, one day after that.
In October 2024, the president’s lawyers sued CBS owner Paramount for “emotional distress” over a pre-election interview with rival candidate Kamala Harris that Trump claimed was deceptively edited to favor Democrats and influence his campaign.
CBS aired two different versions of Harris’ answer to a question about Israel’s war in Gaza posed by host Bill Whitaker. One version aired on 60 Minutes and the other on the show Face the Nation.
Asked whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had heeded U.S. advice, Harris said: “We’re not going to stop pursuing what’s necessary for America to make clear where we stand on the need to end this war.”
In another edit featured in an earlier pre-broadcast promo, Harris gave a longer, rambling response that didn’t sound as concise.
The network claimed that answers were edited differently on the two shows due to time constraints, but Trump’s team argued that CBS “distorted” the broadcast and “aided” Harris, thereby influencing the campaign. President Trump initially sought $10 billion in damages, then increased the amount to $20 billion in February 2025.
Paramount opted to settle with the Trump campaign in July 2025, paying $16 million in the form of a planned donation to the Trump presidential library. The move angered journalists’ unions and rights groups, who say it sets a bad precedent for press freedom.
Paramount executives said the company would not apologize for editing the show but decided to reach a settlement to end the issue.
At the time, the company was seeking federal approval from the Trump administration for a planned merger with Skydance, which is owned by Trump ally Larry Ellison. The Federal Communications Commission subsequently approved a merger that gave Mr. Ellison control of Skydance.
On October 19, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff were interviewed on “60 Minutes” regarding the Israel-Gaza war.
He resolved the rare earth issue with China.
After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last Thursday, President Trump praised the president as a “strong man and a very strong leader” and said relations between the two countries were good despite the trade war. But he accused China of “looting” from the United States through its control of critical rare earth materials.
President Trump told 60 Minutes that with a favorable trade deal with China, “the rare earth threat is gone. It’s gone, it’s completely gone,” referring to China’s export restrictions on critical rare earth metals needed to make a wide range of items, including defense equipment, smartphones and electric vehicles.
However, the Chinese government actually only said it was postponing the introduction of export restrictions on five rare earth metals announced in October, without mentioning restrictions on seven more rare earth metals announced in April this year. Those restrictions still apply.
President Xi knows what will happen if China attacks Taiwan
Trump said Xi had not said whether Beijing plans to attack self-governing Taiwan.
But he referred to Xi’s past commitments, saying, “He (Xi) has said it publicly, and his people have said openly in meetings, ‘We will never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences.”
Asked if he would order the U.S. military to take action if China were to take military action against Taiwan, Trump countered, saying, “We’ll know when it happens, and he understands the answer…I can’t reveal my secrets. They know.”
There is growing concern in the United States that China could attack Taiwan. The US government’s attitude of “strategic ambiguity” has always led observers to speculate about whether the US will protect Taiwan from China. Ahead of the last election, President Trump said Taiwan should “pay” for protection.
He doesn’t know who the crypto boss he pardoned is
Asked why he pardoned cryptocurrency billionaire and Binance founder Zhao Changpeng last month, President Trump said: “I don’t know who he is.”
The president said he had never met Zhao but was told that she was the victim of a “witch hunt” by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
Chao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling child sexual abuse and “terrorism”-related money laundering on his cryptocurrency platform. He served a four-month prison sentence until September 2024 and resigned as Binance’s CEO.
Binance has ties to the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, and many have questioned whether this constitutes a conflict of interest.
In March 2025, World Liberty Financial launched its own dollar-pegged cryptocurrency USD1 on the Binance blockchain, which the company promoted to its 275 million users. The coin is also backed by UAE investment fund MGX Fund Management Limited, which used $2 billion worth of World Liberty stablecoins to purchase shares in Binance.
This portion of the interview is included in the full transcript of the 90-minute interview, but is not included in the 28-minute televised version or the 73-minute extended online video version. CBS said in a note about the YouTube version that it has been “summarized for clarity.”
Other countries are also conducting nuclear weapons tests.
President Trump justified his administration’s decision last week to resume nuclear tests for the first time in 33 years, saying other countries besides North Korea have already conducted nuclear tests.
President Trump also mentioned Pakistan, saying, “Both Russia and China are doing testing, but we’re not talking about that.” “You know, we’re an open society. We’re different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because if we don’t, you guys are going to report on it. They don’t have reporters to write about it. We do.”
Russia, China and Pakistan have not conducted public testing in recent years. Georgia Cole, an analyst at British think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera there was “no sign” that the three countries had resumed testing.
He’s not worried about disarming Hamas
The president insisted that the U.S.-negotiated ceasefire and peace plan between Israel and Hamas was “very solid,” even though Israeli airstrikes have killed 236 Gazans since the ceasefire went into effect. It is unclear if or when the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to disarm.
But President Trump said he was not worried about disarming Hamas because the United States forces militants to disarm. “If Hamas does not take action, it could be quickly removed,” he said.
Venezuelan President Maduro “declares life expectancy”
President Trump has denied that the United States intends to go to war with Venezuela, despite a buildup of American troops off the coast of the country and deadly airstrikes targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the country’s waters. The United Nations said the attack was a violation of international law.
Asked whether the attack was really aimed at unseating Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump said no. However, when asked if Maduro’s time in office was numbered, he answered, “I think so.”
The US government shutdown is all Democrats’ fault.
Trump, a Republican, blamed Democrats for the government shutdown that began Oct. 1 and is approaching the longest in U.S. history.
Democratic senators are refusing to approve a new budget unless they extend expired tax credits that make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans or reverse health care cuts in the tax and spending bill that President Trump passed earlier this year.
The US president has vowed not to negotiate with Democrats and has offered no clear plan to end the shutdown, which affects 1.4 million government workers.
If tariffs are not allowed, the US will become a “Third World country”
Referring to a U.S. Supreme Court hearing in which companies argued that the Trump administration’s tariff wars against other countries were illegal and were causing domestic inflation, Trump said the United States would “go to hell” and become a “Third World country” if the courts ordered the tariffs to be eliminated.
He said the tariffs were necessary for “national security” and that they increased respect for the United States from other countries.
ICE raids are ‘not going far enough’
President Trump defended the administration’s unprecedented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and surveillance of people considered illegal immigrants.
Asked if the raids went too far, he said: “No, I don’t think they go far enough, because we’ve been held back by the judges, the liberal judges appointed by (former US President Joe) Biden and (former President Barack) Obama.”
Zoran Mamdani is a ‘communist’
President Trump has said he will not support Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani in the New York mayoral election scheduled for November 4, calling him a “communist.” He said if Mamdani wins, it will be difficult to “donate big money to New York.”
