“It’s the Democrats’ fault,” President Donald Trump said to open his first interview with “60 Minutes” in five years – and his first direct interaction with CBS News since he settled a lawsuit in July over the newsmagazine’s Kamala Harris interview for $16 million.
Trump was interviewed by CBS’ Norah O’Donnell Friday at Mar-a-Lago for 90 minutes, which was edited down to 28 minutes for its Sunday airing. Before that, Trump’s last appearance on “60 Minutes” was in 2020, with correspondent Lesley Stahl – which he abruptly ended.
Trump’s opening statement came in response to O’Donnell’s question about the federal government shutdown.
O’Donnell rapid-fired through several topics at the beginning of the broadcast, including healthcare, the filibuster, tariffs, the stock market, immigration and the numerous legal attacks Trump weathered ahead of the 2024 election. Trump also defended his aggressive deployment of ICE, saying that tactics like tear gas and breaking car windows aren’t enough.
Before its first commercial break, CBS teased a “surprise announcement,” which turned out to be Trump saying the U.S. would resume nuclear testing, saying China and Russia had been secretly doing so recently.
“We have more nuclear weapons than any other country, and we should do something about de-nuclearization … we have enough weapons to blow up the world 50 times over,” he said.
“But why do we need to test nuclear weapons?” O’Donnell asked.
“Well, because we need to see how they work!” he said.
Trump also acknowledged his former beef with CBS, which seems to be over – not just because of the settlement, but the takeover of parent company Paramount by Skydance Media’s David Ellison, whom Trump calls a personal friend. Ellison recently installed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss to run CBS News, a move Trump praised.
“’60 Minutes’ paid me a lotta money,” he told O’Donnell. “And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not — you have a great— I think you have a great new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise, is a great— from what I know.”
Trump said he doesn’t know Weiss personally, “but I hear she’s a great person.”
“You can’t have fake news,” he continued. “You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that it’s happening. … I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership. I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.”
Unlike his 2020 interview with Stahl, the Sunday interview ended cordially, with O’Donnell asking Trump what he hopes to accomplish in his final three years of his second term.
“Well, I hope I can have the same year that we had,” he said, successfully ducking a direct question about whether he planned to run for a third term in 2028. “Look, we have been acknowledged to have the greatest nine months. You know, it’s nine months — the greatest nine months in the history of the presidency. So if I can keep that going, I’ll be very happy.”
“Nice to see you,” O’Donnell said.
“Nice to see you,” Trump replied.
Watch the entire interview, as aired, in the video clip above.
