US President Donald Trump has appeared on the CBS News programme 60 Minutes just months after he won a $16m settlement from the broadcaster for alleged \u201cdeceptive editing\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the interview with CBS host Norah O\u2019Donnell, which was filmed last Friday at his Mar-a-Lago residence and aired on Sunday, Trump touched on several topics, including the ongoing government shutdown, his administration\u2019s unprecedented crackdowns on undocumented migrants, the US\u2019s decision to restart nuclear testing, and the trade war with China.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Trump, who regularly appears on Fox News, a right-wing media outlet, has an uneasy relationship with CBS, which is considered centrist.<\/p>\n In October 2020, the president walked out of a 60 Minutes interview in the lead-up to the 2020 election he lost, claiming that the host, Lesley Stahl, was \u201cbiased\u201d.<\/p>\n Here are some key takeaways from the interview:<\/p>\n The president\u2019s lawyers sued CBS owner Paramount in October 2024 for \u201cmental anguish\u201d over a pre-election interview with rival candidate Kamala Harris that Trump claimed had been deceptively edited to favour Democrats and thus affected his campaign.<\/p>\n CBS had aired two different versions of an answer Harris gave to a question on Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, posed by host Bill Whitaker. One version aired on 60 Minutes while the other appeared on the programme Face the Nation.<\/p>\n Asked whether Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, listened to US advice, Harris answered: \u201cWe are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States \u2013 to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.\u201d<\/p>\n In an alternative edit, featured in earlier pre-broadcast promotions, Harris had given a longer, more rambling response that did not sound as concise.<\/p>\n The network argued the answer was edited differently for the two shows due to time restrictions, but Trump\u2019s team claimed CBS \u201cdistorted\u201d its broadcasts and \u201chelped\u201d Harris, thereby affecting his campaign. Trump asked for an initial $10bn in damages before upping it to $20bn in February 2025.<\/p>\n Paramount, in July 2025, chose to settle with Trump\u2019s team to the tune of $16m in the form of a donation to a planned Trump presidential library. That move angered journalist unions and rights groups, which argued it set a bad precedent for press freedom.<\/p>\n Paramount executives said the company would not apologise for the editing of its programmes, but had decided to settle to put the matter to rest.<\/p>\n The company was at the time trying to secure federal approval from Trump\u2019s government for a proposed merger with Skydance, owned by Trump ally Larry Ellison. The Federal Communications Commission has since approved the merger that gives Ellison\u2019s Skydance controlling rights.<\/p>\n On October 19, Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff, US special envoy to the Middle East, were interviewed on 60 Minutes regarding the Israel-Gaza war.<\/p>\n After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last Thursday, Trump praised his counterpart as a \u201cstrong man, a very powerful leader\u201d and said their relationship was on an even keel despite the trade war. However, he blamed China for \u201cripping off\u201d the US through its dominance of crucial rare earth materials.<\/p>\n Trump told 60 Minutes he had cut a favourable trade agreement with China and that \u201cwe got \u2013 no rare-earth threat. That\u2019s gone, completely gone\u201d, referring to Chinese export restrictions on critical rare-earth metals needed to manufacture a wide range of items including defence equipment, smartphones and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n However, Beijing actually only said it would delay introducing export controls for five rare-earth metals it announced in October, and did not mention restrictions on a further seven it announced in April this year. Those restrictions remain in place.<\/p>\n Trump said President Xi did not say anything about whether Beijing planned to attack autonomous Taiwan.<\/p>\n However, he referred to past assurances from Xi, saying: \u201cHe [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, \u2018We would never do anything while President Trump is president\u2019, because they know the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether he would order US forces to action if China moved militarily on Taiwan, Trump demurred, saying: \u201cYou\u2019ll find out if it happens, and he understands the answer to that \u2026 I can\u2019t give away my secrets. The other side knows.\u201d<\/p>\n There are mounting fears in the US that China could attack Taiwan. Washington\u2019s stance of \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d has always kept observers speculating about whether the US would defend Taiwan against Beijing. Ahead of the last elections, Trump said Taiwan should \u201cpay\u201d for protection.<\/p>\n When asked why he pardoned cryptocurrency multibillionaire and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao last month, Trump said: \u201cI don\u2019t know who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n The president said he had never met Zhao, but had been told he was the victim of a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Zhao pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in connection with child sex abuse and \u201cterrorism\u201d on his crypto platform in 2023. He served four months in prison until September 2024, and stepped down as chief executive of Binance.<\/p>\n Binance has been linked to the Trump family\u2019s cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial, and many have questioned if the case is a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n In March 2025, World Liberty Financial launched its own dollar-pegged cryptocoin, USD1, on Binance\u2019s blockchain and the company promoted it to its 275 million users. The coin was also supported by an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates, MGX Fund Management Limited, which used $2bn worth of the World Liberty stablecoin to buy a stake in Binance.<\/p>\n This part of the interview appeared in a full transcript of the 90-minute interview, but does not appear in either the 28-minute televised version or the 73-minute extended online video version. CBS said in a note on the YouTube version that it was \u201ccondensed for clarity\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump justified last week\u2019s decision by his government to resume nuclear testing for the first time in 33 years, saying that other countries \u2013 besides North Korea \u2013 are already doing it.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia\u2019s testing, and China\u2019s testing, but they don\u2019t talk about it,\u201d Trump said, also mentioning Pakistan. \u201cYou know, we\u2019re an open society. We\u2019re different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report \u2013 they don\u2019t have reporters that gonna be writing about it. We do.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia, China, and Pakistan have not openly conducted tests in recent years. Analyst Georgia Cole of UK think tank Chatham House told Al Jazeera that \u201cthere is no indication\u201d the three countries have resumed testing.<\/p>\n The president claimed the US-negotiated ceasefire and peace plan between Israel and Hamas was \u201cvery solid\u201d despite Israeli strikes killing 236 Gazans since the ceasefire went into effect. It is also unclear whether or when the Palestinian armed group, Hamas, has agreed it will disarm.<\/p>\n However, Trump said he was not worried about Hamas disarming as the US would force the armed group to do so. \u201cHamas could be taken out immediately if they don\u2019t behave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump denied the US was going to war with Venezuela despite a US military build-up off the country\u2019s coast and deadly air strikes targeting alleged drug-trafficking ships in the country\u2019s waters. The United Nations has said the strikes are a violation of international law.<\/p>\n Responding to a question about whether the strikes were really about unseating Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro, Trump said they weren\u2019t. However, when asked if Maduro\u2019s days in office were numbered, the president answered: \u201cI would say, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, a member of the Republican Party, blamed Democrats for what is now close to the longest government shutdown in US history, which has been ongoing since October 1.<\/p>\n Senators from the Democratic Party have refused to approve a new budget unless it extends expiring tax credits that make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans and unless Trump reverses healthcare cuts made in his tax-and-spending bill, passed earlier this year.<\/p>\n The US president made it clear that he would not negotiate with Democrats, and did not give clear plans for ending the shutdown affecting 1.4 million governent employees.<\/p>\n Referring to a US Supreme Court hearing brought by businesses arguing that the Trump government\u2019s tariff war on other countries is illegal and has caused domestic inflation, Trump said the US \u201cwould go to hell\u201d and be a \u201cthird world nation\u201d if the court ordered tariffs to be removed.<\/p>\n He said the tariffs are necessary for \u201cnational security\u201d and that they have increased respect from other countries for the US.<\/p>\n Trump defended his government\u2019s unprecedented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and surveillance on people perceived to be undocumented migrants.<\/p>\n When asked if the raids had gone too far, he responded: \u201cNo. I think they haven\u2019t gone far enough because we\u2019ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by [former US Presidents Joe] Biden and [Barack] Obama.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the New York City mayoral race scheduled for November 4, Trump said he would not back democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, and called him a \u201ccommunist\u201d. He said if Mamdani wins, it will be hard for him to \u201cgive a lot of money to New York\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n US President Donald Trump has appeared on the CBS News programme 60 Minutes just months after he won a $16m settlement from the broadcaster for alleged \u201cdeceptive editing\u201d. In the interview with CBS host Norah O\u2019Donnell, which was filmed last Friday at his Mar-a-Lago residence and aired on Sunday, Trump touched on several topics, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
The interview took place one year to the day after Trump sued CBS<\/h2>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AP25303126250287-1762115580.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
He solved rare-earth metals issue with China<\/h3>\n
Xi \u2018knows what will happen\u2019 if China attacks Taiwan<\/h3>\n
He doesn\u2019t know who the crypto boss he pardoned is<\/h3>\n
Other countries \u2018are testing nuclear weapons\u2019<\/h3>\n
He\u2019s not worried about Hamas disarming<\/h3>\n
Venezuela\u2019s Maduro\u2019s \u2018days are numbered\u2019<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-10-07T200000Z_512466284_RC267HAH3C2F_RTRMADP_3_USA-SHUTDOWN-1759895111.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
US government shutdown is all the Democrats\u2019 fault<\/h3>\n
US will become \u2018third-world nation\u2019 if tariffs disallowed<\/h3>\n
ICE raids \u2018don\u2019t go far enough\u2019<\/h3>\n
Zohran Mamdani is a \u2018communist\u2019<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"