Trump vs. 60 Minutes: The Sequel

He sued them for editing his opponent; then they edited him just as hard. No one knows who to be mad at.

It was President Trump’s first 60 Minutes interview in five years—and, in a plot twist Hollywood would reject for being too implausible, it aired on the anniversary of the day he sued CBS’s parent company (originally for a cool $10 billion) over their “creative editing” of the Kamala Harris interview.

You’d think the network would be extra careful in the post-production room this time around. Hahahahaha, well, you’d be wrong.

Trump sat down with correspondent Norah O’Donnell for close to ninety minutes, but the segment that ultimately aired ran barely twenty-eight—less than half the show’s typical runtime. In the unneutered cut, Trump comes across as sharp, measured, even presidential at times—qualities that somehow got lost in the CBS edit bay. The “tightened” version makes him look flustered one moment, defensive the next—the exact opposite of what CBS was accused of doing for Harris a year earlier.

The televised segment opens with a somber O’Donnell introducing the president as Mr. Trump, a sleight that did not go unnoticed by the always-alert internet.

“It’s exactly one year to the day since he sued Paramount, the parent company of CBS, alleging that 60 Minutes had deceptively edited an interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris,” O’Donnell intonated by way of a lead. “Paramount settled that lawsuit. The settlement did not include an apology or an admission of wrongdoing.”

Translation: We never said we did anything wrong and we d e f i n i t e l y did not utter anything that sounded like ‘sorry,’ but yeah, we forked over a breezy eight-figure check anyway. #NotGuilty

In the “extended” version of the interview, which was not televised, the Q&A starts with Trump rather eloquently explaining the outcome of his China trip, which he’d returned from just hours before the sit-down.

The prime-time hack-job, in contrast, opens with this:

O’Donnell: “We are now approaching the longest shutdown in American history—”
Trump: “Democrats’ fault.”

So, the media spit-shined Kamala Harris to make her look better and smeared mud on Donald Trump to make him look worse. In other shocking news, Epstein didn’t kill himself, the border isn’t airtight, and Bill Gates wants you dead.

The unsurprising irony is that both sides are up in arms about the editing. Democrats are convinced Trump paid off the network to cut the stuff that made him look bad, while Republicans are positive CBS set out to craft a highlight reel of humiliation.

Watch Trump “LOSING HIS COOL,” according to The Daily Beast.

This is Trump’s “corruption tantrum,” FWIW (it was the last two minutes of the interview and in the context of pardoning crypto billionaire CZ, who’d pleaded guilty to money laundering):

NORAH O’DONNELL: So [you’re] not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I can’t say… I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, “Can I ask another question?” And I said, yeah. This is the question—

O’DONNELL: And you answered—

TRUMP: I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto—

O’DONNELL: But just generally speak—

TRUMP: Excuse me. We’re number one in crypto in the whole world. Other people wanna be. They’re fighting like hell to be. But we’re number one in crypto because I’m the president. Biden wanted to also, at the very end, you know, he totally switched his thing. You know, Biden was totally in favor of crypto at the end. Do you know that many people that were indicted under Biden for crypto, at the very end before the election, were let go? You know why? He wanted the vote. We are number one in crypto and that’s the only thing I care about. I don’t want China or anybody else to take it away. It’s a massive industry.

O’DONNELL: Mr. President, thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

That was a tantrum? Have these people never seen a toddler spread-eagle on the floor of Target after his mom said no to the Paw Patrol fruit snacks? How about an inebriated co-ed being kicked out of the club for yelling “You work for ME!” at the bartender? You want a tantrum? I’ll show you a tantrum.

It really is worth watching in full.

Whether you loved it or hated it or thought it was overclipped or undercut, the interview covered a lot of ground. Trump bragged about the “billions and billions” his tariffs are bringing in and promised that within two years, the U.S. would be the king (he really used that word!) of automobile manufacturing again.

He said he’d defund New York if it elects Mamdani as mayor (“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a Communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time.”), and when asked if the ICE raids had gone too far, replied that they haven’t gone far enough (“When you have over 11,000 murderers released into our country, over 11,000, 50% of which have murdered more than one person, we gotta get them out of here.”).

Trump’s not Ronald Reagan and never will be. He’s feisty and funny and famously filterless. This interview was no exception. So he didn’t recognize the name of one of the 1,500 people he’s pardoned. Big deal. I’m decades younger and I can’t even remember where I parked at Trader Joe’s. If that’s the left’s proof of “cognitive decline,” perhaps they should revisit the shining moment when their quick-witted, fearless leader shook hands with a ghost onstage—and then forgot to leave.

Order now, get it in January!