President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell to talk about a wide range of topics, praising Paramount’s new leadership and addressing whether he will run for a third term.
The interview, which was taped Friday and aired Sunday night on 60 Minutes, took place at Trump‘s at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. O’Donnell also asked Trump questions related to the government shutdown, nuclear testing, immigration, tariffs and more.
While the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution puts terms limits on the presidency, prominent right-wingers like Steve Bannon have suggested that Trump will seek a third term. He “is going to be president in 28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon said.
On 60 Minutes, O’Donnell asked Trump what his plans are.
“Well, I don’t even think about it,” he said. “I will tell you, a lotta people want me to run. But the difference between us and the Democrats is we really do have a strong bench. I don’t wanna use names, because it’s, you know, inappropriate. But it’s too early.”
When pressed, Trump said he thinks Vice President J.D. Vance or Secretary of State Mario Rubio could do a good job. But, he added, “I like so many people. We [the Republicans] have an unbelievable bench. We could run two people together. We have a great bench. So I don’t wanna start talking about elections. It’s too early. One thing I can tell you, the 2020 election was rigged. And a lotta people say when it’s rigged you’re allowed to do it again. It was rigged. And it’s been caught. … And you see the same information that everybody else does. And it’s coming out now in spades. But with all of that, we have a great bench.” [(rump and his supporters have posited that the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden beat Trump, was rigged, but there has been no evidence to support those claims.)
This marked Trump’s first interview with CBS since suing the company over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The lawsuit resulted in parent company Paramount Global settling in a $16 million payout. Part of the settlement agreement included stipulations for Paramount to release 60 Minutes transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates post-air.
The sit-down also comes about a month after contrarian journalist Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News by new Paramount CEO David Ellison. The move was met with concern among many employed at CBS News as well as media watchers, but Trump praised the changes in his 60 Minutes interview.
In a transcript of the interview that was posted online, Trump went on to criticize prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, though he didn’t mention him by name.
“We have unbelievable people,” he said. “You could go up and down my cabinet, we have great people. They don’t. They have a guy that’s ruined the state of California, ruined it, destroyed it. And I have a lotta property out there, I can tell you they’ve ruined the state of California. He has been terrible. Other than he’s got a good line of bullshit, that’s all it is. He’s ruined the state. And he’s one of the people running.”
Trump also called out other potential Democrat Party candidates, including U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (“she’s a low-IQ person”) and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“I watched her speak the other day, almost the first time she was screaming. She was like a crazy person”). He also said former Vice President Harris lost the 2024 election to Trump “because she couldn’t speak. She wasn’t a very intelligent person, in my opinion. But she couldn’t speak properly. She could not speak.”
Here he addressed the lawsuit and shared his thoughts on Weiss.
“And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. 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. I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person. But 60 Minutes was forced to pay me a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. 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.”
