Newly appointed CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil sat down with President Donald Trump for an interview, and the news program aired Trump’s comments uninterrupted for nearly half of its time.
Dokoupil interviewed Trump on the floor of a Ford Motor Co. factory in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, and his segment aired on “CBS Evening News.” CBS News aired Trump’s interview for about the first 14 minutes of its evening newscast, without commercial breaks or obvious editing.
Topics brought up in Dokoupil’s interview with Trump ranged from the U.S. economy. The murder of a Minneapolis woman by ICE agents. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is the subject of a Justice Department investigation into whether he lied to Congress about the scope of the Fed’s headquarters renovations. and the ongoing protests in Iran and the killing of protesters by the Iranian government.
President Trump said of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by ICE agents in Minnesota: “Her actions were pretty severe,” referring to the video of the incident. “When you look at that tape, you can look at it two ways… There’s some very egregious stuff on that tape.”
President Trump said he was focused on the U.S. economy, claiming that “we have probably the strongest economy in the history of this country.” At the same time, President Trump said he is working to address foreign threats. President Trump said, “We have won a huge victory against Venezuela.”
If Kamala Harris had won the 2024 presidential election, Trump told Dokoupil, “I probably wouldn’t have a job right now.” Later in the interview, Dokoupil countered, saying, “For the record, even if the other guys won, I think I’d take this job,” to which Trump replied, “Yeah, but the pay is lower.” Trump reiterated his frequent claims that the country was “dead” a year and a half ago, and “now it’s the hottest country in the world.”
“He was a terrible Fed chairman,” President Trump said of Powell, repeating his long-standing criticism that Powell’s “interest rates are too high.” President Trump has claimed that the Federal Reserve has billions of dollars in overruns on its headquarters construction project and said of Chairman Powell, “He’s either corrupt or incompetent.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Dokoupil cited President Trump’s recent comments that the only limit to his authority as commander in chief in international affairs was “his own morality,” and asked the president if there was anything that would limit his authority in the United States. “I’m a moral person. I don’t like to see death,” Trump said. “Yes, it is limited by my morality, and I have a very high level of morality, so I am therefore limited.” Mr. Dokoupil replied, “Not the Constitution, not the courts? That’s what I thought you would say.” “The Constitution and the courts, of course. That goes without saying,” President Trump said.
On Tuesday, Dokoupil anchored the “CBS Evening News” live from Detroit at GM’s new global headquarters as part of his multi-city “Live from America” tour. The second half of the telecast featured an interview between Dokoupil and GM CEO Mary Barra, who said Trump’s tariffs would cost the company “billions of dollars” in additional costs in 2025.
Dokoupil, a veteran of the CBS News morning show, was appointed anchor of the CBS Evening News by Bari Weiss, founder of Free Press and current head of television news. Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison acquired her company in October, at which point he named Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News.
He was scheduled to begin hosting duties on “CBS Evening News” on January 5th, but the program aired two days earlier than planned. On Saturday, January 3, he held an extended three-part interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in response to the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela to arrest former President Nicolas Maduro.
From January 5th to 9th, the overall viewership of Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” decreased by 23% compared to the same period a year ago.
Ahead of his debut on “CBS Evening News,” Dokoupil parroted Weiss’s points, saying “people don’t trust us as much as they used to” and that mainstream news organizations “focus too much on academic and elite analysis and not enough on you.” The show also outlined five principles ahead of his first broadcast, including: “We love America and we will not apologize for saying that.”
Some corners of Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” have been perceived by critics as less hostile toward the Trump administration than those on other traditional news networks. “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Floridian,” Dokoupil said of Trump’s secretary of state in a tearful report from Miami on air last week, adding: “Whatever you think of[Rubio’s]politics, you have to admit, this is an impressive resume.” Dokoupil, reporting from Minneapolis after Goode’s killing, said both pro-ICE and anti-ICE sentiments are “deeply American feelings” and urged viewers to “find ways to live with people who are truly different from us.”
CBS News’ new structure was skewered by Golden Globes host Nikki Glazer during Sunday’s awards broadcast on CBS. “Most of the editorial awards go to CBS News,” Glaser joked, adding, “CBS News: The Newest Place to Watch BS News in America.”
