Trump’s edited interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” drew high ratings on the show, a year after he sued the news magazine over editorial practices and extracted millions of dollars in compensation.
The Nov. 2 broadcast of “60 Minutes” featuring an interview with President Trump drew 14 million total viewers, and 3 million viewers in the 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen Panel + Big Data ratings. CBS Newsmagazine had its highest viewership since January 10, 2021. “60 Minutes” averaged 8.32 million viewers for the 2024-25 season, according to Nielsen data.
Additionally, thanks to President Trump’s interview, “60 Minutes” reached 144.9 million total video views across social platforms, surpassing last week’s all-time high of 92.6 million views, according to CBS News.
President Trump was interviewed by Norah O’Donnell, a senior correspondent for CBS News and a contributor to “60 Minutes.” It was the first time in five years that President Trump gave an interview on “60 Minutes.” During the interview, Trump bragged that “60 Minutes paid us a lot of money” to settle a lawsuit over the editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris and praised David Ellison’s Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount, though those comments were edited from the version that aired on CBS.
“’60 Minutes’ has made me a lot of money,” Trump said. “You don’t have to wear this, because I don’t want to embarrass you. And I’m sure you don’t. You have a great leader. Frankly, who’s the young woman who’s leading your entire company? She’s a great leader, as far as I know.” Trump was referring to Bari Weiss, who was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News by Paramount Skydance in a $150 million deal. President Trump said of Weiss: “I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person.”
Regarding the Ellison family’s acquisition of CBS parent company Paramount, President Trump said, “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 this is the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time for a free, open, good press.”
Trump is friendly with Oracle’s ultra-wealthy founder Larry Ellison. President Trump said last month: “Larry Ellison is great, and his son David is great. They’re my friends and my biggest supporters. They’ll make the right decisions. They’ll revitalize CBS and, hopefully, restore it to its former glory.”
Trump told O’Donnell that “60 Minutes” “made me pay a lot of money two days before the election because they covered[Harris’]answer that was so bad that it changed the election. And then they put in a new answer, and they paid me a lot of money to do that. There can’t be fake news. There’s got to be legitimate news. And I think that’s what’s happening.”
Trump’s claim that he was paid in “60 minutes” is technically incorrect. In fact, parent company Paramount Global agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited Harris’ answers to somehow harm Trump and mislead voters.
In response to the FCC’s request, CBS News released the full transcript of Harris’ interview, which shows that the content of her remarks has not changed. Paramount and CBS News initially sought to have the lawsuit thrown out, with legal experts saying Paramount would easily prevail in court. But former Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone urged the company to settle the case in court, paving the way for the Trump administration to approve Skydance Media’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global.
CBS News released the full transcript of the 90-minute meeting with President Trump on Sunday and posted most of the rest on YouTube. About a third of Mr. O’Donnell’s interview with Mr. Trump was aired on television.
The interviews covered a wide range of topics, from international politics to ICE raids in the United States, economic and medical policing, and the federal government shutdown. Much of the interview was spent asking O’Donnell questions about the president’s views on geopolitical hotspots and the challenges the United States faces in dealing with Russia, China, Israel, Venezuela and other unpredictable situations. The interview was recorded on October 31st at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida.
O’Donnell asked Trump about conflicts of interest related to his role as president of the United States, his family’s investments in cryptocurrencies, and the marketing of Trump-branded cryptocurrencies. President Trump responded negatively, saying, “I can’t say that because — I can’t — because I’m not worried. I’m not — I’d rather not have you ask that question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and said, ‘Can I ask you another question?'” And I said, yes. Here’s the question–” At which point O’Donnell interjected, “And you answered–” before Trump continued, “I don’t care. Did I make you do it? You can leave. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question.”
“We’re No. 1 in the world in cryptocurrencies. Others want to be. They’re fighting hard to be. But I’m No. 1 in cryptocurrencies because I’m president. Biden wanted that too, but at the last minute he completely reversed course,” Trump said.
O’Donnell also asked President Trump about pardoning “the richest man in crypto, the billionaire known as CZ.” She was referring to former Binance CEO Qiao Changpeng, who in 2023 pleaded guilty to U.S. government charges of failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at the cryptocurrency exchange. Mr. Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison and released in September 2024.
President Trump said, “Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he was sentenced to four months or something like that. And I heard that it was a witch hunt for Biden. And what I want to do is look at cryptocurrencies, because if we don’t do it, it’s going to China, it’s going to China. To me, this is no different than AI.”
