Trump to tape ‘60 Minutes’ interview after GOP midterm rout
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to tape a post-election interview this morning for Sunday’s “60 Minutes.”
The sit-down will be Trump’s first in-depth interview since the Republican Party’s sweeping midterm losses on Tuesday.
And it will be a high-profile one: “60 Minutes” is the highest-rated newsmagazine on American TV.
CBS News sources confirmed the interview plan but cautioned that it hasn’t taken place yet. Friday’s White House schedule says Trump will participate “in a pre-tape interview” at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
The interviewer is Ross Douthat, the former New York Times columnist who recently joined “60 Minutes” as a correspondent. Douthat, a conservative who has frequently been critical of Trump, previously interviewed Vice President JD Vance for his Times podcast.
In a column earlier this week, Douthat depicted the midterms as a failure of “the New Right.”
Trump has a long and complex history with “60 Minutes.” He last appeared on the program in April, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. That interview, with Norah O’Donnell, became contentious; Trump called ‘Donnell a “disgrace” and said, “You’re horrible people.”
Trump certainly cares a lot about “60 Minutes,” as evinced by the occasional critiques he posts on Truth Social. And he is well aware that the program is high-rated. Last Sunday’s episode averaged 10 million viewers, buoyed by an NFL game lead-in.
Trump refused to sit down for a traditional pre-election interview on “60 Minutes” in 2024. But his opponent Kamala Harris did, and Trump then sued CBS over the interview, claiming it was deceptively edited. Legal experts said the suit was frivolous, but the owners of CBS at the time decided to pay Trump to make the matter go away. They agreed to a $16 million settlement, sparking outrage across the news industry.
The lawsuit and settlement roiled the tight-knit “60 Minutes” team. And it was just the start; once the Ellison family took control of CBS last year, Bari Weiss took over CBS News and turned her attention to “60 Minutes,” upsetting its fiercely independent culture.
Last spring Weiss forced out the newsmagazine’s top producers and several correspondents and installed tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton as executive producer. Weiss and Bilton hired a raft of new correspondents and contributors, including Douthat, who had interviews with the Senate candidates in Michigan on last weekend’s broadcast.
CBS News and CNN are both owned by Skydance.
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