President Donald Trump appeared on “60 Minutes” for a wide-ranging interview, discussing hot-button topics including Venezuela, immigration raids in Democratic-led cities and the government shutdown. The interview, which aired Sunday night, was conducted by correspondent Norah O’Donnell at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. CBS aired a 27-minute segment of the nearly 73-minute-long interview. The full transcript was made available online without cuts.
Trump’s appearance on the show follows a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll that found a majority of Americans say he has gone too far in exercising the powers of his office, and that while 41 percent say they approve of the job he’s doing, 59 percent disapprove. It also comes after Paramount, CBS’s then-owner, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit that Trump filed during the 2024 presidential election. Trump alleged that his electoral chances were harmed after the network aired two versions of an answer given by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” regarding the Middle East.
Here are some key moments from the interview.
Trump won’t say if U.S. will strike Venezuela, but says Maduro’s reign may soon end Return to menu
As the United States masses warships and fighter jets off Venezuela’s coast, Trump would not say whether the U.S. will carry out land strikes on the country but answered in the affirmative when O’Donnell asked whether Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days as president were “numbered.”
Asked if the U.S. was going to war with Venezuela, Trump told O’Donnell: “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” But asked later if the U.S. would carry out land strikes, he said: “I’m not saying it’s true or untrue. … I don’t talk to a reporter about whether or not I’m gonna strike.”
In the interview, Trump accused Venezuela of dumping “hundreds of thousands of people into our country” and said the U.S. was launching strikes on boats in Caribbean waters because the vessels carry drugs. Trump has also accused Maduro of being the head of a drug trafficking network, a claim Maduro denies.
In the last two months, the U.S. has carried out several fatal strikes against vessels the administration alleges were being run by “narcoterrorists.” Last month, Trump said he was considering military strikes against land-based targets in Venezuela, where the government is urging civilians to prepare for the worst. More recently, though, Trump said such strikes were not being contemplated.
A top Justice Department lawyer also told lawmakers last week that the Trump administration does not consider a law that requires congressional approval for any military action that exceeds 60 days to apply to strikes against alleged cartels, The Post reported.
Trump says ICE raids ‘haven’t gone far enough’ Return to menu
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