President Donald Trump: The 2025 60 Minutes Interview

President Donald Trump: The 2025 60 Minutes Interview

It’s been five years since President Trump appeared for an interview on 60 Minutes. A lot has happened since then, not least of which was his political comeback and triumphant return to the White House. On Friday, hours after he touched down from his whirlwind trip to Asia, Mr. Trump agreed to sit down with us for a wide-ranging conversation. It was exactly one year to the day since he sued Paramount, the parent company of CBS, alleging that 60 Minutes had deceptively edited an interview with his opponent, Kla Harris. Paramount settled that lawsuit. The settlement did not include an apology or admission of wrongdoing. In our nearly 90minute conversation this past week, we spoke with Mr. Trump about the country and the world. The story will continue in a moment. We met with the president at Mara Lago, his private club in Florida, on the 31st day of the government shutdown. We are now approaching the longest shutdown in American history. Democrat’s fault. Under your presidency, we’re talking about more than a million federal workers who are not getting a paycheck, including our air traffic controllers. You see, there’s traffic snarls out at the airports. Now, this weekend, food aid for more than 42 million Americans is set to expire. What are you doing as president to end the shutdown? All we’re doing is we keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it and the Democrats keep voting against ending it. You know, they’ve never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension. All we’re saying, give us an extension. We’ll work it out. They’ve lost their way. They become crazed lunatics. And all they have to do, Nora, is say, “Let’s vote.” So, Senate Democrats say they will vote to reopen the government if Republicans agree to extend subsidies for over 20 million Americans who use Obamacare for their health insurance. Obamacare is terrible. It’s bad health care at far too high a price. We should fix that. We should fix it. and we can fix it with the Democrats. All they have to do is let the country open and we’ll fix it. They have to let the country open and I’ll sit down with the Democrats and we’ll fix it. But they have to let the country and you know what they have to do? All they have to do is raise five hands. We don’t need all of them. But so you’re saying your plan is to tell the Democrats to vote to end the shutdown. Correct. Very simple. And that you will put forward a health care plan. No, we will work on fixing the bad healthcare that we have right now. Now we have terrible healthcare at too expensive for the people, not for the government, for the people. But Mr. President, with all due respect, you’ve been talking about fixing the healthcare since the Democrats, but since 2015, you’ve said you’d fix. I’ve been talking about it for a long time. We almost did it. We were one vote short. We would have had great healthcare. That was in 2017 when Senate Republicans failed by one vote to partially repeal Obamacare. We can make it much less expensive for people and give them much better healthare. And I’d be willing to work with the Democrats on it. The problem is they want to give money to prisoners, to drug dealers, to all these millions of people that were allowed to come in with an open border from Biden. And nobody can do that. Not one Republican would ever do that. My understanding is if those health care subsidies are not extended, premiums will double for many of the people that are on it. And I was looking into it, threearters of these people will see their healthcare premiums double. Live in states where you won in the last election. I mean, even here in Florida has the highest number of residents on Obamacare in the country. And I’m saying we can fix it. Nora, you have helped end these government shutdowns in the past when they came about. And you did it by bringing very good at it. going to do it by I’m not going to do it by extortion. I’m not going to do it by being extorted by the Democrats who have lost their way. There’s something wrong with these people. So then what happens on November 18th when the troops don’t get a pay Schumer is a basket case and he has nothing to lose. He’s become I just left Japan. He’s become a kamicazi pilot. Sounds like it’s not going to get solved. The shutdown. It’s going to get solved. Yeah. Oh, it’s going to get solved. How? We’ll get it solved eventually. They’re going to have to vote. You’re saying the Democrats will capitulate. I think they have to. And if they don’t vote, that’s their problem. Now, I happen to agree to something else. I think we should do the nuclear option. This is a totally different nuclear, by the way. It’s called ending the filibuster. But to do that, he’d need Senate Majority Leader John Thun to change Senate rules. Did you see John Thun said today? They’re not John doesn’t. Well, John and a few other But you know what? The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want. We’re not going to lose power. The theory is, oh, then we’ll do it, but then when they get into power someday, they’ll do it. That’s true. But you know what? So, you think, we’re here right now. No, I like John Th. I think he’s terrific, but I disagree with him on this point. He said today he wasn’t going to do it. Well, that’s too bad. So far, the shutdown hasn’t spooked the stock market, which hit record highs this past week. Perfect timing for your show. just hit an all-time high. We’re doing really well. Can I ask you, Mr. President, on that point, though? When the stock market is doing well, that doesn’t affect everybody. Not everybody’s invested in the stock market, but there have been grocery prices, 401ks, people of 401ks, their 401ks are double what they were a year ago. But for people that don’t have 401ks or are not invested in the stock market, they’ve seen their grocery prices go up. Inflation, no, you’re wrong. They went up under Biden. Right now, they’re going down. Other than beef, which we’re working on, which we can sell very quickly on the economy, the signature part of your economic plan is tariffs. The Supreme Court is going to hear arguments this week on whether you have the authority to impose these sweeping tariffs without congressional approval. The lower courts have ruled against you. That’s why it’s in the Supreme Court right now. Very close rulings. Yeah. What happens to your economic plan if the Supreme Court invalidates your tariffs? I think our country will be immeasurably hurt. I think our economy will go to hell. Look, because of tariffs, we have the highest stock market we’ve ever had. Because of tariffs, 401ks at the highest level that and this is millions and millions of people that we’ve ever had. 401ks. I think it’s the most important subject discussed by the Supreme Court in a hundred years. I know your time is limited, so I do want to make sure I get through more of these topics. Immigration. You campaigned on immigration. You largely won the election on a promise to close the border and you succeeded on that. Illegal crossings at the southern border are at a 55year low. More recently, Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far? No, I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama. You’re okay with those tactics? Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Well, you promised in your campaign that you were going to deport the worst of the worst, violent criminals, rapists. Well, that’s what we’re doing. A lot of the people that your administration has arrested and deported aren’t violent criminals. Landscapers, nannies, construction workers, landscapers who are criminals. No, look, look, the family of you landscapers and I need farmers more than anybody. Okay. Is it your intent to deport people who do not have a criminal record? Uh, we have to start off with a policy and the policy has to be you came into the country illegally, you’re going to go out. However, you’ve also seen you’re going to go out, we’re going to work with you, and you’re going to come back into our country legally. When will you declare mission accomplished on immigration? Well, it takes a long time because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country, a lot of people say it was 10 million people, but whether it was 10 or I believe I’m much closer to the right number. Of the 25, many of them should not be here. But we’re cleaning up our cities. You know, I campaigned on crime, but I’ve done a much better job on crime than I thought. You know, the crime numbers are way down, even though we’ve have a lot more people in our country that really shouldn’t be here, and many of them are stone cold, hard criminals. The president has ordered the National Guard to five cities, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Portland, Chicago, and Memphis. This past Tuesday while speaking to American troops in Japan, you talked about US cities. They’re having trouble with crime. And you said, “If we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard.” What does that mean, send more than the National Guard? Well, if you had to send in the Army or if you had to send in the Marines, I’d do that in a heartbeat. You know, you have a thing called the Insurrection Act. You know that, right? Do you know that I could use that immediately and no judge can even challenge you on that, but I haven’t chosen to do it because I haven’t felt we need it. So, you’re going to send the military into American cities. Well, if I wanted to, I could. If I wanted to use the Insurrection Act, the Insurrection Act has been used routinely by presidents, and if I needed it, that would mean I could bring in the Army, the Marines. I could bring in whoever I want, but I haven’t chosen to use it. I hope you give me credit for that. I want to ask you about another matter. James Comey, John Bolton, Leticia James were all recently indicted. There’s a pattern to these names. They’re all public figures who have publicly denounced you. Is it political retribution? You know what? You know who got indicted? The man you’re looking at. I got indicted and I was innocent and here I am because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me. And yet when you go after a dirty cop like Comey or a guy like Bolton who I hear has I don’t know anything about it. I hear he took records all over the place. Who knows? Leticia James is a terrible dishonest person in my opinion. Did you instruct the Department of Justice to go after and not in any way, shape or form? No, you don’t have to instruct them because they were so dirty. They were so crooked. They were so corrupt that the honest people we have Pam Bondi is doing a very good job. Cash Patel is doing a very good job. the honest people that we have go after them automatically. But in a true social post from September addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Trump endorsed the idea that former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James were quote guilty as hell and wrote quote justice must be served now. 5 days later, James Comey was indicted. He plead not guilty and so did Leticia James and President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. Is this retribution on your part? It’s the opposite. I think I’ve been very mildmannered. You’re looking at a man who was indicted many times and I had to beat the rap. Otherwise, I couldn’t have run for president. They tried to get me not to run for president by going after me and by indicting me. So far this year, the president has pardoned or shortened the sentences of more than 1,600 people. The latest pardon was for a cryptocurrency tycoon who is known as CZ. The company CZ founded, Binance, helped boost the profile of the Trump family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial. He plead guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws. Right. The government at the time said that CZ had caused significant harm to US national security essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him? Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a fourmon sentence or something like that and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. In 2025, his crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financials stable coin and then you pardoned CZ. How do you address the appearance of pay for play? Well, here’s the thing. I know nothing about it because I’m too busy doing the other. I can only tell you that. No, I can only tell you this. Um, my sons are into it. I’m glad they are because it’s probably a great industry. crypto. I think it’s good. You know, they’re running a business. They’re not in government. World Liberty Financial has denied any involvement in the pardon. With state and local elections coming up Tuesday, we asked the president about the highly anticipated mayoral race that includes former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Zoron Mandani. Zorhan Mandami, 34year-old Democratic socialist. He’s the communist, not socialist. Communist. He’s far he’s far worse than a socialist. Some people have compared him to a left-wing version of you. Charismatic, breaking the old rules. What do you think about that? Well, I think I’m a much better looking person than him. Right. What if Mandami becomes mayor? It’s going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Uh because if you have a communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there. So, I don’t know that he’s won. And I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it’s going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m going to pick the bad Democrat all the time to be honest with you. When we return, the surprise announcement President Trump made about testing nuclear weapons. When we sat down with President Trump on Friday at Mara Lago, he had just returned from a high stakes meeting with China’s President Xiinping, which culminated with a temporary truce in the trade war between the two countries. But before the meeting even began, Mr. Trump made news, as he often does with a social media post. The story will continue in a moment. Less than an hour before your meeting with President Xi, you posted on social media that you instructed the quote department of war to start testing our nuclear weapons, right? Immediately. What did you mean? Well, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country. And I think we should do something about denuclearization. And I did actually discuss that with both President Putin and President Xi. We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Uh Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit. But why do we need to test our nuclear weapons? Well, because you have to see how they work. You know, you do have to. And the reason I’m saying uh testing is because Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. Uh if you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test. And I want to be I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test. Are you saying that after more than 30 years, the United States is going to start detonating nuclear weapons? I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do. Yes. But the only country that’s testing nuclear weapons is North Korea. China No, no. Russia’s testing nuclear weapons. My understanding and China’s testing them too. You just don’t know about it. That would be certainly very newsworthy. My understanding is what Russia did recently was test essentially the uh delivery systems for nuclear weapons essentially missiles which we can do that but what not with nuclear weapons Russia’s testing and China’s testing but they don’t talk about it you know we’re a open society we’re different we talk about it we have to talk about it because otherwise you people are going to report they don’t have reporters that going to be writing about it uh we do however this week the president’s own nominee to lead Stratcom the admiral who would in charge of nuclear weapons was asked about this very issue on Capitol Hill. He said neither China nor Russia were conducting nuclear explosive tests. One potential flash point with China and probably the potential flash point with China in the coming years is over the issue of Taiwan. The Chinese military is encroaching on Taiwan’s sealanes, its airspace, its cyerspace. I know you have said that Xiinping wouldn’t dare move militarily on Taiwan while you’re in office, but what if he does? Would you order US forces to defend Taiwan? You’ll find out if it happens. And he understands the answer to that. Uh why not say? This never even came up yesterday as a subject. He never brought it up. Uh people were a little surprised at that. He never brought it up because he understands it and he understands it very well. Do you mind if I ask when you say he understands? Why not communicate that publicly to the rest of us? What does he understand? I don’t want to give away I can’t give away my secrets. I don’t want to be one of these guys that tells you exactly what’s going to happen if something happens. The other side knows, but uh I’m not somebody that tells you everything because you’re asking me a question, but they understand what’s going to happen. And uh he has openly said and his people have openly said at meetings, we would never do anything while President Trump is president because they know the consequences. At the top of the agenda for President Trump and President Xi was a one-year trade deal that for now averts the escalating tension between the two economic superpowers. We’ve already agreed to a lot of things. Mr. Trump told us that in exchange for lower tariffs, China agreed to sell the US its valuable rare earth minerals and to resume buying American agricultural products. This trade war though was hurting Americans. I mean, our soybean farmers, China had stopped buying the soybeans. China was withholding these rare earth materials that you need for everything from smartphones to build submarines. What was the crucial thing? I mean, how tough of a negotiator? It was a temporary hurt. It was a hurt because uh I was taking in a lot of money from China. We were doing very well against China. And all of a sudden, they said, you know, we have to fight back. And so, they use their powers. The power they have is rare earth because of the fact that they’ve been accumulating it and and really taking care of it for a period of 25 30 years. Other countries haven’t. They use that against us and we used other things against them. For instance, airplane parts. That’s a big deal. They have uh hundreds of Boeing airplanes. We wouldn’t give them parts. Uh we were both acting uh maybe a little bit irrationally, but the big thing we had was tariffs ultimately. I said, “Look, if you don’t open up, then what we’re going to do is we’re going to impose a 100% tariff over and above what you’re already paying.” Mr. President, you just negotiated this one-year trade deal with China. But, as you know, the Chinese, they think in a hundred years. They play the long game, including on our own soil. We play the long game, too. Our own intelligence agencies say the Chinese have infiltrated parts of the American power grid and their water systems. They steal American intellectual property and Americans personal information. They bought American farmland. How big of a threat is China? It’s like everybody else. We’re a threat to them, too. Many of the things that you say, we do to them. Look, this is a very competitive world, especially when it comes to China and the US. And u we’re always watching them and they’re always watching us. In the meantime, I think we get along very well. And I think it’s uh I think we can be bigger, better, and stronger by working with them as opposed to just uh knocking them out. Who’s tougher to deal with, Vladimir Putin or Xihinping? Both tough, both smart, both uh look, they’re both very strong leaders. These are people not to be toyed with. These are people you have to take very serious. They’re not they’re not walking in saying, “Oh, isn’t it a beautiful day? Look how beautiful the sun is shining. It’s so nice.” These are serious people. These are people that are tough, smart leaders. And on that note, you talk about Ukraine in August. I mean, you rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska, but there’s been Well, I rolled out the red carpet for everybody, but but there’s been no ceasefire. No. Because he thinks because I inherited a country where he thinks he’s winning. That was a war that would have never happened if I was president. So why won’t this war? But Nora, that was Joe Biden’s war, not my war. I inherited that stupid war. As the bloodiest land war in Europe since World War II continues, but I brought I mean, just a little list of of of look at this wars. President Trump wanted to make sure we saw the list of eight international conflicts he says he’s been able to end since returning to office. And you have branded yourself the peace president. Well, I think I did pretty good. I I solved those are eight of the nine wars I solved. You know how I solved them? I said in many cases in 60% I said if you don’t stop fighting I’m putting tariffs on both of your countries and you’re not going to be able to do business with the United States. Why isn’t that working with Putin? Uh it is working with Putin. I think I did different with him because we don’t do very much business with Russia for one thing. You know, it’s he’s not like somebody that buys a lot from us because of foolishness. And I think he’d like to be. I think he wants to come in and he wants to trade with us and he wants to make a lot of money for Russia. And I think that’s great. The commanderin-chief has directed the US military to destroy at least nine vessels in the waters off Venezuela, killing more than three dozen alleged drug smugglers. US lawmakers, including at least four Republicans, have questioned the strike’s legality. In the meantime, F-35 fighter jets, roughly 10,000 US service members, and multiple warships are in the Caribbean. And now the USS Gerald Ford, that is the world’s largest aircraft carrier on the way to the Caribbean. Are we going to war against Venezuela? I doubt it. I don’t think so. But they’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs. Uh they’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country that we didn’t want. people from prisons. They emptied their prisons into our company country. They also uh if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylism into the United States of America because Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. But I just want to talk about the scale of the military operation around Venezuela because it has been described as 60 Minutes as using a blowtorrch to cook an egg. Is this about stopping? I don’t think so. Look, is it about Let me ask you though, is it about stopping narcotics or is this about getting rid of President Maduro? No, this is about many things. This is a country that allowed their prisons to be emptied into our country. To me, that would be almost number one because we have other countries. Mexico has been very bad to us in terms of drugs. Okay? Very bad. We have a closed border right now. You probably noticed that for five months in a row, they have zero, think of this, zero people coming into our country through our southern border. On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro’s days as president numbered? I would say yeah, I think so. Yeah. And this issue of potential land strikes in Venezuela. Is that true? I don’t tell you that. I mean, uh, I’m not saying it’s true or untrue, but I, you know, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be inclined to say that I would do that, but because I don’t talk to a reporter about whether or not I’m going to strike. Let’s talk about Israel. You got the remaining Israeli hostages out of Gaza. You arranged a ceasefire, however fragile that may be. Those are not fragile. It’s a very solid. You know, I mean, you hear about Hamas, but Hamas could be taken out immediately if they don’t behave. They know that if they don’t behave, they’re going to be taken out immediately. How do you get Hamas to disarm? Uh, if I want them to disarm, I’ll get them disarmed very quickly. They’ll be uh they’ll be eliminated. They know that. Don’t forget, you said I got the remaining hostages. I got all the hostages out, but I always said the last 10 or 20 are going to be tough. You pushed the Israeli prime minister to make this deal, to get a ceasefire, to apologize to Qatar. Can you push BB Netanyahu to recognize a Palestinian state? Yeah, he’s uh he’s fine. He’s fine. Look, he’s a wartime prime minister. I worked very well with him. Yeah, I mean, I had to push him a little bit one way or the other. I think I I did a great job in pushing. He’s a very talented guy. He’s a guy that uh has never been pushed before, actually. That’s the kind of person you needed in Israel at the time. It was very important. Uh I don’t think they treat him very well. He’s under trial for some things and I don’t think they treat him very well. I think it should, you know, we’ll we’ll be involved in that to help him out a little bit because I think it’s very unfair. Um I did I pushed him. I didn’t like certain things that he did and you saw what I did about that. Uh I also stopped, you know, I we knocked the hell out of Iran and then it was time to stop and we stopped. President Trump told us he expects to expand the Abraham Accords, the historic agreement struck during Mr. Trump’s first term. that normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states. I wanted to ask you about the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is coming to the White House this month. He has said they won’t join the Abraham Accords without a two-state solution. Do you believe that? No, I think he’s going to join. I think we will have a solution. I don’t know if it’s going to be two-state. That’s going to be up to Israel and other people and me. But uh look, the main thing is you could have never had any kind of a deal if you had a nuclear Iran. And you essentially had a nuclear Iran and I blasted the hell out of them and no president. Are you convinced they have no nuclear capability right now? Do you want to know? Do you want to know? They have no nuclear capability now. Do you want to know that uh the pilots I invited them to the White House because they were very brave? I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. you know, get in a plane and they know you’re coming and you’re going right into Iran airspace and, you know, they’re very experts and you’re flying in with machines. Personally, I can think of other things I’d rather do. These guys are very brave people. I mean, they’re real American heroes. And they told me something I didn’t know. They said, “Sir, for 22 years, we’ve been practicing this round. Three times a year, every year for 22 years, and you were the only president that let us do our job.” As our time with the president was winding down, we asked him whether he’ll try to stay in his job beyond 2028. There’s been a lot of talk about 2028 and who will be at the top of the Republican ticket. Can you set the record straight? You’re not going to try and run for a third term? Well, I don’t even think about it. I will tell you a lot of people want me to run, but the difference between us and the Democrats is we really do have a strong bench. I don’t want to use names because it’s, you know, inappropriate, but it’s too early. People do like when you start talking about whether you like JD Vance or Secretary. I do like JD Vance. I like Marco Rubio. I like I like so many. We have an unbelievable bench. Mr. President, can I also ask you, we’re now at the end of your first year? Yeah. Of this second term. What do you hope to accomplish in the next three years? Well, I hope I can have the same year that we had. Look, we have been acknowledged to have the greatest nine months. You know, it’s nine months. the greatest nine months in the history of the presidency. So, if I can keep that going, I’ll be very happy. Nice to see you. More from our interview with President Trump and watch the extended interview and read the full transcript at 60 minutesovertime.com.

Watch as President Trump discusses testing nuclear weapons, U.S.-China relations, Israel, the government shutdown, immigration, tariffs, and whether he’ll try to stay in the White House beyond 2028.

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