Trump's CBS 60 Minute Interview - The Cutting Room Floor

This past Sunday CBS aired an interview with President Donald J. Trump on 60 Minutes. The condensed edit that aired during the news program was only 28 minutes long with some additional material available on “60 Minutes Overtime.”

The network also published a transcript of the full-length un-edited interview which was 78 minutes long.

This is what was left over in the full length transcript after I reconstructed how producers shaped the interview.

These segments are in the order they appeared in the transcript. I couldn’t include them easily in the other version as the edit that aired on television included sections that were not sequential.

Each fragment of the interview is labeled by subject.

President Xi

TRUMP: Well, first of all, we get along great, and we always really have. We had the COVID moment, which was not-- attractive as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t so happy. But outside of that, we have always had a great relationship. He’s a powerful man. He’s a strong man, a very powerful leader. And-- we’ve always-- had the best of relationships, probably the best of-- I could-- I think I could speak for him, just about as good as it gets from his standpoint and from my standpoint. And having that is important because of the power of the two countries.

O’DONNELL: What did you get out of this deal that you wanted?

TRUMP: Well, I got sort of everything that we wanted. We got-- no rare earth threat. That’s gone, completely gone. We have tremendous amounts of-- dollars pouring in-- ‘cause we have-- very big tariffs, almost 50%. We never had anything in terms of tariffs, although I put tariffs on China, but Biden let it lapsed by the-- by the fact that he gave exemptions on almost everything, which was just ridiculous.

The video player is currently playing an ad.But-- we have-- billions and billions of dollars coming in, and we have a very good relationship. I mean, we have-- a great relationship with a powerful country. And I’ve always felt if we can make deals that are good, it’s better to get along with China than not, if you can’t make the right kind of a deal than not, because, you know, China, along with many other countries (they’re not alone in this), they’ve ripped us off from day one.

They’ve ripped us so much. They’ve taken trillions of dollars out of our country. And now they’re-- it’s the opposite. I mean, we’re doing very well with China, and hopefully they’re gonna do very well with us. But I do think it’s important that China and the U.S. get along, and we get along very well at the top.

Immigration

TRUMP: --people are allowed to come into our country, but they have to come in legally.

O’DONNELL: I do want to talk about immigration and some other-

TRUMP: Sure.

O’DONNELL: --domestic issues. But just-- if we could stay on China for just a moment--

TRUMP: Sure.

Trump the Peace Maker

TRUMP: Before the ninth month I stopped eight wars. The only one I haven’t been successful yet in, and-- and that’ll happen, is Russia Ukraine, which I thought actually would be the easiest one because I have a very good relationship with President Putin. But-- we are respected again as a country, and that’s the way I’ve been able to stop the wars. I also stopped them because of trade.

Trump Tariffs

O’DONNELL: Except there’s a bathroom on Air Force One--

TRUMP: --but they were sitting in one seat. I was-- I was able to walk around a little bit. But yeah, they said 42 hours. I’ve been in the air for 42 hours over a few days-- and that was fine, because we took in trillions of dollars into our country. And we also-- you know what’s interesting, Japan took tremendous advantage of us over the years. You know, they sold cars to us, we couldn’t sell cars to them. They made a fortune, we didn’t make anything, we lost money. But it’s the exact opposite now.

But you know what? They like us more now than they used to because they respect us now. They didn’t used to respect us, and they have great respect for us, all of ‘em. Every country has-- including China. China now has great respect for us. They didn’t have respect for us when they had Biden and when they had Obama. Obama was a terrible president. Nobody wants to talk about it because they wanna be politically correct. I don’t care. He was a terrible president. Our country was-- it really started a very bad downward spiral. Then I stopped it, then we had a rigged election, and then-- what-- what Biden did to our country should never, ever be forgotten.

O’DONNELL: We’re still on-- on foreign policy, so I just have another question--

TRUMP: No, I’m with-- I’m on all policy.

O’DONNELL: I know you are--

TRUMP: I’m not talking about foreign-- no, no. I’m talking about everything.

O’DONNELL: Well, I just wanna--

TRUMP: I’m talking about economy, I’m talking about everything—

Government Shutdown

O’DONNELL: Is there something you can do, though--

TRUMP: Maybe it did.

O’DONNELL: Is there something you can do--

TRUMP: All I can do--

O’DONNELL: --to bring this to an end?

TRUMP: --is give the facts. Here’s what I can’t do. I can’t give them $1.5 trillion so that they can give welfare to people that came into our country illegally. So that prisoners, and that people from mental institutions, and people that are drug dealers get vast amounts of money for healthcare. That I can’t do--

TRUMP: If we fix it it’ll be-- one of the greatest achievements. But--

O’DONNELL: But if ending the government shutdown--

TRUMP: --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--

O’DONNELL: So your plan--

TRUMP: All they have to do is raise five hands. We don’t need all of ‘’em.

A Democrat Congressman Who Fought For Transgender Athletes?

O’DONNELL: Can I ask you about--

TRUMP: --the good thing is, from our standpoint, from the standpoint of winning is, they have the worst policy of-- it’s hard to believe. Think of it. Open borders, men playing in women’s sports, transgender for everybody. I mean, I could go point-- these are not 80:20--

O’DONNELL: Can I ask you about the economy--

TRUMP: --these are 99:1 issues. And they don’t change. I just watched this morning a show where--

O’DONNELL: Mr. President, can I ask you about the-- the economy--

TRUMP: Yeah, just-- just one thing. I watched a show this morning where a very well-known Democrat Congressman was fighting like hell for men playing in women’s sports. They don’t change it--

O’DONNELL: Who was that?

TRUMP: I don’t want to tell. You’ll be able to check it. Just check your local TV.

Political Violence

O’DONNELL: And I know my time is-- is limited with you so I want to be respectful of-- of you, Mr. President. The issue of political violence I want to get to, because you were nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania. Charlie Kirk.

TRUMP: Yup.

O’DONNELL: Was assassinated. Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro’s house was firebombed.

TRUMP: Uh-huh.

O’DONNELL: Minnesota lawmaker murdered. What’s your message to those on the left and the right who would seek to commit acts of violence?

TRUMP: Well, I think primarily on the left. A little bit of both, but I think primarily on the left. I think they have to tone it down. I think they have to approve the shutdown so it’s not shut down. I think it’s very bad what they’re doing. They’re hurting people. You know, if you think about it, if people aren’t gonna get paid, there’re gonna be, you know, a lot of angry people out there. They want to get their food. They want to get the money so they can live. In some cases-- whatever they want to get, they want to get.

I think by the Democrats not giving us the votes, I think it’s-- I think it endangers both parties. I think it’s very bad. There’s never been a case like this. This is, you know, this is fairly standard stuff. You do auto-- extensions are almost automatic. In fact, they were virtually automatic. This is the only time they don’t want to do the extension, because they’re losing so badly that they said, “Maybe we have some leverage.” One of the Senators said that. “Maybe this is the first time we have some leverage.”

O’DONNELL: I wonder if we’re--

TRUMP: But they really don’t have leverage, because--

O’DONNELL: I wonder if we’re at a breaking point?

TRUMP: --the Republicans can’t be extorted in order to ruin our country.

O’DONNELL: Do you feel like we’re at a breaking point? Given everything that you--

TRUMP: No.

O’DONNELL: --just said?

TRUMP: No. It’s been much worse.

O’DONNELL: Because you--

TRUMP: I mean, over-- over history?

O’DONNELL: Well.

TRUMP: It’s been much worse.

O’DONNELL: Sure, but the political violence that, you know, we just outlined. The number of-- of members of people in public that have been targeted--

TRUMP: Well, that’s-- that’s a different question. Yeah, I think--

O’DONNELL: --that have been targeted. And then I just read that there’s now a number of your cabinet secretaries and aides who are now living on military bases.

TRUMP: Yeah. Usually when people talk they’re not the problem. It’s the ones that don’t talk, in terms of that. But-- yeah, I-- I think it’s-- it’s a lot of the rhetoric. Look, they call me a Nazi all the time. I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite. I’m somebody that’s saving our country. But they call me Nazi. They have talking points, you know? They have just talking points. And the press is-- is largely responsible for it. The fake news, what they’ve done-- I think one of the greatest terms I’ve ever come up with is fake news.

What they’ve done to our country is very bad. They have to change around. Now, nobody believes the fake news. Nobody believes ‘em. I mean, they’ve gone, you talk about popularity, you talk about approval, their approval numbers have gone f-- from, like, in the 90s to in the teens now. We need borders. We need fair votes. And you really need a fair press. If you-- and you do, you have some great journalists and great reporters. But you have some terrible, terrible, dishonest journalists. And I see it all the time, because I’ll give ‘em a story and they’ll have it.

Even my trip with China, it was so successful. But of all, the Wall Street Journal, they said, Trump Lowers Tariffs. That was the headline. Trump Lowers Tariffs. That wasn’t what happened. I lowered tariff-- tariffs in order to get everything that anybody could possibly dream of. The point wasn’t lowering tariffs. I put up a high number, I cut it, and I got everything. And yet the headline in the Wall Street Journal, beautiful picture of myself and President Xi, everything nice. But the headline was Trump Lowers Tariffs.

That wasn’t the story. The story was Trump got everything, got everything. Including world peace. We’re respected as a country. We’re not threatened right now. And we’re not gonna be threatened. As long as we have a strong, smart president, we’re never gonna be threatened by anybody.

CBS

O’DONNELL: Mr. President--

TRUMP: --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 it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.

Cost of Living

O’DONNELL: And for those that are suffering with cost of living increases and saying they’re living paycheck to paycheck--

TRUMP: Well, I’d be very upset with--

O’DONNELL: Prices are up

TRUMP: --Biden. Because we don’t have any of those problems. We-- we don’t have inflation. You know, essentially we don’t have inflation. We-- I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. We don’t have infl-- we’re down to 2%, even less than 2%. A couple of items like beef I’m getting down. But our groceries are down--

O’DONNELL: Healthcare-- healthcare premiums?

TRUMP: I can fix healthcare, give them better healthcare for less money. Obamacare is-- is hurting people. Obamacare was a disaster from day one. I can fix it and make it good. I’d really rather start with a fresh plate, but if it’s-- if it’s required to keep it, we can make it much better. But it’s bad healthcare, and they’re gonna get big increases, and that has nothing to do with me. That has to do with the fact that it was originally put into play. It’s a shame. But we can make it better. Energy is way down. You know, you’re gonna have $2 gasoline very soon.

Nobody could believe it. You were at $4, $5, $6, and even $7. Look at the cost of gasoline in California. What it was, I brought it down. The problem is when I bring it down here in California they put more tax. They-- they tax the gasoline to such an extent. No, we’re in great shape. This country is in great shape. We’re ready to really rock. As I say often--

O’DONNELL: Are you-- are you--

TRUMP: --we were a dead country. We were a dead country one year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Leaders have said that to me. Just recently they said that to me. Even President Xi, he said, “I’d like you-- you to be congratulated.” He said it so beautifully. “I’d like you to be congratulated on the incredible job you did in bringing back the United States of America.” President Xi said that to me.

O’DONNELL: I know we’re out of time, but just on that matter, we talked about that-- because I know how closely you follow the stock market. Do you worry about an AI bubble?

TRUMP: I guess. I worry about everything, you know? I mean, you know, I’m a worrier. I worry. But you know what I do? I worry and then I fix it. I fix it. That way I don’t have to worry.

O’DONNELL: There’s a lotta money behind AI--

TRUMP: Well, there’s a lotta money. And right now I’m taking advantage of it, because we’re leading AI. You know, we’re leading it by a lot. China’s in second place, but we’re leading it by a lot. We have the greatest minds of any country anywhere in the world, and we’re using that. I’m using those great minds to help us. Now, will something happen later? I guess, you know, something. But it could also be something very good happens. And I hope it’s gonna be very good. But if it’s not so good, we’re protected. Our country is doing great. We’re strong. We’re solid. We’ve never been-- I think we haven’t been like this in-- maybe ever. Maybe ever. We have a great country, and you should be very proud of it.