President Donald Trump’s combative exchange about corruption allegations at the end of his 60 Minutes interview never made it to viewers’ screens, despite CBS releasing what it claimed was the full unedited version of the sit-down. The network aired a 28-minute segment on Sunday, November 2, 2025, then posted a 73-minute “extended cut” online — but both versions omitted Trump’s heated response when pressed about pardoning a crypto billionaire linked to his family’s business dealings.
The interview, conducted at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, featured correspondent Norah O’Donnell questioning Trump about his pardon of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder of crypto exchange Binance, who was released from jail in September after pleading guilty to money-laundering violations. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zhao had previously struck a $2 billion deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture.
According to the full transcript posted on the 60 Minutes Overtime site, O’Donnell asked Trump at the end of the interview whether she could pose two more questions. Trump responded that doing so might mean they would treat him more fairly, then added he hoped these would not be questions he did not want to answer.
When O’Donnell pressed Trump on whether he was concerned about the appearance of corruption in pardoning Zhao given the crypto executive’s financial ties to his family, Trump became visibly annoyed. “I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question,” Trump said, according to the CBS transcript.
The president continued his response, indicating he did not mind answering the question and could have walked away. Rather than directly addressing the corruption concerns, Trump pivoted to promoting cryptocurrency policy, declaring that America has become the number one nation in crypto because of his presidency. He emphasized that he did not want China or other countries to take that position away, calling it a massive industry.
The White House’s RapidResponse 47 social media account shared what it labeled the “FULL” Trump interview without network edits and cuts. However, an editor’s note on 60 Minutes’ YouTube upload acknowledged the extended interview was “condensed for clarity.” Neither version contained the full tense exchange over crypto corruption that appeared in the official transcript.
CBS also honored Trump’s request to cut a section where he boasted about the settlement payment their parent company made to him earlier this year. “And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you,” Trump said during the interview, referencing the $16 million settlement Paramount Global paid him in July.
That settlement resolved Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit claiming CBS had deceptively edited a Kamala Harris interview to favor Democrats ahead of the 2024 election. The case was settled before Paramount needed Federal Communications Commission approval for their $8 billion merger with media company Skydance. As part of the agreement, 60 Minutes committed to releasing transcripts of interviews with eligible presidential candidates after such interviews air, subject to redactions for legal or national security concerns.
The interview also drew criticism from Trump supporters for a different reason entirely. Some social media users expressed outrage that O’Donnell repeatedly referred to Trump as “Mr. Trump” rather than “President Trump” throughout the broadcast. One user on social media theorized the choice was deliberate, writing that the narrator said “MR Trump not President Trump” at least twice during the interview, adding “This is not by accident.”
However, the practice of using a president’s last name on second reference is standard journalism protocol. NPR published an article during President Barack Obama’s first term explaining that it has used the “Mr.” honorific since the mid-1970s when President Gerald Ford was in office, and that the president is the only person NPR routinely refers to with the honorific on second reference.
Beyond the editing controversy, CNN’s fact-check identified at least 18 false claims Trump made during the 60 Minutes interview. These included his repeated assertion that grocery prices are declining when Consumer Price Index figures show they have increased since January 2025, and his claim that inflation is at 2% or less when the September rate stood at approximately 3%.
The White House issued a statement Monday calling Trump’s appearance a “powerhouse interview” that highlighted what it described as the most accomplished nine months of any presidency in history. A voiceover from O’Donnell noted in the aired broadcast that World Liberty Financial has denied any involvement in the pardon decision. The 60 Minutes interview averaged just over 8.5 million linear television viewers per show last season.
