After a controversial interview on 60 Minutes, Donald Trump compared senior CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell to “any woman off the street”.
The incident took place during an interview with the president on the Salem News Channel last Monday (4), when Trump criticized O’Donnell for reading to him the manifesto of Cole Thomas Allen, the suspect in the attempted assassination of him during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2026.
“She is terrible. I mean, she has interviewed me before. She is an ordinary person who gets paid a lot of money. She is no different. I could take any woman off the street, practically, and they would do as good a job as she does. There is nothing special,” Trump told host Hugh Hewitt.
When asked whether he had considered walking out of the interview, he replied: “No, because then you actually make it a bigger story.”
Interview on 60 Minutes
Trump sat down for an extensive interview with 60 Minutes days after the shooting that took place during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. On that occasion, the president was visibly unhappy when O’Donnell read Allen’s manifesto to him.
Shortly after apologizing to his family and friends, Allen mentioned that he was no longer “willing to allow a pedophile, rapist and traitor to cover my hands with his crimes”. O’Donnell cited that passage to Trump, who became visibly furious.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would read it, because you are horrible people. He wrote that. I am not a rapist, I did not rape anyone,” Trump snapped, before O’Donnell emphasized that Allen had not mentioned the president’s name in that passage.
“Excuse me. I am not a pedophile. You read that garbage from a sick person. I get associated with things that have nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
“Your friends on the other side of the aisle are the ones who were involved with, let’s say, Epstein, or other things. But I said to myself, you know: ‘I am going to do this interview’. I read the manifesto, you know. He is a sick person. But you should be ashamed of reading that, because I am none of those things,” the American president added.
O’Donnell then explained to Trump that she was quoting the alleged shooter, not applying those labels to him personally. Even so, Trump did not hold back his criticism of her: “You should not be reading that on 60 Minutes. You are a disgrace, but let’s go ahead and finish the interview… you are disgraceful.”
Trump:
I am not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.
I am not a pedophile. pic.twitter.com/Dz1XfxNLP4
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 26, 2026
Photo and video: X @clashreport / @60Minutes. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
