An unedited version of President Donald Trump's recent 60 Minutes interview about the fallout of the midterms reveals answers that come across as considerably less "sane" than what aired, according to a new report from The New Republic.

The interview on the newly MAGA-friendly CBS had already drawn alarm and mockery as it was broadcast, with the president delivering several unflattering answers — including a suggestion that people complaining about his economy should have invested in the stock market, and a remark that he would rather go to Hell than offer his enemies forgiveness. As it turns out, however, the segment was heavily edited, apparently in an effort to sane-wash Trump's responses to conservative interviewer and New York Times Opinion columnist Ross Douthat.

An unedited portion of the segment was first circulated online by Juliet Jeske, founder of Decoding Fox News, featuring portions of the footage that did not air on CBS, presented in black-and-white. As The New Republic explained in its report on the footage, an exchange about the Ukraine war appears to have been edited to excise "false claims or total fabrications." Because those unaired portions diverge so sharply from the broadcast version, the footage offers a direct side-by-side look at how editorial judgments shape what viewers ultimately see.

When Douthat pressed Trump on what the "biggest obstacle to peace" was, the broadcast version of the interview showed the president saying, "It was the hatred between [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

But as Jeske's post exposed, "much more was left on the cutting room floor."

"I believe that we're very close to making a deal," Trump said. "And I think it — two things, if I were president, because as you know, well you're not going to admit it, it was rigged. That's why I did it a third time. If I was president that war would have never started."

Elsewhere in the interview, the program appeared to cut responses in which Trump tried "to puff himself up as tough on Russia and soft on Ukraine."

"Look what I did to them as an example. I gave them the anti-tank busters, right?" the president said. "I've given them, in fact there's an old statement, that [Barack] Obama gave them sheets, and I gave them anti-tank busters, okay? That's what I gave them."

"But now it's Europe supplying weapons, not us?" Douthat asked.

"No, it's us. We're supplying the weapons, Europe is paying for them," Trump responded. "Here's the difference: [Joe] Biden gave them $350 billion worth of cash and weapons. I gave them nothing."

The New Republic report noted that there is a "deep irony" in Trump's interview being edited in this way, given that he previously sued CBS, alleging that a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, had been "selectively edited" in a manner that amounted to "election interference." Paramount Global ultimately opted to settle the suit for $16 million, despite editing of this kind being commonplace for news programs. The settlement, reached in July 2025, was criticized by press-freedom advocates and came weeks before Paramount Global completed its merger with Skydance Media, a transition that placed the network under new ownership. Whether CBS addresses the discrepancies between the broadcast and unaired footage — or whether more of the full recording emerges — remains to be seen.

CBS heavily edited Trump's interview on 60 Minutes. The black and white clips did not appear in Sunday night's broadcast. The network removed sections where Trump made false claims and fabrications. This is part of his explanation about the war in Ukraine.
— Decoding Fox News (@DecodingFoxNews) November 9, 2026

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