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corruption
Bari Weiss' CBS News Spiked Interview Question on Trump Crypto ‘Corruption’
"According to the standard set by the Trump FCC, Trump's efforts to control the interview content "could qualify as news distortion and deserve an investigation," according to a spokesperson for the only Democratic FCC commissioner.
Nov 04, 2025
As its new right-wing leadership comes under scrutiny, CBS News was found to have edited out a section from the extended online version of Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview with President Donald Trump in which he was interrogated about potential "corruption" stemming from his family's extraordinary cryptocurrency profits during his second term.
In the first half of 2025, the Trump family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets, according to Reuters, and the volatile digital currencies now make up the majority of Trump's personal net worth. His administration, meanwhile, has sought to aggressively deregulate the assets, leading to allegations of self-dealing.
Near the end of his appearance on "60 Minutes," anchor Norah O'Donnell asked Trump about his decision last month to pardon Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's pardon came "following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company,” by helping to facilitate an Emirati fund's $2 billion purchase of a stablecoin owned by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family.
A clip of the extended interview, posted to CBS's website and YouTube channel, showed O'Donnell laying out the crimes for which Zhao was convicted. Trump responded: "I don't know who he is... I heard it was a Biden witch hunt."
"In 2025... Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin," O'Donnell continued. "And then you pardoned [Zhao]. How do you address the appearance of pay for play?"
Trump then reiterated: "My sons are into it... I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this. I know nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by government."
He was then shown launching into a lengthy defense of crypto, which he said was a "massive industry" that former President Joe Biden campaigned against, before going "all-in" on it at the very end of the election to win votes.
"I want to make crypto great for America," Trump was shown saying. "Right now, we're number one by a long shot. I wanna keep it that way. The same way we're number one with AI, we're number one with crypto. And I wanna keep it that way."
But a full transcript of the interview, later released on the CBS website, shows that the segment was heavily edited to omit much of Trump's response to O'Donnell's grilling. The version that appeared online did not include several instances in which he interrupted O'Donnell and pushed her to drop the line of questioning.
Rather than dropping the question after Trump's dodge, as the video posted online seemed to portray, O'Donnell persisted, asking Trump again: "So, not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?”
Trump delivered a hesitant response: "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—."
O'Donnell interjected: "And you answered," to which Trump replied: "I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I could’ve walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question.”
He then concluded the interview by reiterating that America is "number one in crypto" and that "it's a massive industry."
It was not the only portion of the interview that Trump suggested the network could drop. In another moment—which was included in the extended video, but did not make air—Trump bragged that "'60 Minutes' paid me a lotta money," referencing CBS's widely criticized decision to settle a $16 million lawsuit with Trump over its editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris as she ran for president in 2024.
"You don't have to put this on, because I don't wanna embarrass you, and I'm sure you're not—you have a great—I think you have a great, new leader," which likely referred to Bari Weiss, the "anti-woke" editor-in-chief installed by pro-Trump billionaire David Ellison after his purchase of CBS parent company Paramount.
As Deadline reported back in October, CBS Evening News was the only major news network program that did not mention Trump's pardon of Zhao at the time that it happened.
Jonathan Uriarte, the spokesperson for the only remaining Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wrote on social media that "according to the standard set by the Trump FCC, Trump's efforts to control the content of his 60 Minutes interview "could qualify as news distortion and deserve an investigation."
He was referencing FCC Chair Brendan Carr's claims that he could strip away the broadcast licenses of outlets for what he called "distorted" news coverage, which has in practice meant coverage critical of Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) chimed in as well, saying: "Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged '60 Minutes' interview. It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris."
But others did not let CBS off the hook.
"Insane this isn't a bigger story or scandal," said Mehdi Hasan, founder of the media company Zeteo. "Just amazing that CBS could do this after paying Trump millions to settle his frivolous lawsuit complaining that they... did exactly this."
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Report Details Massive Federal Contracts, Enforcement Actions Against Trump's Ballroom Donors
"These are not random donations," said Public Citizen. "It's a clear-as-day effort to kiss up to the Trump administration."
Nov 03, 2025
As President Donald Trump has embarked on the $300 million demolition of the East Wing of the White House—a project he insists has been "longed for" for more than a century—he has openly said that he and "some of [his] friends" are paying for the ballroom he is building.
But an analysis on Monday detailed just how "massive, inescapable, and irremediable" the donors' conflicts of interest are, as more than a dozen of the presidents' "friends" have major government contracts and are facing federal enforcement actions.
The White House has denied that corporate donors to Trump's ballroom construction project have any conflicts of interest, but Public Citizen found that 16 out of 24 publicly disclosed contributors—including three identified by CBS News but not by the White House—have government contracts.
The companies, including Amazon, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Palantir Technologies, have received $279 billion in government contracts over the last five years and nearly $43 billion in the last year. Lockheed is by far the biggest recipient, having received $191 billion in defense contracts over the last five years. The amount the companies have each donated to the ballroom construction has not been disclosed, but Lockheed spent more than $76 million in political donations from 2021-25.
The money the corporations have spent to build Trump's ballroom, said Public Citizen, "are not random donations. It's a clear-as-day effort to kiss up to the Trump administration."
Lockheed is among at least 14 ballroom contributors that are facing federal enforcement actions, including labor rights cases, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement, and antitrust actions.
The National Labor Relations Board has before it cases alleging unfair labor practices by Lockheed as well as Google and Amazon.
The big tech firm Nvidia, another donor, has previously been accused of entering into a "quid pro quo" arrangement with the White House when it said it would give 15% of its revenue from exports to China directly to the Trump administration. The company has spent more than $6 million on political donations since 2021 and more than $4 million on lobbying, and faces a Department of Justice antitrust investigation into whether it abused its market dominance in artificial intelligence computer chips.
While Trump has sought to portray the ballroom fundraising drive as one in which his wealthy "friends" have simply joined the effort to beautify a cherished public building, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman said the companies are not acting "out of a sense of civic pride."
"They have massive interests before the federal government and they undoubtedly hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment from, the Trump administration," said Weissman. "Millions to fund Trump’s architectural whims are nothing compared to the billions at stake in procurement, regulatory, and enforcement decisions."
In total, the 24 companies identified as ballroom donors spent more than $960 million in lobbying and political contributions in the last election cycle and $1.6 billion over the last five years.
Weissman said the companies' contributions to the president's pet project amount to corporate America "paying tribute" to the White House in order to stave off unfavorable labor rights and antitrust rulings, energy and financial regulations, and SEC actions and oversight, like an investigation into the cryptocurrency firm Gemini over alleged sales of unregistered securities.
"This is more than everyday corporate influence seeking. Paying tribute is a mark of authoritarianism and in making these payments, these corporations are aiding Trump’s authoritarian project," said Weissman. "They should withdraw their contributions.”
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With Food Aid Suspended for Millions of Families, Trump Brags of 'Statuary Marble' Bathroom Makeover
"He’s a psychopath, humanly incapable of caring about anyone or anything but himself," one critic said of Trump.
Oct 31, 2025
As millions of families across the US are about to lose their access to food aid over the weekend, President Donald Trump on Friday decided to show off photos of a White House bathroom that he boasted had been refurbished in "highly polished, statuary marble."
Trump posted photos of the bathroom on his Truth Social platform, and he explained that he decided to remodel it because he was dissatisfied with the "art deco green tile style" that had been implemented during a previous renovation, which he described as "totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era."
"I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble," Trump continued. "This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!"
Trump's critics were quick to pan the remodeled bathroom, especially since it came at a time when Americans are suffering from numerous policies the president and the Republican Party are enacting, including tariffs that are raising the cost of food and clothing; expiring subsidies for Americans who buy health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges; and cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) programs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
"Sure, you might not be able to eat or go to the doctor, but check out how nice Trump's new marble shitter is," remarked independent journalist Aaron Rupar on Bluesky.
Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who has become a critic of Trump, ripped the president for displaying such tone deafness in the middle of a federal government shutdown.
"Government still shutdown, Americans not getting paid, food assistance for low-income families and children about to be cut off, and this is what he cares about," he wrote on X. "He’s a psychopath, humanly incapable of caring about anyone or anything but himself."
Don Moynihan, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, expressed extreme skepticism that the White House bathroom during Abraham Lincoln's tenure was decked out in marble and gold.
"Fact check based on no research but with a high degree of confidence: This is not the marble that was originally in the Lincoln Bedroom," he wrote. "It is more likely to the be retrieved from a Trump casino before it was demolished."
Fashion critic Derek Guy, meanwhile, mostly left politics out of his criticisms of the remodeled bathroom, instead simply observing that "White House renovations are currently being spearheaded by someone with famously bad interior design taste."
Earlier this month, Trump sparked outrage when he demolished the entire East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive White House ballroom financed by donations from some of America’s wealthiest corporations—including several with government contracts and interests in deregulation—such as Apple, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Palantir.
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