At a Glance
- Trump told new CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil he wouldn’t have his job without the 2024 election outcome
- The Jan. 13 Detroit interview aired during Dokoupil’s second week anchoring the revamped broadcast
- CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss picked Dokoupil to restore viewer trust amid ongoing Trump-network tensions
- A spiked 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador’s CECOT prison has intensified scrutiny of Weiss’ leadership
President Donald Trump used a Jan. 13 network television interview to claim credit for anchor Tony Dokoupil‘s new role, telling the CBS Evening News host he would be unemployed-or at least paid less-had the 2024 election gone the other way.
The exchange, filmed in Detroit and broadcast the same evening, opened with Trump asserting, “A year and a half ago, our country was dead. We had a dead country. You wouldn’t have a job right now.” He added that if Kamala Harris had won, Dokoupil “probably wouldn’t have this job… certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you.”
Dokoupil, 45, closed the segment by pushing back: “For the record, I do think I’d have this job even if the other guys won.” Trump replied, “Yeah, but at a lesser salary.”
Dokoupil’s New Anchor Role
The interview fell during Dokoupil’s second week as anchor of the revamped CBS Evening News. He began the position on Jan. 5, selected by newly appointed CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, 41, who described him as “the person to win” back audience trust with “old-school journalistic values.”
Before the Trump conversation, Dokoupil interviewed other administration figures on his multi-city tour, including border czar Tom Homan and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Weiss Under Fire for Killing 60 Minutes Story
Weiss, who has no prior broadcast experience, has already drawn controversy. In December 2025 she pulled a finished 60 Minutes report on CECOT, the high-security Salvadoran prison housing Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration. Network spokespeople said the segment needed “additional reporting,” but correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi wrote in a leaked email that the decision was “not an editorial” one but “a political one.”
Weiss came to CBS after founding The Free Press, which she sold to Paramount Skydance-the parent company of CBS-following its 2025 merger.
Paramount Settlement and Trump’s $10 Billion Lawsuit
The merger closed after Paramount settled a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a 2024 campaign interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million toward Trump’s future presidential library, avoiding what media watchers warned could set a precedent for political pressure on news outlets.
Since the settlement, Trump has kept CBS in his sights. After the network aired a December interview with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a recent Trump critic, the president wrote on Truth Social that CBS was “NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING.” He added that under new owners, “60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
Key Takeaways
- Trump directly tied Dokoupil’s prime-time perch to his own electoral victory, injecting personal politics into a network news interview
- Weiss’ leadership faces early tests over editorial independence after spiking the CECOT segment
- The Paramount-Trump settlement continues to reverberate through CBS News’ coverage decisions and public spats
