It’s an open question how “60 Minutes” managed to score the first formal sit-down interview with President Trump after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attempted assassination attack.

It’s also an open question how Norah O’Donnell – who has a rather contentious relationship with Trump, and no love for this administration – was given the interview. Her colleague Weijia Jiang, who is the current president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, might have been a better choice. Jiang has given her own account of Saturday night’s events here, so maybe Bari Weiss and CBS thought that she was simply too close to the situation. Norah O’Donnell was in the room, but she wasn’t at the head table. Regardless of how the decision was made, it was O’Donnell sitting across from President Trump to discuss what happened, and why. The TV package ran for a little over 13 minutes, but the extended interview lasted for over 40 minutes, which you can see here.

O’Donnell jumped straight to the heart of the matter: why does this keep happening? Trump gave an answer to that last night during the impromptu presser when Peter Doocy asked that question, which, due to its brevity, was actually better.

.@pdoocy: "Respectfully, why do you think this keeps happening to you?”

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I've studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most…the people that make the biggest impact, they're the ones that they go after.” pic.twitter.com/ahU3FqYZoY

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 26, 2026

When O’Donnell asks the question, Trump has more time to expand on an answer, and this allows him to meander.

NORAH O’DONNELL: And I wanna get to all of those details and also walk through this, what happened last night. But first, this appears to be the third attempted assassination on your life, the first in Butler, the second, of course, on the golf course in Florida. Why do you think so many people may be trying to kill you?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So I’ve said it, and I’ve said it– numerous times. And I actually– because of the position I’m in, I’ve done quite a bit of research into the word “assassination.” Terrible word. And they go after consequential presidents. They go after– presidents that do things.

If you look at what I’ve done, we’ve turned this country around. We’ve taken a country that was actually a dead country, it was dying very rapidly, and it’s the hottest country anywhere in the world. We had a skirmish, a war, whatever you wanna call it, with Venezuela.

We won that very decisively, and we now have a great relationship with Venezuela. It’s been a very profitable relationship. And we’re in Iran right now. Other presidents should’ve done it, but they never chose to do it. They should have. They made a terrible mistake by not doing it.

It’s tougher now than it would’ve been ten years ago or even five years ago because– you know, they had thousands and thousands of missiles and everything else, and we didn’t do the B-2 bomber attack. That alone was a big deal. The killing of Soleimani, which I did in my first term, was a big deal.

But when you’re a consequential– when you do things, a lotta things, and things that work out very well for our country– Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. McKinley was assassinated. McKinley made the country very rich. People don’t realize that. Then Teddy Roosevelt went out and spent the money that was made by McKinley, but he was very consequential, actually, but he was assassinated. So–

Objectively, the first answer was better. But there was plenty of other ground to cover in this interview. O’Donnell then talked about what the head table was doing right as they heard the gunshots, and references the look on First Lady Melania Trump’s face.

The look on the face of @FLOTUS says it all.

She must be terrified that the left will never stop trying to end her husband’s life. The father of her only child.

This is heartbreaking. And evil. pic.twitter.com/CMDwDqqjE0

— Kentucky Girl (@Notwokenow) April 26, 2026

NORAH: The shock on their faces

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: it wasn’t the shock about something outside. But right after that we heard a big bang, and it was either a gunshot or it was– a tray of dishes, which happens a lot in ballrooms. And I was hoping it was a tray, but it wasn’t.

NORAH O’DONNELL: You mentioned the first lady, her face. She looked very alarmed.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: She was–

NORAH O’DONNELL: Was she scared?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t wanna say, and people don’t like having it said that they were scared. But certainly, I mean, who wouldn’t be when you have a situation like that? By that time I think she realized ahead of time that that was more of a bullet than it was a tray. And she was– I– I looked at her face just a little while ago before I came. I saw the scene. They played it for me and, you know, pretty good closeup. And– she looked– very upset about what just took place, you know? Why not?

NORAH O’DONNELL: What was your thought at that moment? — what did the first lady say?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, my thought was, “You know, I’ve been through this before a couple of times.” And– she has not to this extent. She handled it great. I mean, she was– she’s– very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, by the way —

NORAH O’DONNELL: Cause this was the first time she was –

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: – when– when they said– you know, when they said, “Drop down,” that meant trouble. And obviously I’m the president, and I listened to what they said, “Please drop down. Sir, please drop down.” So I wa– was walking halfway and then I dropped down at the f– final because we had a little ways to go where you’re exposed to the ballroom, surroundings. And– then I got up and we went to a hold room for a while and I tried to get them to continue the event, if possible.

Trump then used the opportunity, as he did Saturday night during the presser, to push for the White House ballroom.

NORAH O’DONNELL: The president– Mr. President, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of state, Secretary Hegseth, almost the entire line of presidential succession was in that ballroom. Who was the designated survivor?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, first of all, I have to say it’s not a safe ballroom. I’m building a safe ballroom. And one of the reasons I’m building it is exactly what happened last night. We’re building a room right there. If you walk out and move 20 yards to the left, you’ll be right at the entrance to the ballroom. And that ballroom is being built on the safest piece of property in this country, probably one of the safest pieces of land in the world. We have–

NORAH O’DONNELL: I think that’s owned, that’s the White House. The White House Correspondents dinner can’t use White House property

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, but– but it’s– it’s able to be used by certainly the White House. It says the White House Correspondents. Well, that’s the White House press. I’m sure that it is available. You know, it’s up to the president. But that would be made available.

And this has bullet-proof glass. This has– you know, this is the highest level of security. Also, very importantly, I could’ve built suites on top. I could’ve done a lotta things, and I said, “No, no. We have– this has to be pure. This has to be where people stay off property, and they go through one very impactful, very strong entrance, one very powerful entrance.”

There’s no games with this. This is the best, highest– this has all sorts of– security equipment at– at levels that you could never have in a regular ballroom. And we’re ahead of schedule. We’re right on budget, ahead of schedule.

I wish it could be even sooner. But we’re, you know, months ahead of schedule. But it doesn’t open till ’28. So, you know, that means you have another season and a half to go. (NORAH: Right) But– this is exactly why the military, and this is exactly why Secret Service and all law enforcement want it.

Because you have maybe 1,000 hotel rooms above the ballroom we were in last night. And I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying in terms of maximum security– it’s not the best thing. You can do it, but you can have problems like this. They have an elevator that comes down from the rooms that’s very close to the ballroom. Which makes sense. So we’re doing– we’re doing something that’s gonna have a tremendous impact on solving this problem.

The ballroom battle is currently tied up in the courts, though considering Saturday night’s events, it could get untied rather quickly by the judge, or by Congressional approval. Leaving that aside, while the president was effusive about the performance of the Secret Service and security in general during this interview, it is clear that others who saw it from the journalists’ perspective were not impressed, and now Congressman James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, is requesting a briefing from the Secret Service regarding what happened. While the results were not nearly as dire as Butler, and the Secret Service needs to be fully funded, there are a lot of questions regarding security that night.

This leads to the alleged assassin, and his manifesto. And this is where Norah O’Donnell tried to push President Trump’s buttons. She choose poorly.

NORAH O’DONNELL: The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, “Administration officials, they are targets.” And he also wrote this, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” What’s your reaction to that?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re– you’re he– you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m– I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Oh you think– do you think he was referring to you?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all– stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, little’s say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, “You know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably”– I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Mr. President these are the gunman’s words –

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I was never– excuse me. Excuse me. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.

NORAH O’DONNELL: The other thing that he wrote, in the–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You– you’re disgraceful.

O’Donnell, like all other journalists at the major networks, is fully aware that ABC had to settle up with Donald Trump to the tune of millions after George Stephanopolous called the president a “rapist.” Now, O’Donnell can’t be sued here, because she is reporting what the shooter wrote, so she gets to repeat this under the guise of “news.” I hope it was worth the smackdown.

What's wild is even after all this time I allowed myself after last night to think, "well, 3 people have gotten off shots trying to kill Trump so maybe now the powers-that-be will realize they have to tone it down." Yeah, they can't and they never will.

— Brittany (@bccover) April 26, 2026

"Mr. President, sir, he didn't actually NAME you in his manifesto, he just said he wanted to murder the pedophile rapist Satan dark lord incarnate who drinks decapitated baby blood. Don't you think it's odd that you think that to be you?"

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 27, 2026

The interview did continue, but the expanded transcript shows that Trump took a much more adversarial tone, addressing the shooter’s affiliations and delving into the Southern Poverty Law Center’s indictments. At the end of the interview, though, the president reiterated that the dinner needs to be rescheduled.

NORAH O’DONNELL: You are committed to doing this event with the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s about freedom of the press.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I would a hundred–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I want them, because I don’t want to see it be canceled. I don’t want to have a crazy person– I think it’s really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Well, I know the White House Correspondents’ Association very much appreciates you going last night and honoring the commitment to do it.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I hope we’re going to do it again. Norah, tell ’em to get it going, and we should do it within 30 days, and they’ll have even more security, and they’ll have bigger perimeter security. It’ll be fine. But tell ’em to do it again. We can’t let something be– it’s not that I wanna go. It’s no– I ha– I’m very busy. I don’t need that. I think it’s very important that they do it again.

I’m betting take two of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner looks a WHOLE lot different than take one. And I guarantee that security will be a whole lot better.

Featured image: President Donald Trump on September 23, 2025, official White House Photo by Daniel Torok, cropped, public domain