On Sunday, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump sat down with CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O'Donnell to discuss the events of the previous night at the 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD).
The Trump administration had already done a press conference the night before when Trump used the opportunity to push for construction to resume on his $400 million vanity project, his golden ballroom.
Saturday night was to have been the first time Trump attended the WHCD as a sitting President.
He had previously attended in 2011, when Democratic President Barack Obama famously mocked him (as seen below), and then again in 2015 when Trump was also the butt of several jokes.
Throughout Trump's first term as President, he eschewed the WHCD, called for hosts to be canceled, and mocked the annual event online to the delight of his MAGA minions. He skipped the 2025 event as well.
It came as a surprise that Trump planned to not only attend this year's WHCD, but was slated to speak. On the red carpet that night, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared "shots will be fired" in the room and that the POTUS wrote his own "classic Donald J. Trump" speech.
But around 8:30pm, an alleged assassin exchanged gunfire with law enforcement, and the WHCD attendees, which included most of the Trump's administration, were evacuated.
By Sunday, the alleged assassin's manifesto was released to the press.
Norah O'Donnell asked Trump for his reaction to the manifesto during her 60 Minutes interview. But when O'Donnell read from it, the POTUS acted as if O'Donnell herself was attacking him.
O'Donnell read:
"I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes..."
Trump lashed out, saying:
"I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people."
You can see the moment here:
The visibly angry POTUS added:
"Yeah, he did write that."
"I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody."
O'Donnell interjected:
"Oh, do you think he was referring to you?"
Seemingly ignoring her question, Trump stated again:
"I’m not a pedophile."
Trump seemed triggered by his own interpretation that the manifesto was referring to his longtime friendships with registered sex offender and indicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Or to the more than 28 women who publicly accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.
Or to the 2024 ruling that Trump was liable for defamation when he called one of his rape accusers a liar or to when his late first wife Ivana Trump accused him of marital rape during a 1989/1990 divorce deposition.
Neither the manifesto nor O'Donnell ever mentioned Epstein, Maxwell, or Trump by name in that passage. But, as the saying goes, a hit dog will holler.
Trump said:
"You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me."
Trump then repeated a lie he frequently tells in regards to allegations against him:
"I was totally exonerated."
Trump has been convicted of multiple crimes, amassing 34 felonies, as well as being found liable in the defamation suit brought by E. Jean Carroll after he repeatedly called her a liar for saying he raped her. The judge ruled Trump's actions legally matched the definition of sexual assault and ordered he pay Carroll $88.3 million for saying she lied about the rape.
Trump has not yet been totally exonerated in any case allowed to be investigated fully. Unactionable ethical, criminal, constitutional, regulatory, or civil violations aren't total exonerations.
Trump later told O'Donnell:
"You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things. You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace."
People were unsurprised Trump knew the manifesto was about himself even without his name being used.
The overwhelming majority, across social media, seem to believe Trump was somehow involved with criminal sexual acts.
@ZoeyCatBell
@twinkb23/Bluesky
Several people noted that Trump never denied the labels of traitor or criminal from the same manifesto excerpt.
Maybe he's saving that outrage for his next interview.
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