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Tony Dokoupil, newly installed anchor of “CBS Evening News,” landed an interview with President Donald Trump — and the news program aired Trump’s comments uninterrupted for almost half the broadcast.
Dokoupil interviewed Trump Tuesday on the floor of a Ford Motor Co. factory in Dearborn, Michigan, and the segment aired on the “CBS Evening News.” CBS News aired the interview with Trump for roughly the first 14 minutes of the evening newscast, without commercial breaks or apparent edits.
Topics covered in Dokoupil’s interview with Trump spanned the U.S. economy; the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent; Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell — who is the target of a Justice Department investigation into whether he lied to Congress over the scope of the Fed’s headquarters renovation; and the ongoing protests in Iran and the Iranian government’s killing of protestors.
About the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota by an ICE agent, Trump said that “her actions were pretty tough” and said, referring to videos of the incident, “when you look at that tape, it can be viewed two ways… There are a couple versions of that tape that are very, very bad.”
Trump asserted that “We have the strongest economy maybe in the history of the country” and said his focus is on the U.S., while he is also working to address foreign threats. “We’ve had a big victory with Venezuela,” Trump said.
About Powell, Trump said that “He’s been a lousy Fed chairman,” and reiterated his longstanding criticism that Powell has been “too high on interest rates.” Trump alleged the Federal Reserve HQ construction project has encountered billions of dollars in overruns and said about Powell, “He’s either corrupt or incompetent.”
On Tuesday, Dokoupil anchored “CBS Evening News” live from Detroit at GM’s new global headquarters, as part of his multicity “Live From America” tour. The back half of the telecast featured an Dokoupil’s interview with GM CEO Mary Barra, who said Trump’s tariffs resulted in “a few billion” dollars in additional costs to the company in 2025.
Dokoupil, a veteran of CBS News’ morning show, was appointed anchor of “CBS Evening News” by Bari Weiss, the founder of The Free Press who is now overseeing the TV news division. Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison bought her company in October, at which point he named Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News.
He was supposed to start his “CBS Evening News” hosting duties Jan. 5 but took to the air two days sooner than planned: On Saturday, Jan. 3, he had an extended three-part interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following the Trump administration’s invasion of Venezuela to apprehend former president Nicolás Maduro.
From Jan. 5-9, overall viewership of “CBS Evening News” with Dokoupil was down 23% compared with same period for the newscast a year ago.
Ahead of his “CBS Evening News” debut, Dokoupil — parroting points that Weiss has made — said that “People do not trust us like they used to” and that mainstream news outlets have placed “too much weight in the analysis of academics, or elites, and not enough on you.” The show also outlined five principles ahead of his first broadcast, including: “We love America. And we make no apologies for saying so.”
In some of Dokoupil’s “CBS Evening News” segments, critics have perceived a less-antagonistic stance toward the Trump administration compared with other traditional news networks. On a broadcast last week, in a teary-eyed report from Miami, Dokoupil said about Trump’s secretary of state, “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida man,” adding: “Whatever you think of [Rubio’s] politics, you’ve got to admit, it’s an impressive résumé.” Reporting from Minneapolis after the killing of Good, Dokoupil said that both pro- and anti-ICE beliefs were “deeply American sentiments” while he appealed to viewers to “find a way to live with people who are genuinely different from us.”
The new CBS News regime was skewered by Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser on Sunday’s broadcast of the awards show — on CBS. Glaser quipped that “the award for most editing goes to CBS News,” adding: “CBS News: America’s newest place to see B.S. news.”
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