In short
- The CBS segment was Trump’s first 60-minute sit-down in five years, covering the government shutdown, foreign policy and crypto.
- Trump said he “didn’t know” CZ and that he had been “told” Zhao was wrongly targeted by the Biden administration.
- O’Donnell pressed the president about Binance’s $2 billion transaction involving his family’s World Liberty Financial stablecoin.
In his first 60 minutes interview in half a decade, President Donald Trump defended his decision to do so Excuse me Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao insisted he had no personal knowledge of the crypto billionaire and acted on what he described as a politically motivated prosecution by the previous government.
When asked by correspondent Norah O’Donnell why he pardoned Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws, Trump responded candidly.
“Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month prison sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” Trump said in the interview, published Sunday evening.
Asked how he hoped to address the “appearance of pay-to-play” given Binance’s $2 billion purchase of his family business’s stablecoin earlier this year, Trump said he “didn’t know anything about it” and was “too busy” with other things.
He added that his sons’ involvement in crypto was separate from government affairs: “They run a business, they are not in government.”
Trump then described Zhao as a “respected” entrepreneur who, he said, was the “victim of government weaponization,” referring to the previous administration.
Trump described his decision as consistent with a broader push to support the U.S. crypto sector, saying his focus was on keeping the country “number one in crypto” amid growing competition from China, Japan and others.
“I want to make crypto great for America. That’s all,” Trump said.
He added a comparison to the US position in AI, saying: “Just as we are number one in AI, we are number one in crypto. And I want to keep it that way.”
The exchange aired as part of a broader interview recorded at Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida. It also touched on the ongoing government shutdown, immigration raids and U.S. trade relations following Trump’s visit to Asia last week.
It was the president’s first appearance on the CBS program since then settle a lawsuit with parent company Paramount in July over a 2024 election interview with Kamala Harris, for which he received a $16 million settlement.
The segment marked the first official statement for Zhao’s pardon, which had caught the attention of lawmakers and regulators given World Liberty Financial’s growing crypto footprint.
Speculation that President Trump could forgive Zhao first surfaced in December 2024, weeks before he took office, following reports of backchannel lobbying within the digital assets industry.
Just over a week before the pardon became reality, insider claims brought up the rumor again.
Democrats, along with some, have criticized the pardon suggestive that Binance “greased the wheels” for Trump’s crypto trades, citing payments and lobbying activities tied to World Liberty Financial.
Others have moved to tighten ethics rules, including a proposal to ban members of Congress and senior officials from trading or owning digital assets.
A solution Questioning the veracity of the pardon is led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, who called for a congressional review of any links between Binance and the Trump administration.
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