Trump Tells New CBS Evening News Anchor Tony Dokoupil He ‘Wouldn’t Have This Job Right Now’ if Kamala Harris Was President

Tony Dokoupil pulled President Donald Trump aside for a quick interview at a Ford factory near Detroit on Tuesday, Jan. 13 — a segment that aired soon after on the revamped CBS Evening News.

Dokoupil, 45, touched on several major issues with Trump, 79, including protests in Iran, the U.S. economy, and the criminal investigation involving Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. But the conversation took a sharp turn when Trump suggested Dokoupil’s new role was tied to Trump’s return to the White House.

“A year and a half ago, our country was dead,” Trump told Dokoupil, referring to Joe Biden’s presidency. “We had a dead country. You wouldn’t have a job right now.”

Trump then referenced his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, adding: “If she got in, you probably wouldn’t have a job right now… You wouldn’t have this job, certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you.”

Dokoupil initially brushed off the remark. But as the interview wrapped, he circled back and pushed back lightly: “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 interview with the president came as part of his travels across the U.S. during his first month as CBS Evening News anchor, visiting major cities and interviewing top political figures. Before speaking with Trump, he also sat down with members of the administration, including border czar Tom Homan and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Dokoupil, who previously co-hosted CBS Mornings, began his tenure on Jan. 5. He was selected for the role by Bari Weiss, who was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025.

In a statement announcing his new role, Weiss, 41, called Dokoupil “the person to win back” viewers’ “trust in the media,” pointing to what she described as his “old-school journalistic values.”

Since stepping into the editor-in-chief position, Weiss has drawn criticism — most notably after a 60 Minutes segment about CECOT, the prison in El Salvador where Venezuelan men deported from the U.S. were sent under the Trump administration, was pulled hours before it was scheduled to air in December 2025. A CBS News spokesperson said at the time that the story needed additional reporting before it could run at a later date.

60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi later wrote in a private email — first obtained by The Wall Street Journal and later reported by outlets including NPR and The New York Times, along with independent journalist Yashar Ali — that Weiss’ decision to “spike” the segment was “not an editorial decision,” but “a political one.”

Weiss was named editor-in-chief despite lacking broadcast experience. Before joining CBS News, she worked in The New York Times Opinion section, later launching her own publication, The Free Press, which she ultimately sold to Paramount Skydance.

Paramount — CBS’s parent company — and Skydance merged last year after CBS News settled a lawsuit with Trump, who had accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a campaign interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris. The lawsuit originally sought $10 billion in damages, raising concerns about the precedent such a settlement could set for media companies facing political pressure. Paramount later agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library.

Trump has continued to publicly target CBS News. In December, he slammed the network after it aired an interview with former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had publicly clashed with the president in recent months following a fallout over her push to release the Epstein files.

“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Dec. 8, 2025, after Greene’s interview aired. He added, “Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”