Tony Dokoupil’s primetime interview with President Donald Trump on Tuesday night went off the rails when his salary suddenly became the topic of conversation.
Dokoupil, 45, said he had a “freewheeling conversation” with Trump, 79, during the president’s visit to a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan, that was part of an effort to promote U.S. manufacturing.
The 13-minute conversation covered protests in Iran, an immigration agent’s killing of a mom in Minneapolis, the president’s campaign against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and his America First policy.
But it was Trump’s comment about Dokoupil’s job that stole the spotlight.
The president claimed that the newly minted CBS Evening News anchor probably wouldn’t have a job if Kamala Harris had won the November 2024 election, because the economy would have suffered.
“If she got in, you probably wouldn’t have a job right now. Your boss, who’s an amazing guy, might be bust,” he told Dokoupil, referring to Paramount CEO and Trump pal David Ellison. “You wouldn’t have this job—certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you."
The anchor let the comment pass but returned to it at the end of their interview.
“For the record, I do think I’d have this job even if the other guys won,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah, but at a lesser salary,” Trump replied as he extended his hand to shake Dokoupil’s.
As the interview clip transitioned back to Dokoupil anchoring from the field, he could be seen chuckling at Trump’s retort.
Representatives for CBS News and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
The Trump interview followed a series of high-profile sitdowns that Dokoupil has bagged since becoming the face of the show’s new era under MAGA-curious editor in chief Bari Weiss.
Dokoupil’s list of interviewees so far includes border czar Tom Homan and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado. Nicole Sganga also sat down with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for a CBS Evening News segment.
The Connecticut-born, Miami-raised anchor has been touring major cities to promote his show. Dokoupil joined CBS News in 2016 following stints at NBC, the Daily Beast, and Newsweek.
Dokoupil attended a private school as a child, holds an Ivy League degree, and lives in an affluent neighborhood in Brooklyn with his wife and MS NOW correspondent Katy Tur.
CBS News has been hounded by controversy since Weiss took the helm and reshaped it in a bid to regain the public’s trust in the media by centering new voices.
The New York Times reported that Weiss told CBS Evening News producers to “make sure every single night has something with viral potential.”
“The goal for this road show is not to deliver the news so much as it is to *drive the news*,” she wrote in a memo. “We need to *be the news* for these 10 days.”
Weiss did end up getting the virality she hoped for: Dokoupil’s debut was marred by technical difficulties, and subsequent episodes were roundly mocked online for being sympathetic to the Trump administration, including one where the anchor gushed, “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida man.”
Audiences don’t appear to be responding well to the show’s overhaul. Preliminary Nielsen data obtained by the Daily Beast showed that Dokoupil suffered a ratings plunge during his first four nights on the new gig.
He initially drew in 4.4 million total viewers on Jan. 5, but that number steadily declined to 3.9 million on Jan. 8, marking an 11.4-percent loss over the week. Ratings among the key 25-54 demographic also plummeted by 19.44 percent over the same period.
Dokoupil made an impassioned plea to viewers as he signed off on Tuesday night.
“You may not agree with everything you hear on this broadcast, but we trust you to listen, and we trust you to decide for yourself,” he said.
