Donald Trump slammed for 'heavily edited' interview after suing network for $16m over Kamala Harris video

Critics have slammed the US president for demonstrating 'double standards' this week, by sitting down with 60 Minutes for a 'heavily edited' interview.

For the first time in years, Donald Trump spoke with correspondent Norah O’Donnell about his second stint in the White House, honing in specifically on several issues.

Not only did the Republican leader defend the enforcement by ICE agents upon minority citizens, but he blamed the Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, suggested that the days of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro are 'numbered', and evaded a question over America's potential defence of Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

Also during the interview, Trump, 79, discussed the lawsuit he filed last year against Paramount Global - the parent company of CBS - in which he alleged that the network had unfairly edited its 60 Minutes interview with his opposing candidate, Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump sat down with '60 Minutes' for his first interview in five years (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

At the time, the right-wing leader claimed TV bosses had manipulated her responses in a way that could have affected the election campaign, seeking a mind-blowing $20 billion (£15m) in damages.

Despite the network initially shutting down Trump's claims and making no admission of wrongdoing, bosses announced back in July that it would settle with the politician for $16 million (£13.5m).

Reflecting on this 'victory', he told O'Donnell: "Actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money - and you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not.

"But 60 Minutes was forced to pay me a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that."

Paramount previously issued a payout to Trump over its Harris interview (Chris duMond/Getty Images)

Trump added: "You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that it’s happening."

Interestingly, however, these comments were cut out of the 28 minute version of the interview, which made it to broadcast. The entire conversation, which latest 73 minutes, was massively cut down, with the full version available online.

However, some critics have pointed out a humbling irony in Trump's comments, being that his latest interview was, itself, 'heavily edited'.

"In an edited-out part of the Trump interview Trump brags about extorting CBS for millions for… editing out a part of Kamala’s interview," one disgruntled X user pointed out.

Another agreed, adding: "So CBS settled Trump’s lawsuit where he frivolously sued because they edited Kamala Harris’s interview so it would fit into their air time. Then CBS does a 73 minute interview of Trump where they made big edits from the version that was broadcast. They aired 28 of 73 minutes."

Trump was slammed for hypocrisy (60 Minutes)

"Let me see if I got this right," a third went on. "Trump sued CBS for editing a 60 Minutes segment with Kamala Harris and CBS gave him money for it.

"But his interview yesterday on 60 Minutes was not released in full but was heavily edited? And that was the biggest sane washing job this year."

A White House spokesperson told Tyla: "President Trump gave a powerhouse interview for over an hour that covered a wide range of topics, including the historic 10 months America has had under his leadership."

Tyla has contacted Paramount Global for comment.