In his first 60 Minutes interview in half a decade, President Donald Trump defended his decision to pardon Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, insisting he had no personal knowledge of the crypto billionaire and was acting on what he described as a politically motivated prosecution by the previous administration.
Asked by correspondent Norah O’Donnell why he pardoned Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering laws, Trump replied frankly.
“Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” Trump said in the interview, published Sunday evening.
Asked about how he hoped to address “the appearance of pay for play” given Binance’s $2 billion purchase of his family firm’s stablecoin earlier this year, Trump said he knew “nothing about it” and was “too busy” doing other things.
He added that his sons’ involvement in crypto was separate from government affairs: “They’re running a business, they’re not in government.”
Trump went on to describe Zhao as a “respected” entrepreneur who, he said, had been the “victim of weaponization by government,” referring to the prior administration.
Trump framed 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 wanna make crypto great for America. That’s the only thing,” Trump said.
Adding a comparison with the U.S.’s position in AI, he said: “The same way we’re number one with AI, we’re number one with crypto. And I wanna keep it that way.”
The exchange was aired as part of a broader interview taped at Trump’s private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida. It also covered 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 settling 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 on-record explanation for Zhao’s pardon, which had drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators, given World Liberty Financial’s expanding crypto footprint.
Speculation that President Trump might pardon Zhao first surfaced in December 2024, weeks before he took office, following reports of backchannel lobbying within the digital-asset industry.
Just over a week before the pardon came to fruition, insider claims resurfaced the rumor.
Democrats have criticized the pardon, with some suggesting that Binance “greased the wheels” for Trump’s crypto dealings, citing payments and lobbying activity tied to World Liberty Financial.
Others have moved to tighten ethics rules, including a proposal to bar members of Congress and senior officials from trading or holding digital assets.
A resolution questioning the pardon’s propriety is being led by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff, who called for a congressional review of any connections between Binance and the Trump administration.