President Donald Trump will grant NBC News anchor Tom Llamas a high-profile interview this week, with a portion slated to run during the networks Super Bowl pregame programming on Sunday.
The conversation will be Llamas first formal sit-down with Trump since he assumed the helm of Nightly News last June, underscoring the continued public interest in the former presidents perspective as the nation heads into another contentious political season. According to Newsmax, the interview will be recorded at the White House on Wednesday, with NBC planning to leverage multiple platforms to maximize its reach.
NBC has announced that excerpts will air on Nightly News that same evening, while a longer cut will stream on Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBC News Now at 7 p.m. ET. The network further stated that a transcript of the extended interview will be posted online Wednesday, with a complete transcript to follow after the Super Bowl pregame broadcast concludes.
By agreeing to the appearance, Trump is once again participating in a media ritual that has become a staple of Super Bowl weekend, in which the network holding broadcast rights typically secures a one-on-one interview with the sitting President. The practice, now nearly two decades old, has evolved into a marquee political-media moment, blending the countrys most-watched sporting event with its highest office.
Trump last took part in this tradition in 2025, when he sat down with Fox News Bret Baier as that network carried the game, a pairing that aligned naturally with a more right-of-center audience. President Joe Biden, by contrast, chose to forgo the opportunity in 2024, when CBS aired the Super Bowl, and similarly declined in 2023, when Fox News held the broadcast rights, decisions that drew criticism from those who saw them as emblematic of his reluctance to face unscripted, high-visibility questioning.
During his first term, Trump did not always adhere to the Super Bowl interview custom, particularly when it involved outlets openly hostile to his administration. He declined an NBC News interview in 2018 but did participate in similar sessions with Fox News Bill OReilly in 2017, CBS News Margaret Brennan in 2019, and Fox News Sean Hannity in 2020, signaling a willingness to engage broadly while still recognizing the realities of a media landscape often stacked against conservatives.
The modern version of the Super Bowl presidential interview dates back to 2009, when then-President Barack Obama appeared with NBC News Matt Lauer just weeks after taking office. Since then, the event has become a predictable showcase for presidents to project accessibility and leadership, even as the tone and substance of the questioning often reflect the ideological leanings of the host network.
Trump has confirmed that, despite the interview, he will not attend Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, a notable departure from his recent pattern of high-profile appearances at major sporting events. He attributed his absence to the demands of his schedule and the burdens of cross-country travel at a politically intense moment, emphasizing that the decision was logistical rather than symbolic.
I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter, Trump said, offering a characteristically candid explanation that underscores the strain of balancing campaign-style outreach with the responsibilities of the presidency. His comment reflects a pragmatic approach to time and travel that contrasts with the performative politics often favored by the left, which tends to prioritize optics over efficiency.
While NBC will benefit from the ratings boost that comes with featuring Trump during the most-watched television event of the year, the interview also gives the former president a direct line to millions of Americans outside the filter of social media algorithms and partisan punditry. For conservatives, this kind of unmediated exposure is increasingly vital in an environment where legacy outlets and Big Tech platforms have been repeatedly accused of suppressing right-of-center viewpoints.
The decision to sit down with Llamas, despite NBCs long record of adversarial coverage of Trump and his supporters, suggests a strategic confidence in his ability to handle tough questioning and turn even skeptical audiences into potential converts. It also highlights a contrast with Bidens avoidance of similar high-profile interviews, reinforcing a broader perception that the current Democratic standard-bearer is shielded from rigorous, unscripted scrutiny.
As the Super Bowl interview tradition continues, the stakes extend beyond football and entertainment, touching on fundamental questions about media bias, presidential accountability, and how leaders choose to communicate with the public. Trumps appearance with Llamas, his decision to skip the game itself, and his straightforward explanation I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter together illustrate a presidency that remains willing to engage, even on unfriendly turf, while prioritizing the demands of governance over spectacle.
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