Trump calls – Hours after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired its final episode on Thursday, May 21, President Donald Trump posted a withering message calling the comedian a “total jerk,” saying Colbert was “finally finished at CBS.” Colbert, 62, had earlier described
President Donald Trump didn’t wait long after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert signed off for good.
On Thursday, May 21, CBS aired the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Then, at 1:52 a.m. on May 22—after the program went off the air—Trump posted a lengthy takedown aimed directly at Colbert.
“Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!” Trump wrote.
The jab landed in the middle of an ongoing personal feud. Trump has had a long. ongoing grudge with Colbert and other late-night hosts who make fun of him. most notably Jimmy Kimmel. The morning after Colbert’s Late Show send-off. Trump threatened with another message. writing: “Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented. nasty. highly overpaid. not funny. and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”.
Trump’s depiction of the show’s performance didn’t match the numbers. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had “excellent ratings,” outpacing all other late-night shows.
Critics have largely pinned the cancellation on something else: Colbert’s criticism of CBS parent company Paramount settling a frivolous lawsuit with Trump in order to get his blessing for its merger with Trump-aligned Skydance. CBS has said canceling The Late Show was a pure “financial” decision. even as the network has been making clear rightward strides politically since it came under the direction of Trump buddies Larry and David Ellison.
The showdown around Colbert’s final night was also shaped by what happened—on screen and off. The finale itself was largely Trump-free. That stood in contrast to lead-up episodes where guests including David Letterman and Bruce Springsteen slammed Trump, Skydance and the Ellisons.
When the final episode aired Thursday, Colbert wrapped up with a musical send-off: he jammed alongside Paul McCartney and former Late Show band leader Jon Batiste.
For all the public heat from Trumpworld, Colbert never appeared visibly combative toward the administration. In an interview with People on May 19, he expressed surprise that Trump cared about his jokes.
“We’re clowns,” Colbert said of himself and his late-night TV peers. “How much does it diminish the office of the presidency to even notice what we say?”
Colbert also suggested the cancellation may have freed him in a way that surprised even him. He is pegged to write a Lord of the Rings film alongside Peter Jackson, and he said CBS may have inadvertently “saved his life” by firing him.
“It takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do,” he said.
Donald Trump Stephen Colbert The Late Show CBS Paramount Skydance Larry Ellison David Ellison Jimmy Kimmel Paul McCartney Jon Batiste Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson