Trump Mocks Stephen Colbert After TV Host’s Shocking Ouster
Donald Trump is already lying about why CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was canceled.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
But the decision clearly had nothing to do with ratings.
In the second quarter of 2025, Late Show averaged 2.42 million viewers across 41 first-run episodes, according to Late Nighter, summoning a larger viewership than competitors in that time slot, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Meanwhile, Fox News’s Gutfeld did surpass Colbert during its earlier time slot, with an average viewership of 3.29 million people. But when considering the host’s penchant for racist and antisemitic drivel, there isn’t much to idolize there.
Colbert’s cancellation came just days after the host called out Paramount, CBS’s parent company, for agreeing to pay $16 million to the Trump administration to settle a lawsuit over an edited 60 Minutes interview of failed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. It’s worth noting that Fox News has absolutely shredded taped interviews with the president in a desperate attempt to make him sound normal.
During his monologue, Colbert argued that Paramount knew the lawsuit was “completely without merit” but agreed to pay a “big fat bribe” to ease its sale to Skydance Media—a deal that needs approval from the president.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren took to social media Thursday night to defend Colbert. “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump—a deal that looks like bribery,” she wrote on X. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also backed up the late night host. “CBS’s billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance. Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO,” he wrote on X.
Fellow late night host Jimmy Kimmel, who was name-dropped in Trump’s rant, defended Colbert. “Love you Stephen. Fuck you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel wrote in a post on Instagram.