On Tuesday night, after CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony — hosted by President Donald Trump — Trump was focused not on his historic turn as emcee of the event, which took place earlier this month at what he and his allies have renamed the Trump Kennedy Center (a move experts say is illegal).
Instead, Trump was fuming about Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night show host who, in the final season of “The Late Show” on the network, continues to relentlessly ridicule the president. Trump urged CBS to pull the plug on Colbert’s show “NOW” instead of ending its run next May.
“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success,” Trump wrote in a post at 12:16 a.m. ET on his Truth Social platform. “Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”
Seven minutes later, Trump followed up with this: “Who has the worst Late Night host, CBS, ABC, or NBC??? They all have three things in common: High Salaries, No Talent, REALLY LOW RATINGS!”
Trump also reiterated his call for the U.S. government to revoke TV broadcasters’ licenses. “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!” Then, three minutes after that post, the president shared, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!”
The episode of “The Late Show” that CBS aired on Dec. 23 was a rerun, featuring guests Sigourney Weaver and Mandy Patinkin. It originally aired on Dec. 8 — and that night, Colbert took several shots at Trump, including his takeover of the Kennedy Center and his move to seize hosting duties at the Kennedy Center Honors.
“This year’s Kennedy Center Honors ceremony is the very first since Trump installed himself as chair of the Kennedy Center’s board,” Colbert said in his monologue, eliciting boos from the audience. In response, Colbert said, “Yeah, I kind of agree. It seems like the commander-in-chief shouldn’t have enough time to run a theater. ‘Mr. President, Mr. President, Russia has just launched another round of missiles. But first, dress rehearsal for ‘Oklahoma’ is underway, and the blocking is uninspired,’” Colbert joked.
At another point, Colbert admitted, “I don’t know how much effort I’m putting into the impression [of Trump] anymore. And I don’t care… Fire me!”
Colbert also played some of Trump’s remarks in which “he pre-complained about how people will judge his hosting” of the Kennedy Center Honors, according to Colbert. Trump had claimed that as the ceremony’s host, “Jimmy Kimmel was horrible…. If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.” To which Colbert quipped: “You can’t and you shouldn’t.”
Then Colbert fact-checked Trump. “Just a quick brain check for Grandpa Puddin’ Skull: I called [Kimmel] and Jimmy Kimmel has never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors,” eliciting a huge laugh from the audience. “But here’s the thing: I did, the three years leading up to Trump becoming president.”
In the monologue, Colbert also made fun of Trump for receiving the “fake” inaugural FIFA Peace Prize award “after years of campaigning unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Later that same day, Trump also received the Hooters National Book Award,” Colbert joshed. “It was the breast of times, it was the worst of boobs.” The CBS host said Trump’s FIFA Peace Prize is “like for Christmas if you ask your mom for a Super Nintendo and she gets you something called ‘Super Retendo.’ It comes with ‘Super Marion Brothers’ and ‘Legend of Kelvin.’” Colbert said FIFA president Gianni Infantino “pulled on all the stops for Trump’s Big Boy Trophy Party,” adding that in a photo showing Trump picking up the medal Infantino awarded to him, the president “looks like a goblin asking if it’s OK to eat a third baby.”
After CBS announced this summer that “The Late Show” would be ending in May 2026, Trump gloated that “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.” A few days later on the show, Colbert fired back, telling the president, “Go fuck yourself” (with the f-word censored).
CBS, in announcing the cancellation of “The Late Show,” insisted the move was “purely a financial decision” that came after a years-long decline in the economics of late-night TV.
In its Dec. 23 broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors, CBS did not refer to the place as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” largely because the ceremony was recorded before Trump’s name was screwed on to the building last week. CBS News’ standards department instructed staffers last week to maintain the original Kennedy Center name in their coverage, the Washington Post reported. “If the president or other administration officials use the new name in a soundbite that is their prerogative,” the news org said.
