President Donald Trump wasted no time gloating over the demise of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” firing off a series of late-night and early-morning broadsides after the CBS program signed off for good on Thursday, May 21, 2026 — and warning that other comedians who have mocked him could be next on the chopping block.
At 1:52 a.m. ET on Friday, May 22, Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate. “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!” the president wrote. The White House Rapid Response 47 account on X amplified the post within minutes.
Later Friday morning, Trump returned to his keyboard with a broader warning shot at the rest of the late-night landscape. “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,” he wrote. “Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”
A Star-Studded Sendoff for Colbert
Colbert’s farewell after 11 seasons was a celebrity-packed affair. Paul McCartney closed the show with a performance — and a prerecorded bit in which the former Beatle literally shut down the power to the Ed Sullivan Theater to bring the curtain down. Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, Tim Meadows and Tig Notaro all turned up to say goodbye, while Robert De Niro and Martha Stewart had joined the second-to-last episode to quiz the host.
The final skit found Colbert standing before a giant portal alongside fellow late-night fixtures Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon, all joking that they, too, might soon be sucked into the void. Notably, Colbert steered largely clear of politics or direct criticism of Trump during the broadcast itself — a marked contrast to much of his run.
Bruce Springsteen, who appeared on the show earlier that week, was less restrained. “I am here in support tonight for Stephen, because you are the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke and because [Skydance’s] Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want,” the rocker told the audience, according to coverage of the appearance.
The Backstory: Cancellation and a Merger
CBS announced the end of “The Late Show” in July 2025, calling the decision “purely a financial decision” tied to a years-long decline in the economics of late-night television. The Skydance-Paramount merger — which required federal approval — closed in August 2025, fueling persistent speculation that the cancellation was a political olive branch to the White House from Trump allies Larry and David Ellison.
Colbert himself addressed the theory last fall, calling it “a reasonable thing to think” but saying it wouldn’t be “fruitful” to speculate. Fans gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 21 told reporters they were convinced politics drove the decision.
Trump has been gunning for the host for years. In December 2025, he called Colbert “a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success.” When the cancellation was first announced last summer, Trump posted, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.” Days later, Colbert returned fire on air, telling the president, “Go fuck yourself” (bleeped for broadcast).
White House spokesman David Ingle echoed his boss on May 22, calling Colbert “a pathetic trainwreck with no talent and terrible ratings.” On Friday evening, May 22, Trump shared an AI-generated video of himself interrupting Colbert’s show, hurling the host into a Dumpster and dancing to “Y-M-C-A.”
Kimmel, Meyers and Maher in the Crosshairs
The president’s threats against “others, of even less talent” are widely seen as aimed at ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, NBC’s Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, and HBO’s Bill Maher. Kimmel in particular has drawn the brunt of Trump’s fury.
On the April 23, 2026 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the host staged a fake White House Correspondents’ Dinner in which he quipped that First Lady Melania Trump had the glow of an “expectant widow.” Less than a week later, on April 30, the FCC’s Media Bureau ordered ABC to reapply for broadcast licenses for its eight owned-and-operated stations on an accelerated schedule. That same day, Trump posted, “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel,” adding that the host “incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television” and warning, “People are angry. It better be soon!!!”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist, has tied the ABC license review to the agency’s ongoing probe of Disney’s DEI practices. The chain of events has rattled broadcasters and raised alarms across the industry that the regulatory machinery is being aimed at comedians who criticize the president.
With Colbert off the air, the question now hanging over Burbank, Rockefeller Plaza and HBO is simple: who’s next?