How Donald Trump’s Public War on Stephen Colbert Became a Complicated Chapter in Late-Night History

When President Donald Trump repeatedly targeted Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”, it was yet another flashpoint in a long-running feud between a sitting president and the entertainers whose jokes he found intolerable. But what began with insults on social media and television screens evolved into a broader story — about media criticism in the Trump era, the shifting economics of late-night television, and the ways attention itself can become a kind of currency, even when it starts as a grudge.

In December 2025, Mr. Trump heaped scorn on Mr. Colbert in an early-morning post on his social media platform, calling the comedian a “pathetic trainwreck” and urging CBS to “put him to sleep,” a startling escalation in rhetoric against one of America’s most recognizable satirists. The president’s comments came shortly after CBS announced The Late Show would end in May 2026 — the network citing financial pressures but drawing scrutiny because of their timing soon after Colbert lambasted a multi-million-dollar settlement between CBS’s parent company and the White House. (Forbes)

Mr. Trump’s critique was blunt and personal: he described Colbert as “running on hatred and fumes” and asserted that the host’s talent and ratings were inadequate. He even predicted other late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel might be next in the crosshairs. (The Times of India)

The president’s attacks were a continuation of a pattern that goes back years, with Mr. Trump publicly ridiculing comedians who lampooned him on late-night shows and conservatives objecting to what they see as a left-leaning consensus in that segment of American broadcasting. (Washington Digest)

From “No Talent” to Cultural Touchstone

Mr. Trump’s initial barbs date back to earlier political campaigns and media appearances, when he disparaged Colbert as a “no-talent guy” and complained that his language was “filthy,” drawing attention from audiences and critics alike. (EntertainmentNow) In an ironic twist, Colbert often leaned into those criticisms on his show, turning them into comedic material and rallying his audience with self-aware jabs at presidential outrage.

“It’s almost as if the majority of Americans didn’t want you to be president,” Colbert once noted after a Trump-related monologue, to raucous applause. (Forbes)

For years, Colbert’s strategy seemed to work in ratings terms. During the presidency of Mr. Trump and immediately afterward, The Late Show regularly outpaced its rivals, holding a significant lead over The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and other competitors. (Statista) But by the mid-2020s, the television landscape had shifted dramatically. Live broadcast ratings across all late-night programming were generally in decline as audiences migrated to streaming, social media and on-demand content. Even with strong moments, Colbert’s viewership numbers — though respectable for late-night standards — no longer commanded the cultural ubiquity they once did. (The Guardian)

The Cancellation Controversy

That backdrop set the stage for one of the most contentious moments of the feud: CBS’s July 2025 announcement that it would cancel The Late Show in May 2026. While the network insisted the decision was a financial one wrapped up in the broader challenges facing linear television, the proximity of the decision to Colbert’s outspoken criticism of a legal settlement with the Trump White House sparked accusations of political retribution among lawmakers, press freedom advocates and entertainment figures. (Politico)

Senators and colleagues in the entertainment industry publicly questioned whether CBS was bowing to political pressure from the White House or its affiliates, even as executives maintained that the program remained culturally significant. (AP News)

Online, the reaction was polarized. On one hand, many viewers celebrated the show’s decade-long run and lamented its end. On the other, some conservative commentators and social-media posters argued that the show’s political slant had become a liability, pointing to audience fatigue with nightly Trump-focused humor and criticizing Colbert’s approach as repetitive or overly partisan. (Us News Per)

Ratings and the Trump Effect

The episode underscores a complicated truth: for a time, political conflict — and especially Mr. Trump’s ire — seemed to boost The Late Show’s visibility and ratings. Online reactions from Nielsen’s live and delayed metrics showed that episodes following Trump jabs often spiked in viewership, occasionally outselling rival programs by comfortable margins. (TheWrap)

Yet by 2025, reliance on political figures as comedic fodder was less clearly a ratings boon. Shifts in viewer habits — particularly among younger audiences — meant that even shows with established legacies faced stagnation or decline. Late-night viewing, once a must-see cultural ritual, simply drew fewer eyes in a fragmented media environment.

The Broader Cultural Debate

Beyond the numbers, the feud illustrated deeper tensions within American media and politics. Trump’s critics saw his attacks on Colbert as symptomatic of a broader desire to suppress or intimidate dissenting voices in entertainment. Supporters argued that late-night hosts had become too entwined with partisan commentary rather than pure comedy.

A media watchdog study found that a striking majority of political humor on late-night programs targeted conservative figures, especially Mr. Trump, suggesting a shift in comedic culture toward intensified political satire rather than neutral humor. (New York Post)

Meanwhile, colleagues of Colbert — including fellow late-night host Seth Meyers — have acknowledged that the job of making comedy in a climate of hyper-partisan scrutiny is uniquely challenging. “When [the president] focuses on late-night shows,” Meyers said in a recent interview, “it certainly makes you appreciate what a privilege it is to have [that platform].” (Forbes)

The Legacy of the Feud

As The Late Show prepares to sign off in May 2026, Colbert’s place in television history is secure: he hosted one of the most audacious and politically engaged late-night programs of his era, and his battles with a sitting president became part of the show’s enduring story.

Whether that will be remembered as clever strategy, lucky timing, or a complicated interplay of ratings dynamics and political polarization is still debated. But the public eye that Mr. Trump trained on him — even in anger — unquestionably amplified Colbert’s cultural imprint for years. Even critics who find fault with his style acknowledge that The Late Show helped define late-night television in a moment when the genre itself was evolving, sometimes unevenly, under the weight of technological change and political division.

In that sense, the arc of the Trump-Colbert feud tells us as much about American media as it does about two public figures at odds: a nation’s appetite for satire, the limits of broadcast television, and how often, in the modern era, controversy becomes its own form of advertisement.