Source: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / Getty
Last week, fans across the country were stunned and dismayed by the news that CBS has canceled its decade-old late-night program, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, effective May 2026. Folks across social media have attributed this decision by CBS and Paramount Global to Stephen Colbert calling the network’s parent company for caving to President Donald Trump by settling an absurd lawsuit filed by the president over a promo cut of a “60 Minutes” interview of then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Well, Trump has been doing a victory lap since the news of the cancellation of Colbert’s show was announced, and Colbert has responded to the prettiest and most childish commander in chief the U.S. has ever known with three simple words:
“Go f-ck yourself.”
From Deadline:
“How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go f-ck yourself,” he said into the “Eloquence Cam.”
The crowd roared and chanted his name.
Trump celebrated the surprise cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in a Truth Social post. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. 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.” In reference to Trump’s Kimmel comment, Colbert joked that no one was going to take this rather strange moment away from him. “Absolutely not, Kimmel. I am the martyr. There’s only room for one on this cross and I gotta tell you, the view is fantastic from up here,” he added. The Late Show was at the center of a protest from fans earlier in the evening with crowds descending on the Ed Sullivan Theater to chant “Colbert Stays! Trump Must Go!”
Again, Trump appears to be pretty proud of being the most anti-First Amendment president we have seen in modern times, which is pretty ironic considering how often his MAGA minions claim to be the anti-cancel culture champions of free speech. CBS reps have denied that the cancelation of Colbert’s show had anything to do with Trump — claiming it was “purely a financial decision” and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount” — but that hasn’t stopped the 79-year-old toddler from gloating as if he knows he made the network bend the knee.
And, for the record, that is exactly what happened when CBS reached a $16m settlement with Trump filed a $10bn lawsuit against the company in October, claiming the network tried to tip the scales in Harris’ favor during the 2024 presidential race by presenting an edited version of her interview on 60 Minutes. In truth, CBS aired two versions of an answer Harris gave 60 Minutes after being asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not listening” to the United States. Actually, it was a promotional preview of the interview, not the actual interview, which was aired in full, and neither answer given by Harris was so substantial that it would have made any outcome in the race, which Trump ultimately won anyway. CBS could have fought the good fight. Hell, the network could easily have pointed out that during the same month that Trump filed his lawsuit, Fox News aired an edited version of Trump’s performative visit to a Black barbershop in the Bronx. That interview, which aired edited on Fox & Friends not as a promo, but as the only version of the visit the network aired, was, as I wrote previously, “heavily edited in order to make Trump appear to be less of the rambling, lying, scatter-brained, cognitively declined blowhard that we all know him to be.”
As usual, Trump was an ignorant bully with the media literacy of a used toilet plunger, and CBS could have stood up to the propaganda by standing its ground.
So, why shouldn’t people believe Stephen Colbert’s show was canceled because the network is still run by cowards?
See social media’s reaction to the confrontation below.
