It was just before 2 a.m. Friday when the president fired off one last farewell.
Stephen Colbert’s Late Show had signed off hours earlier. Paul McCartney had played Hello, Goodbye at the Ed Sullivan Theater. The credits rolled. And then Donald Trump got on Truth Social and buried the guy anyway.
Trump called Colbert a total jerk with no talent, no ratings, and no life. He said the host was like a dead person and that CBS could have pulled anyone off the street and gotten a better result. “Thank goodness he’s finally gone,” Trump wrote.
Colbert wrapped up his 11-year run, roughly 1,800 episodes, without much mention of the president. Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro, and Ryan Reynolds all showed up for the farewell at the Ed Sullivan Theater. McCartney closed it out.
CBS cancelled the show in July 2025. The official line was money. The network called it purely a financial decision and said it was not related in any way to the show’s performance or other matters at Paramount.
Most people didn’t buy that. Colbert had gone after Paramount weeks before the cancellation over a $16 million settlement the company paid Trump to end a lawsuit tied to a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. He called the deal a big fat bribe. Critics pointed out the timing: Paramount was waiting on federal approval for its merger with Skydance Media when the settlement went through.
Jon Stewart and others argued the show’s cancellation came down to something else. Fear, basically. CBS denied it.
Trump had already celebrated the cancellation when it was first announced last year, writing on Truth Social that he absolutely loved the news and that Colbert’s talent was even less than his ratings. Friday’s post was more of the same.
