Donald Trump rang in the Christmas season on Monday night by calling for his critics to be silenced.
In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump complained about comedian Stephen Colbert, longtime critic and host of CBS’ “The Late Show.”
“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success,” Trump wrote. “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!”
For what it’s worth, Colbert was actually the highest-rated of the big three late night talk shows, according to the most recent ratings. He had slightly more viewers than ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel (another target of Trump’s ire) and was well ahead of NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.
The Colbert episode that got under Trump’s skin wasn’t even new. It was a rebroadcast of his December 8 show, in which he mocked Trump for receiving a phony peace prize from FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. Colbert made fun of Trump for “years of campaigning unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize” and noted, “Call me a boomer, but these participation trophies have gone too far.”
It’s highly likely that Trump saw the Colbert monologue because it aired on CBS after the Kennedy Center honors—which Trump hosted and proudly promoted earlier in the day. The administration recently slapped Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, a move being challenged in court by Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty.
Trump followed up the post with another arguing that networks with newscasts and late night shows purportedly “100% negative” in their coverage of Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party should have their broadcast licenses terminated.
The rambling rant was capped by a “Merry Christmas” post from Trump.
The president’s whining about CBS comes as the network is weathering days of criticism after pro-Trump editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the decision to pull a news report on “60 Minutes” exposing abusive conditions at El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Trump has used the prison as a dumping ground for migrants his administration has deported.
Related | CBS News’ censorship of ’60 Minutes’ story spectacularly backfires
CBS staffers have criticized Weiss’ actions as being a “kill switch” to hide content that the Trump administration does not like.
Earlier in the year, CBS announced it would be ending Colbert’s show—and that occurred after CBS parent Paramount paid Trump millions to settle what legal experts said was a frivolous lawsuit. The administration then approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance—a deal under probe by Democratic lawmakers as a possible bribe.
CBS has catered to Trump, manipulating both its entertainment and news content to please him. But his Christmastime rants show that no level of submission is ever enough, and Trump’s drive is always towards complete subservience without any dissent at all.
