Donald Trump lashed out at a number of US TV presenters as he launched a furious rant on his social media. In recent days, the US President’s social media posts have focused mainly on politics, but notably avoided mentioning the latest release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. That changed overnight, when he issued a raging attack on Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’s The Late Show, which is set to end next year.
It was announced the show was being cancelled in July, not long after Colbert criticised CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for making a $16m settlement with Trump. Taking to his Truth Social account, a seething Trump began: “Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success. 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!”
Lashing out at several US presenters, he continued: “Who has the worst Late Night host, CBS, ABC, or NBC??? They all have three things in common: High Salaries, No Talent, REALLY LOW RATINGS!”
In a third post, Trump complained about the negative coverage he and his administration routinely receives, warning he could “terminate” the broadcast licenses of the networks behind it.
He added: “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!”
With his rant finally over, Trump concluded the post: “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!”
It’s unclear why Trump singled out Colbert, but he has frequently taken issue with jokes made about him by late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers, during their opening monologues.
It is known that Kimmel, 58, is not a fan of Trump, who expressed satisfaction when the presenter’s show was briefly suspended in September following comments he made after the murder of Conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk.
When he returned, Kimmel hit out at Trump, saying: “You cared enough about my show to make your voices heard so mine can be heard. Our leader celebrates people losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”
He added that Trump openly rooting for people to lose their jobs is “un-American” and “dangerous” before concluding: “He did his best to cancel me, instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”