Trump trolls Colbert after CBS firing and predicts which 'moron' late-night host is next on the chopping block
'I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired,' Trump posted to Truth Social Friday morning. 'His talent was even less than his ratings.'
'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,' the president continued. '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,' Trump added.
The 'moron' in question Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.
Among the late night shows, Colbert had the highest ratings.
He took over the franchise in 2015, which had originally been helmed by David Letterman.
Colbert was already a household name for his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, in which he pretended to be a conservative talking head, modeled after pundits like Bill O'Reilly from Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.
He and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, who was on right before Colbert's timeslot, captured the attention of liberal audiences.
When Colbert took over the Late Show, he dropped his conservative caricature act, allowing his left-leaning politics to show openly.
Three days before Colbert and the Late Show were axed, the comedian was publicly critical of Paramount's decision to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview that featured the president's ex-rival, former Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Paramount said the money would pay for the president's legal fees and that any leftover money would go toward Trump's future presidential library fund.
Paramount Global, which owns CBS, is in the middle of merging with Skydance Media, founded by David Ellison, the son of Oracle's Larry Ellison.
Larry Ellison has been a Trump supporter for years.
The deal needs the approval of the federal government.
'As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I'm offended,' Colbert said. 'And I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.'
'But just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help,' Colbert joked.
He then referred to the settlement as a 'big fat bribe.'
In a statement, CBS said the decision to end the Late Show with Colbert was 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.'
Democrats are skeptical.
'Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled. If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better,' wrote California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who was one of Colbert's guests on Thursday.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren echoed the sentiment.
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