Overview
- Posting on Truth Social late Dec. 24–25, the president called Stephen Colbert a "pathetic loser" and said CBS should "put him to sleep," adding it was "the most humane" option.
- He followed by deriding late‑night hosts across CBS, ABC and NBC and again floated revoking broadcast licenses over coverage he deems nearly 100% negative.
- CBS had announced in July that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end in May 2026, the same month it agreed to pay Trump $16 million in a legal settlement, a move the network described as purely financial.
- Variety reported the latest tirade may have been prompted by a CBS repeat of a segment in which Colbert satirized Trump’s influence on Washington’s Kennedy Center.
- In a separate development, ABC host Jimmy Kimmel used the UK’s Channel 4 alternative Christmas message to denounce what he called rising "tyranny" in the U.S. and to recount his brief suspension earlier this year.