US President Donald Trump claimed that he played no part in the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but suggested that the long-running host was axed due to a “pure lack of TALENT” and mounting financial losses. “Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Tuesday (local time). “The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!” Trump, also went on to suggest that other late-night hosts would soon meet a similar fate.
“Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon. The only real question is, who will go first? Show Biz and Television is a very simple business. If you get Ratings, you can say or do anything. If you don’t, you always become a victim. Colbert became a victim to himself, the other two will follow.” Trump’s post followed CBS’s announcement last Thursday that The Late Show would end in May 2026, marking the close of a 33-year run. According to BBC, the network called this move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night [television]” and insisted it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters.” Colbert, who broke the news to his audience during a taping of the show that evening, was met with boos and cries of “no” from the crowd at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York. “I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,” BBC cited the host. “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he said. “It is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it.” Colbert took over the programme from David Letterman in 2015 and became one of Trump’s most prominent critics in the late-night television sphere. The cancellation came two weeks after CBS parent company Paramount settled a lawsuit filed by Trump. The president had accused the network of deceptively editing a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 rival, Kamala Harris, to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party.”Colbert’s show was has long been criticised by conservative commentators over alleged political bias. According to MRC NewsBusters, a right-leaning media watchdog, the programme hosted 176 liberal guests and only one Republican between 2022 and 2025. The 61-year-old presenter’s frequent jabs at Donald Trump have fuelled speculation that the cancellation may have had political undertones, despite the agency citing financial reasons. The end of The Late Show also comes amid ongoing merger talks between Paramount and Skydance Media, a deal that would need federal government approval. If the show concludes as planned in 2026, CBS will be left without a late-night comedy programme for the first time since 1993.
