Donald Trump calls for 'pathetic trainwreck' Stephen Colbert to be taken off air

U.S. President Donald Trump has called for late-night host Stephen Colbert to be taken off the air immediately.

The politician took to his Truth Social platform early on Wednesday morning to urge CBS executives to pull the plug on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert immediately, instead of ending it in May 2026.

In the post, Trump claimed that Colbert - an outspoken Trump critic - has "gotten worse" since CBS officials announced they were axing his show back in July.

"Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success," he wrote about the comedian. "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!"

Several minutes later, he added, "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!"

Trump also repeated his call for his government to revoke "very valuable" broadcast licenses to networks that are "almost 100% negative" about him and his party.

According to Variety, Tuesday night's episode of the show was a rerun that originally aired on 8 December. During his monologue, Colbert made several jabs at Trump about his hosting of the Kennedy Center Honors and ridiculed him for receiving the "fake" inaugural FIFA Peace Prize award "after years of campaigning unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize".

CBS officials previously insisted that they cancelled The Late Show for financial reasons, not political ones.