Last night the franchise aired its final episode, in which Colbert made no mention of Trump at all.

Donald Trump skewers ‘total jerk’ Stephen Colbert after *The Late Show *finale: ‘Thank goodness he’s finally gone!’

Last night the franchise aired its final episode, in which Colbert made no mention of Trump at all.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

EW's editorial guidelines

May 22, 2026 1:16 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2025; Stephen Colbert on 'The Late Show' in Februrary. Credit:

Anna Moneymaker/Getty; Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

- Donald Trump is happy *The Late Show With Stephen Colbert* is over.

- The president celebrated the show coming to a close and attacked its host on social media early Friday morning.

- Trump called Colbert a "total jerk," adding, "Thank goodness he’s finally gone!"

Donald Trump is gloating over Stephen Colbert losing his job less than 24 hours after *The Late Show** *aired its final episode.

The president attacked the late-night host in a Truth Social post early Friday morning, calling him a “total jerk” and comparing his onstage presence to that of a dead man.

“Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long!” Trump wrote. “No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk.”

Donald Trump's Truth Social post.

Donald Trump/Truth Social

“Thank goodness he’s finally gone!” he continued.

Trump previously warned reporters that he would send “a message” to Colbert after *The Late Show** *concluded its historic 33-year run on Thursday.

Paul McCartney basks in fans' screams once again in the Ed Sullivan Theater on last 'The Late Show'

Stephen Colbert's The Late Show ends with a reality-bending wormhole, Strike Force Five, and a song

Colbert, meanwhile, celebrated his last episode of *The Late Show* with an uplifting sendoff that made no mention of Trump at all. Instead, the finale saw Colbert visited by his fellow late-night hosts John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel , a.k.a. "Strike Force Five." There were cameos by Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, and Ryan Reynolds. And, finally, the former Beatle himself Paul McCartney sat down for an interview with the host and performed "Hello, Goodbye" with the house band, Colbert, and Elvis Costello, as audience and crew members danced on stage.

CBS announced last summer that *The Late Show* would come to an end in May, calling the move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Reports have suggested the network was losing upwards of $40 million a year on the production.

However, others have speculated that Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media, which required approval from Trump's Federal Communications Commission at the time, may have been a potential cause for the show’s shuttering. Especially since Colbert had been critical of the merger on his show prior to its cancellation.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Trump previously denied any involvement in *The Late Show*'s demise.

“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!” he wrote on Truth Social. “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!”

Stephen Colbert during Thursday night's finale of 'The Late Show'.

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

Former *Late Show* host David Letterman recently claimed that top brass at Paramount Global and Skydance Media "dumped” Colbert so that he couldn't make any more “trouble” for CBS.

“I’m just going to go on record as saying: They're lying," Letterman told *The New York Times*. "Let me just add one other thing... They're lying weasels."

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Late”