Donald Trump and Stephen Colbert
Credit: Reuters Photo
On Christmas eve, US President Donald Trump has asked CBS to to put Stephen Colbert "on sleep".
In July this year, CBS cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, citing financial concerns. Colbert has hosted The Late Show since 2015 and it is scheduled to end in May 2026.
CBS executives said in a statement that the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late nigh
Now Trump took to his Truth Social account and wrote, "Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success."
Further he stated that Colbert is "running on hatred and fumes".
"Now after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his non existent 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!" he wrote.
In another post Trump wrote, "If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn't their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!"
Trump had sued CBS parent company Paramount over an interview broadcast in October, alleging the network deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes news program with then-vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to "tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party" in the election.
CBS aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appears to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Hamas war, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas.
(With Reuters inputs)