Stephen Colbert has mocked Donald Trump’s bizarre comments about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the US president made during a recent meeting with Keir Starmer.
The Late Show host, 61, has long been a vocal critic of Trump, but has been particularly outspoken in recent weeks following rumours that the cancellation of his CBS series was a move by Paramount to please Trump.
During his opening monologue on Monday night (28 July), Colbert discussed Trump’s remarks about Epstein, saying: “‘By the way, I never went to the island.’ Trump said, ‘I never had the privilege of going to his island.’ I'm sorry, what? ‘Sadly, I never had the honour of dining with [serial killer] Jeffrey Dahmer.’”
Trump’s actual words to Starmer, made during his recent visit to the UK, had been: “I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down.”
Financier Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, was accused of using his private islands to traffic underage girls.
There is currently mounting pressure for the Epstein files – documents from the investigation into the paedophile – to be released, given that Trump was friendly with him.
Colbert and Trump’s recent feud began when Colbert said that Paramount’s decision to pay a $16m settlement to Trump over another CBS show, 60 Minutes, amounted to a “big fat bribe”.
CBS is part of Paramount, which relies on the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission to approve its $8bn sale to Skydance.
Very soon after Colbert’s “bribe” comment, Paramount announced the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will come off the air in May next year.
Trump revelled in the firing of one of his loudest detractors, posting on his Truth Social platform: “I absolutely love that Colbert was fired.” The TV personality responded by declaring that the “gloves are off”.
His fellow late-night hosts shared their support, with Jon Stewart attacking Paramount for trying to “censor and control” its hosts.
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, meanwhile, said on his show: “The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their No 1 rated late-night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder, was this purely financial, or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8bn merger?”
Stewart led a choir and the studio audience in a chant of “go f*** yourselves”, targeting corporations who bent the knee to Trump.
The US president arrived in the UK on Friday (25 July) where has been met with resistance from locals. On Monday afternoon (28 July), about 100 protesters gathered in Balmedie, a village near Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: “You are not welcome here.”
The group was also protesting Trump’s policies on trans rights, immigration, and cuts to international aid.
