President Trump didn’t hold back Wednesday when asked about the downfall of Stephen Colbert and Howard Stern. Speaking to reporters from the White House, Trump laughed off the demise of what he called “talentless” liberal entertainers—and predicted more names will soon follow.
Colbert’s late-night show was canceled this week after hemorrhaging money for years, and reports indicate Stern’s show is likely on its last legs too. Trump said he wasn’t surprised and suggested this is just the beginning of a full-blown collapse in far-left entertainment.
“It hasn’t worked, really, from the beginning,” Trump said of Colbert’s show. “He’s got no talent. I could pick somebody off the street that would get better ratings.”
Trump then turned to the other familiar names in the late-night comedy lineup. “Fallon has no talent. Kimmel has no talent. They’re next. I hear they’re going to be going,” he said, suggesting he may have heard chatter behind the scenes.
He quickly clarified that it was just speculation—but backed it up with data: “Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon.” If CBS couldn’t justify keeping Colbert, it’s hard to see how NBC or ABC can keep paying for hosts with even worse performance.
It’s not the first time Trump has hinted that the downfall of liberal comedy is coming. After Colbert’s cancellation went public, Trump took to Truth Social to write: “The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone.”
Trump also called out the broader shift in entertainment: from light-hearted humor to political propaganda. “These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid millions of dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television,” he wrote.
The president then took a moment to reflect on Howard Stern, whom he used to appear with regularly before Stern became a self-styled “resistance” pundit.
“I used to do his show,” Trump said. “We used to have fun, but I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”
He’s not wrong. Stern’s transformation from provocative entertainer to COVID-hysteric elitist has turned off fans on both sides of the aisle. The ratings have tanked, and media execs are no longer pretending he’s still a cultural force.
This collapse is bigger than just a few names. A generation of entertainers who built their careers on mocking Trump and parroting Democrat talking points now find themselves losing viewers and facing the axe. The formula that once gave them inflated followings has backfired.
As Trump pointed out, most of these hosts got their start from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, a program built on mocking conservatives while dressing up progressive talking points as “news satire.” Colbert, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee—all followed that playbook. And all are either irrelevant, canceled, or bleeding viewers.
Trump sees it as a correction—a cultural backlash years in the making. Late-night TV used to appeal to Americans across the political spectrum. But after 2016, it devolved into sanctimonious rants, Trump-bashing monologues, and smug virtue signaling that alienated half the country.
Now, that shift is coming back to bite. Viewers are tuning out, ad revenue is plummeting, and media companies are finally pulling the plug.
Whether or not Trump’s predictions for Kimmel and Fallon prove true, one thing is clear: the woke comedy bubble is bursting. And as the president put it, “It’s really good to see them go.”