The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Stephen Colbert has brought with it moments of comedic gold and a big boost in ratings for ‘The Late Show.’ By continuing to call out President Trump night after night, Colbert has cemented his popularity with Democrats and also garnered plenty of headlines, the latest of which came on Tuesday night when Colbert outright called on the president to resign.
In discussing the breaking story that President Trump disclosed classified information during his recent meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Colbert informed Trump that he is a ‘bad president’ and called on him to resign immediately. For those not familiar with the workings of the Russian government, this is the same Ambassador Kislyak who US intelligence agencies believe to be a spy.
This makes Trump’s decision to reveal classified information that the US was keeping secret from its closest allies even more puzzling, especially at a time when more and more questions are being raised about possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Following his admonishing the president for leaking info to the Russians, Colbert then took the time to beg the president not to fire Press Secretary Sean Spicer, which would rob him of his ‘daily dose of veiled anger and condescension.’ It seems Colbert was worried by the reports that President Trump was angry with Spicer and considering replacing him with Kimberly Guilfoyle of Fox News. If that were too happen, it’s not only Stephen Colbert who would suffer. Firing Spicer would mean that the entire world would be robbed of Melissa McCarthy’s hilarious “Spicey” impersonation on Saturday Night Live.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Colbert has used his show to attack President Trump as only a few weeks ago the late-night host got himself into a bit of trouble by making a rude joke involving part of Vladimir Putin’s body and the president’s mouth (we’ll let you fill in the details yourself as to what goes where). The joke saw the FCC receive numerous indecency complaints, but also directly provoked a response from Trump himself, who labeled the comedian ‘filthy’ in a Time magazine interview.
The night following the dirty joke, Colbert immediately began the show by apologizing to his audience for his poor choice of words and saying that he’d use less vulgar language if he could do it all over again. However, he avoided directly apologizing to the president, instead stating that Trump could ‘take care of himself.’
Still, Colbert couldn’t hide his joy when the Time interview came out and he saw that he had directly provoked a response from the commander in chief. In fact, he went so far as to run a victory lap around the stage and proclaim that he had won in his battle with the president.
Nonetheless, it seems that Colbert may have been a bit early in proclaiming himself as the victor as Trump’s proclivity for responding to even the smallest slight means it is highly likely that he will let this remark go without comment.