Colbert Hits Back at Trump With an Expletive

In his first show since announcing his show will be canceled next year, Stephen Colbert responded directly to President Trump's celebration of the fact, and his claim that the Late Show host lacks talent. "How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go f--- yourself," Colbert said during Monday's monologue, prompting the cheering crowd to chant his name, per USA Today. "For the next 10 months, the gloves are off," Colbert had said to kick off the show. He then questioned CBS' claim that the Late Show is losing $40 million to $50 million a year, pointing out CBS paid $16 million to settle Trump's defamation lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview.

Just before the cancellation, Colbert had described the payout as "a big fat bribe" to the administration to aid in the FCC approval of CBS' $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. Jon Stewart took up that line Monday on the Daily Show, suggesting CBS' decision to cancel "their No. 1 rated late-night franchise that's been on the air for over three decades" was "the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger," per CNN. Former Late Show host David Letterman also appears to have Colbert's back. "You can't spell CBS without BS," he captioned a 20-minute YouTube video shared Monday, which featured clips of him criticizing the network over two decades, per Rolling Stone. In one 1994 clip, he joked that CBS' motto ought to be "could be sold!" or "we're number 4!"