Stephen Colbert went live on CBS’ Late Show Tuesday night, sharing his hot take on President Donald Trump‘s primetime address to a joint session of Congress earlier that night.
And while Colbert took aim at a number of Trump’s claims, he also had a few barbs for the Democrats, a number of whom used props and fuchsia clothing to signal their opposition to the GOP president.
“The Democrats came ready to fight back with their little paddles,” Colbert said over a clip of members of Congress holding up circle paddles that said “False” and “Save Medicaid.”
He added, “That is how you save democracy. By quietly dissenting — or bidding on an antique tea set, it was hard to tell what was going on.”
But, seriously, Colbert said he was inspired by their resistance and made his own sign. He then held up a little circle paddle that said, “Try doing something.”
Colbert also seemed unimpressed by some Democratic women’s choice to wear pink as a signal of opposition to Trump’s policies that will negatively impact women.
“Many women on the Democratic side showed up dressed in fuchsia,” Colbert said. “It’s the kind of bold protest that says, ‘This is a test print and your magenta cartridge is working.’”
He also called out the Democrats for bringing “props” like a whiteboard and pocket Constitutions as a way “to stand up to authoritarianism.”
“That, my friends, is how you stop fascism,” he quipped.
But he did have praise, veiled in a joke of course, for Texas Rep. Al Green, 77, who was escorted from the chamber by the sergeant at arms after he shouted his objections to Trump during the speech.
“Some people questioned why so much muscle was needed to remove an old man with a cane,” Colbert said. “But it turns out it was for a serious reason. When security searched him, they found that he smuggled in a spine.”
As for the president, Colbert called out his misleading claims, like about how dead people are receiving Social Security payments, and mocked him for struggling to pronounce the names of some African countries.
Overall, though, he seemed to view the whole speech as a waste of time.
“The theme of tonight’s speech was ‘The renewal of the American dream,’” Colbert said at the top of his monologue. “Yeah, I don’t know if I want to sign up for the renewal. Can’t I just use a different email to get another free trial?”
“So, there you go, another two hours we’ll never get back. … That’s time you could have spent with your family not eating eggs.” Colbert said. “In the end, Trump’s first address to Congress was much like his first six weeks: Filled with useful lies and applauded by useless idiots.”
Later Colbert welcomed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to the show and asked the Democrat how people can resist Trump’s agenda, with the host saying that Europeans are calling out Trump’s behavior as autocracy and urging Americans to fight back while they still can. In particular, Colbert highlighted a recent Trump social media post saying federal funding would be withheld from schools that allow “illegal protests.”
“We have to stand up to this,” Buttigieg said. “And by the ‘we,’ I don’t just mean Democrats. Freedom-loving conservatives, Libertarians, where are you? We might not agree on everything. But if you’re so committed to liberty as a Libertarian or a freedom-loving conservative that you think the Clean Air Act is tyranny, then what do you have to say about the head of your government threatening to expel or imprison people who protest in disagreement with his politics? Where are you? We should be able to come together on that.”
Buttigieg, who now lives in Michigan and is reportedly considering for running for Senate in 2026, wasn’t ready to announce any news about his candidacy on Tuesday night but says he’s “been looking at it.”
“I decided I’m going to continue to work on the things that I care about,” he said. “I have not decided what that means professionally, whether that means running for office or not.”
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