Stephen Colbert has ripped into Donald Trump, calling the president's first year in office one scattered with "maniacal criminality."
The talk show host slammed Trump's long list of White House activities from 2025 to 2026, from the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the demolition of the East Wing. But it is all noise to distract from a much larger and ongoing issue, Colbert says. The Late Show host, who will host his final episode in May 2026, grilled Trump for signing an order his government is now ignoring.
Following a clip package of Trump's controversial decisions during the first year of his second term in office, Colbert said, "You didn't remember most of that stuff, because every single day there's some new Trump horror dominating the headlines.
"Case in point, Trump invaded Venezuela a couple weeks ago, seized their leader, and brought him to Brooklyn. And absolutely nobody is talking about it, not even me, that's f***ing weird.
"It's probably the whole point. Today's maniacal criminality distracts us from yesterday's maniac crimes, which reminds me, where are the Epstein files? Nothing yet? Really? It's the law. You signed it. Just checking."
Colbert went on to call the last year "exhausting" but, as many other political commentators have done in recent weeks, put pressure on the Trump administration to continue releasing the Epstein files.
According to some House Republicans, the efforts made to get the Epstein files released have since been abandoned or, at the very least, delayed. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), one of the first House Republicans to demand disclosure, expressed indifference when asked about the DOJ's non-compliance.
She said, "I don't give a rip about Epstein. Like, there's so many other things we need to be working on. I've done what I had to do for Epstein. Talk to somebody else about that. It's no longer in my hands."
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), previously outspoken about demanding complete file release, has shifted to defending the DOJ. She characterized the December 19 deadline as unrealistic and stated, "I'm not going to rush the process on that—we're going to get them."