President Donald Trump took to social media Friday to celebrate the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a move critics allege was retaliation for Colbert's accusation that parent company Paramount paid Trump in a settlement to secure support for a merger.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Friday. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
While CBS, part of its parent company Paramount, has said the show’s cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” many critics have pointed to recent comments by Colbert on his show as being the likely instigator for the decision.
Paramount is looking to close a merger with the company Skydance, a controversial merger that would require the Trump administration’s approval. In an unrelated lawsuit between Paramount and Trump, Paramount recently agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the case, a decision Colbert called “a big fat bribe.”
Colbert’s late night colleague Jimmy Kimmel, also named by Trump Friday as having “even less talent than Colbert,” responded to the news by writing “f--- you and all your Sheldons CBS” in a social media post on Instagram, referencing CBS’ show “Young Sheldon,” a spinoff of its sister show “The Big Bang Theory.”
