Rosie O’Donnell Slams Donald Trump for Celebrating Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ Cancellation
After Donald Trump said he “absolutely love[d]” that CBS is ending The Late Show, another comedian reviled by the U.S. president came to Stephen Colbert’s defense: former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell.
“Hey, tangerine Trump,” O’Donnell wrote in a note she shared on Instagram on Sunday, July 20. “First you said I should be stripped of my citizenship. Now you’re publicly celebrating that Stephen Colbert lost his job. You’ve never understood the role of comedy — or the role of truth. You think silencing a comedian means you’ve won something. You haven’t. Stephen stood up to you, like so many of us have. Not because it was easy — but because it was necessary. He told the truth with wit and courage, night after night, while you used your platform to spread fear, lies, and hate.”
The Rosie O’Donnell Show alum said Trump wants not free speech but blind loyalty. “But America doesn’t work like that,” she added. “We question power here. We laugh at bullies. And we speak out — it leaves [you] undone. Stephen will be fine. So will I. So will every artist, journalist, immigrant, teacher, parent, and kid who sees through you, your desperate grasp at relevance, [and your] craving for control. Truth isn’t going anywhere. Neither are we.”
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CBS announced on Thursday, July 17, that it will end The Late Show franchise next May, calling the controversial decision “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
The timing of that announcement roused suspicions, however: On air, Colbert had just criticized parent company Paramount Global’s choice to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over 60 Minutes ahead of the company’s merger with Skydance Media, which would require federal approval.
The following day, Trump cheered Colbert’s exit. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less [sic] than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday, per Variety. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
Trump also said that Fox News late-night comedian Greg Gutfeld “is better than all of them combined, including the moron on NBC who ruined the once-great Tonight Show,” taking a jab at Jimmy Fallon.
O’Donnell has had her rounds with Trump, saying on an Irish talk show this March that the former Apprentice star “has it out for [her] and has for 20 years,” ever since she called him out on The View.
“I mentioned his bankruptcies, and I mentioned all of the sexual assault charges, and I mentioned that he was not, in fact, the businessman that everyone thinks he is because of the show, The Apprentice, where they sold a bunch of lies to America for over 10 years, and half of America believed it,” she added in that interview.
O’Donnell told TikTok followers this March that she moved to Ireland with her daughter in January and would only consider moving back to the United States “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America.”
Earlier this month, Trump said on Truth Social that he was “giving serious consideration” to revoking O’Donnell’s citizenship. The comedian responded on Instagram, telling him, “I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
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