\n<\/p>\n
Late-night hosts dig into Donald Trump\u2019s growing anxiety over the Jeffrey Epstein files and his beef with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell.<\/p>\n
On Thursday evening, Stephen Colbert announced that the Late Show would end in May 2026, owing to a decision by the CBS parent company, Paramount. Though Paramount said the decision was \u201cpurely financial\u201d, the cancellation comes just three days after Colbert openly criticized the company for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump for $16m.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The settlement coincided with Paramount seeking approval from the Trump administration for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. Colbert called the settlement \u201ca big fat bribe\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a separate message to viewers on Thursday, Colbert said he was informed of the decision the night before. \u201cYeah, I share your feelings,\u201d he said as the audience booed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the end of the show, it is the end of the Late Show on CBS. I\u2019m not being replaced, this is all just going away,\u201d he added. \u201cLet me tell you, it is a fantastic job. I wish someone else was getting it. And it is a job I am looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his monologue, Colbert focused on the Jeffrey Epstein controversy consuming the White House, and \u201ccausing so much trouble for Trump that he recently ordered it to be put in a cell and for the cameras to stop working for three minutes\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaga is furious because they think Trump is refusing to release the Epstein files,\u201d he explained. \u201cIn response, Trump has been saying that there are no credible files, and if there are, they\u2019re really boring, and also Obama made them up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat part is true, and you can read them on Obama\u2019s annual summer Epstein client list,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs crazy as it is, Trump is going all in on the idea that his followers have fallen for a nefarious Democratic scheme.\u201d As Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday: \u201cCertain Republicans got duped by the Democrats, and they\u2019re following the Democrat playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is ridiculous \u2013 the Democrats have never had a playbook,\u201d Colbert joked. \u201cIt\u2019s improv, baby!<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump is desperately looking for a scapegoat,\u201d so on Wednesday, he fired the Manhattan prosecutor who handled the Epstein case and \u201cpulled the Uno reverse card\u201d, calling on the FBI to investigate \u201cthis Jeffrey Epstein hoax\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy which he evidently means he wants the FBI to investigate the folks who investigated Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking,\u201d Colbert said, \u201cwhich is weird, but we could get a whole new spinoff of To Catch a Predator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump \u201cis under a lot of pressure from all this Epstein stuff. Even his most devoted supporters are trashing him and demanding answers,\u201d said Seth Meyers on Thursday\u2019s Late Night before clips of numerous Republicans demanding answers and even calling for an independent special counsel.<\/p>\n
In an interview with a far-right media network, Trump called the Epstein files a \u201cscam\u201d that\u2019s \u201call put out by Democrats, some of the naive Republicans fall right into line like they always do\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFall in line with what?\u201d an exasperated Meyers asked. \u201cDemocrats didn\u2019t say a word. Your own supporters are the ones who spent years demanding the files and obsessing over the Epstein case, which was a very real criminal case involving a very real person, and now you\u2019re the one fanning the flames of the conspiracy by calling it all a hoax. I swear we\u2019re like a day away from Trump claiming Jeffrey Epstein was never even a real person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meyers also homed in on the far-right interviewer who validated Trump with \u201cthey definitely set the Republicans up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSet them up how?!\u201d he implored. \u201cWe\u2019ve been asking this question all week: how did they set up the Republicans? They made up fake Epstein files, then kept those fake files secret, then convinced the entire Maga base to spend years demanding the release of those files, then knew they would lose the election to Trump, who would then refuse to release the files they made up? You people all need to take a fucking dementia test.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know President Trump has spent the last two weeks in a wrestling match with the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d said Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show. \u201cBut he\u2019s been fighting the last six months with a much more alive person: Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. And boy does Trump hate the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klepper played a series of clips in which Trump called Powell a \u201cstupid person\u201d, an \u201caverage, mentally, person. I\u2019d say low at what he does\u201d and a \u201cnumbskull … you talk to the guy and it\u2019s like talking to nothing. It\u2019s like talking to a chair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah! Whatever happened to all of our exciting, dynamic Federal Reserve chairs?\u201d Klepper joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way Trump talks about him, you\u2019d think they caught him at a Coldplay concert with Trump\u2019s wife,\u201d he added. \u201cBut at its heart, this is a beef about economics. Trump wants to lower interest rates to help juice the economy, but Jerome Powell is in charge of setting those interest rates, and he refuses to lower them because he\u2019s worried that will increase inflation. And nothing, nothing makes Trump angrier than someone doing their job well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another clip, Trump blasted Joe Biden for nominating Powell. Except \u2026 Klepper cut to a clip of Trump<\/em> nominating Powell in 2017, calling him \u201cstrong,\u201d \u201ccommitted\u201d and \u201csmart\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDamn, Joe Biden looks fat as shit,\u201d Klepper joked. \u201cBut also, I get it. I\u2019m also trying desperately to forget everything that happened during Trump\u2019s first term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Late-night hosts dig into Donald Trump\u2019s growing anxiety over the Jeffrey Epstein files and his beef with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. Stephen Colbert On Thursday evening, Stephen Colbert announced that the Late Show would end in May 2026, owing to a decision by the CBS parent company, Paramount. Though Paramount said the decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[4263,2572,4766,3703,447,448,4767,2039,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-11402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-colbert","9":"tag-controversy","10":"tag-desperately","11":"tag-epstein","12":"tag-latenight","13":"tag-roundup","14":"tag-scapegoat","15":"tag-stephen","16":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}