Stephen Colbert Roasts Awards-Obsessed Trump After Emmy Win
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert host celebrates his win with a dig at Trump.
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert marked his Emmy Awards win with a pointed jab at Donald Trump, further fueling their long-running feud.
For the first time, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert snagged Outstanding Talk Series, beating out The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
Trump policies have been the target of Colbert’s humor for years, but there has been extra bitterness between the two since CBS decided to axe the show.
Colbert is not being replaced as host because the show is going away altogether after its upcoming 2025-2026 season.
RYAN MURPHY/REUTERS
“On Sunday night, we won our first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series…Speaking of Emmys, Donald Trump doesn’t have one,” Colbert, one of the most outspoken critics of Trump, told his cheering audience on Tuesday.
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The swipe came after CBS blindsided Colbert by announcing it would cancel his show in May 2026. Trump appeared to revel in the news on Truth Social, writing, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired... His talent was even less than his ratings.”
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Trump’s fixation with the Emmys stretches back years. He has long griped that the Emmys were “rigged” against him, citing his multiple Emmy nominations for The Apprentice and no wins.
In 2012, Trump said on social media that the award show is “all politics” and “that’s why, despite nominations, The Apprentice never won—even though it should have many times over.”
Colbert has long mocked Trump’s Emmy bitterness. In 2017, he reminded viewers: “He was nominated multiple times for Celebrity Apprentice, but he never won. Even during the campaign, Trump would not let it go. But he didn’t because, unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winners of the popular vote.”

CBS said the decision to axe the show was “purely a financial one."
Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images
The show’s cancellation was announced shortly after CBS parent company Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over edits to a 60 Minutes pre-election interview with Kamala Harris. Trump had brought a $10 billion lawsuit against the company.
Colbert dubbed the deal “a big fat bribe.”
CBS said the decision to axe the show was “purely a financial one against a challenging backdrop in late night” and had “nothing to do with the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount.”
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