Stephen Colbert—television host and now full-time Trump satirist—staged his own Twitter intervention for Donald Trump on The Late Show Tuesday night, following a report last week that White House aides tried in vain to curb the president's impulsive social media habit.
The late-night comedian reacted to the news saying, "You can't take Twitter away from Trump. That's like taking the nudity away from Game of Thrones. It's the reason why we watch the show." Points for the comparison, Colbert, but it's not the only reason we watch Thrones: We also like the tense, small council meetings laced with thinly-veiled threats that somehow seem more civilized than a Trump cabinet meeting.
"Apparently this intervention included White House staff only, but there are plenty of us that have been affected by President Trump's tweets," Colbert continued before pulling out his own intervention letter for Trump.
The comedian deadpanned: "Dear President Trump, your tweeting has affected me in the following ways: My ratings are up." (Indeed, Colbert has beaten NBC rival The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon consistently in total viewers over the last two months.)
"But President Trump, some nights half my monologue is just about things you've tweeted," Colbert said. "You're squeezing out other fun news stories. Did you know San Francisco is opening a rat cafe? You took that away from me."
He concluded the letter, "We want you to accept help—or at the very least, autocorrect."
Colbert pleaded for Trump to give up his "harmful addiction and find another coping mechanism." He suggested, "Have you tried drinking? Because that's what I've been doing and it's going pretty great."
From the real-life president to a fictional one, Colbert welcomed House of Cards leading man Kevin Spacey onto his sofa ahead of the political drama's fifth season premiere. Talk quickly turned to parallels between the Netflix series and the current upheaval in the White House.
"At some point between when shot the [latest] season and when it drops" on May 30, Spacey said, "three, or four, or five things we have dealt with on the show happened in the real world."
So if we want to know how this Russia investigation ends, maybe House of Cards will have the answers?
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
