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Stephen Colbert has continued to delight in Donald Trump’s rage after baiting the former president by calling him “boring.”
The Late Show host said that his description of the former president in a recent PBS interview was deliberate and intended to “upset” him.
During the interview, Colbert was asked if he would consider having Trump as a guest on his show. “I’ve had him before and he’s kind of boring, so no,” he replied.
Trump was quick to react, and apparently rattled, as he penned a long post on his social media platform, Truth Social, taking aim at Colbert, who he described a “total loser” and ‘VERY BORING.”
“I briefly watched an interview of Stephen Colbert on highly government subsidized PBS, and found it fascinating for only one reason — Why would they be wasting time and the public’s money on this complete and total loser?” Trump wrote Tuesday.
“He is not funny, which he gets paid far too much to be, he is not wise, he is VERY BORING, and his show is dying from a complete lack of viewers.”
Colbert responded to Trump’s Truth Social post during his late-night show on Wednesday.
"He’s clearly upset because I called him boring. And I called him boring because I knew it would upset him,” Colbert said, prompting laughter from the audience. “Which it did, because he’s so predictable. Which is ultimately what makes him kinda boring."
During a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this week, Trump also lashed out at Colbert, and his fellow late-night show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon. The former president’s two chief complaints related to a moment from Fallon’s show eight years ago, and a joke that Kimmel made at the Oscars more than six months ago.
“When I first ran in 2015 or was thinking about running I went on [Jimmy’s] show, The Tonight Show, which is dying. They’re all dying,” Trump added. “Where is Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny. It made you appreciate the greatness of Johnny Carson. These three guys are so bad.”
Trump’s comments about Carson have since gone viral, with a number of people wondering if he was speaking literally about bringing back Carson, who died in 2005.
The former president often appears to take remarks from late-night comedians to heart and while in the White House, he reportedly tried to have Kimmel censored.
Rolling Stone reported last year that Trump made at least two phone calls to a top executive at Disney, the parent company of ABC which airs Jimmy Kimmel, Live!, to demand action against the star in 2018.