President Trump can throw a jab better than anyone in politics. And a lot of people love that about him. I do, too. That’s part of what made him such a political force in the first place. But every so often, he throws a punch that doesn’t need to be thrown. And I wish he would understand that he’s only hurting himself by doing that.
Just after midnight Wednesday, Trump unloaded on Stephen Colbert, calling him “a pathetic trainwreck” and “a dead man walking.” He mocked the late-night host’s “nonexistent ratings,” saying Colbert was “running on hatred and fumes.” Then he urged CBS to “put him to sleep,” calling it the “humanitarian thing to do.” For good measure, he even asked his followers which network employs the worst late-night host, adding that all of them have “High Salaries, No Talent, REALLY LOW RATINGS!”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s classic Trump. No one could ever accuse the man of being shy about speaking his mind. But here’s the thing: sometimes saying nothing is the smarter play.
Colbert’s CBS show has already been canceled. By May of next year, Colbert’s show will be done. Finished. Caput. Why even treat him like he matters anymore? Make no mistake about it, Trump’s midnight barrage only makes Colbert look like a martyr — a target of the president he’s built his career mocking. The same audience that stopped tuning in now gets to feel righteous again, thanks to Trump handing the guy fresh relevance on a silver platter.
And this isn’t the first time he’s done it, either.
After Colbert’s cancellation was announced, he said he “absolutely loved that Colbert got fired,” calling his “talent even less than his ratings.” All that did was contribute to the conspiracy theories that CBS canned Colbert because of Trump. It didn’t matter that the accusation made no sense; Trump added fuel to that fire— and unnecessarily, I should add.
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The irony here is that Trump’s broader point isn’t wrong. The mainstream networks and their late-night shows have become little more than attack machines aimed at him and the GOP. Late-night comedy is indeed dying because it’s become too partisan and one-sided. Trump should just let them die on their own because his comments can only embolden the left and make the likes of Colbert and Kimmel feel self-righteous.
I know some of you likely think that “Trump is Trump” and he knows what he’s doing. Trump is indeed Trump, but I see this as yet another unforced error, like his comments about Rob Reiner after he was murdered.
Look, voters already know the media hates Trump. I voted for Trump to fix the mess Biden created, not to obsess over a couple of late-night television hacks. I want him to be focused on the things that matter: the border, inflation, energy, and restoring strength where Biden abdicated it. I don’t need him using the bully pulpit of the presidency to push for Colbert’s cancellation. He doesn’t need to remind the country that Colbert and Kimmel are miserable hacks. Everyone already knows. The smart move is to let their failures speak for themselves. Sometimes the most devastating thing you can say is nothing at all.
