What Happened

Thursday, May 22, 2026: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired its final episode. Colbert signed off after 11 seasons.

Friday: President Trump posted an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting himself walking onto The Late Show stage, grabbing Colbert by the suit jacket, shaking him three times, and throwing him into a green dumpster. Then Trump — the AI version — dances to 'YMCA' while a crowd roars.

The clip runs 22 seconds.

Trump had already gone on Truth Social the night of the finale, calling Colbert a 'total jerk' with 'no talent, no ratings, no life.' According to the New York Post, he added: 'He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he's finally gone!'

The AI video was the follow-up punch.

The Ratings

Colbert's finale drew 6.74 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings cited by both the New York Post and The Independent. That's the most-watched weeknight episode of his entire 11-year run.

The show's final season averaged 2.7 million viewers per episode, according to The Independent. That's part of why CBS pulled the plug. The finale spike, however, was substantial.

Trump called Colbert a ratings disaster. The finale numbers suggest the audience showed up to say goodbye.

The Cancellation Context

CBS canceled the 33-year late-night franchise last July. The network called it 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,' according to The Independent.

The timing invites scrutiny. The cancellation came just days after Colbert publicly mocked Paramount — CBS's parent company — for agreeing to a $16 million settlement with Trump over allegations that 60 Minutes deceptively edited a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Colbert called the payment a 'big fat bribe' on air.

Days later: canceled.

Was it financial pressure? Corporate capitulation to political reality? Both? Nobody at CBS or Paramount has given a straight answer. The Independent reported the timeline. Most mainstream coverage treats the cancellation as a done-and-dusted financial call.

The AI Angle

Newsweek flagged something the more partisan outlets largely skipped: this is part of a broader pattern of political figures using AI-generated synthetic media to target critics.

Newsweek specifically pointed to the Los Angeles mayoral race, where candidate Spencer Pratt has circulated Hollywood-style AI clips racking up millions of views. The technology is getting better, faster, and cheaper — and it's being deployed as a political weapon.

A sitting president posting AI-generated content showing him physically assaulting a private citizen — even a critic, even in obvious satire — represents a shift in political messaging. Today it's a guy getting thrown in a trash can and it's funny to half the country. The normalization of synthetic media in political communication raises questions about where this trend leads.

What Colbert Did After Signing Off

Colbert didn't disappear. According to the New York Post, he showed up on a Monroe, New York public access show called 'Only in Monroe' on Monroe Community Media — a program he says he first visited in 2015. The low-budget bit featured Jack White, Eminem, Jeff Daniels, and Steve Buscemi.

His final week on The Late Show included pointed shots at Trump — calling a $1.8 million Justice Department fund to compensate people who claim government weaponization victimized them an 'all-you-can-fraud buffet,' and dubbing Trump 'Blob the builder.' The finale itself, however, pulled back from the political attacks. Paul McCartney performed 'Hello, Goodbye.' McCartney and Colbert literally pulled a power lever to turn out the lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The Independent noted the finale also featured rival late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver.

What the Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets are covering this primarily as a presidential dignity story — 'sitting president mocks private citizen with AI video.' That framing isn't wrong, but it treats Colbert as a victim rather than someone who spent 11 years doing the exact same thing to Trump in the other direction.

Right-leaning coverage is treating this as a triumphant victory lap. A president posting dumpster memes about a TV host one day after his show ends looks more like score-settling than strength.

Neither framing addresses the core issue: a major network canceled a flagship franchise under circumstances that at minimum LOOK like political and financial pressure from a presidential lawsuit. The AI video is secondary to that.