Trump Demands CBS ‘Put To Sleep’ Stephen Colbert Immediately As Midnight Truth Social Rant Threatens To Strip Broadcast Licenses From ‘Treasonous’ Networks!
The holiday season is usually a time for peace and reflection, but for the denizens of the West Wing and the executive suites at CBS, it has become a theater of war. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, while the rest of the nation slept, President Donald J. Trump took to his Truth Social platform to issue a series of vitriolic decrees that have the entire entertainment industry braced for impact. The target was his perennial nemesis, Stephen Colbert, but the implications of the President’s “midnight massacre” of words reach far beyond a single comedian.

The catalyst for the latest explosion was, surprisingly, a rerun. While CBS aired a repeat of the December 8th episode of The Late Show, the President was evidently watching closely, stewing over Colbert’s mockery of his recent chairmanship of the Kennedy Center. In a post that sent the political and media worlds into a frenzy, Trump wrote:
“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success. Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”
The phrase “put him to sleep”—language more commonly associated with terminal illness or the disposal of a dangerous animal—has sent a chill through the halls of 30 Rock and the Ed Sullivan Theater alike. It represents an unprecedented escalation in the President’s rhetoric, moving from simple insults to a demand for the immediate professional execution of a sitting news-comedy host.
But the President didn’t stop there. Minutes later, he broadened his sights, taking aim at the entire late-night landscape.
“Who has the worst Late Night host, CBS, ABC, or NBC???” he asked his millions of followers.
“They all have three things in common: High Salaries, No Talent, REALLY LOW RATINGS!”
This was followed by a direct threat to the legal foundations of American broadcasting. Trump questioned why “Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows” that are “almost 100% Negative” toward him should be allowed to keep their “very valuable Broadcast Licenses.”
“I say, YES!” he concluded, regarding the termination of those licenses, before offering a jarringly dissonant “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!” to his followers.

The context of this battle is rooted in a summer of unprecedented corporate and political upheaval. In July 2025, CBS shocked the world by announcing that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would be retired in May 2026. The network insisted the decision was “purely financial,” citing a “challenging backdrop in late night” and a purported $40 million annual loss.
However, the timing was, at best, suspicious. The announcement came just three days after Colbert delivered a blistering monologue accusing CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, of paying a “big fat bribe” to the President.
That “bribe” referred to a $16 million settlement Paramount paid to the Trump administration to resolve a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jon Stewart, have suggested the settlement and the subsequent cancellation of Colbert’s show were tactical moves to secure the Trump administration’s approval for the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media.
Colbert himself has been uncharacteristically blunt about the situation. After the cancellation was announced, he addressed the theories head-on.
“I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us,” he told GQ in a recent interview.
But on his show, the gloves have truly come off. Responding to the President’s initial celebration of his firing, Colbert looked into the “Eloquence Cam” and told the leader of the free world: “Go f— yourself.”
The President’s latest demand to “put him to sleep” suggests that the “lame duck” period for Colbert—originally intended to run until mid-2026—may be more volatile than anyone anticipated. Industry insiders are now questioning whether CBS will cave to the renewed pressure. Colbert’s ratings, contrary to the President’s claims, have remained at the top of the late-night pack, but the threat to broadcast licenses is a nuclear option that could force the hand of even the most defiant network executives.
“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their No. 1 rated late-night franchise is part of what’s making everybody wonder,” Jon Stewart remarked on The Daily Show.
“Was this purely financial, or maybe the path of least resistance for your merger?”
As we head into 2026, the question is no longer just about who wins the ratings war. It is about whether the satirical voice that has defined a decade of American political discourse will be allowed to survive until its scheduled departure, or if the “humanitarian” request of a President will result in a dark, silent screen at 11:35 PM.
For now, the “dead man walking” continues to walk, but with the President’s finger on the “off” switch, the walk has never felt more precarious.