One day after Stephen Colbert's final episode of “The Late Show” aired on May 21, 2026, President Trump posted an AI-generated video to his Truth Social account showing himself grabbing Colbert on stage and throwing him into a green dumpster, then dancing to the Village People's “YMCA” before a studio audience. The clip splices real Late Show footage with AI-generated elements to create the staged confrontation.
Trump captioned the post celebrating Colbert's departure from CBS and predicting other late-night hosts would follow him out: “Stephen Colbert's firing from CBS was the 'Beginning of the End' for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts.” CBS had announced “The Late Show” cancellation in July 2025, in the same period FCC pressure on the network was escalating (see CBS Blocks Colbert from Interviewing Democratic Candidate on Air After Trump's FCC Threatens 'Equal Time' Crackdown on Late-Night Shows).
Colbert had been one of Trump's most persistent late-night critics across both terms — a 2017 Newsweek analysis found he delivered 337 Trump-focused jokes in the first 100 days alone. His final episode notably avoided direct Trump references, and the dumpster post was Trump's response to that restraint. It is the latest entry in a documented pattern of presidential AI-deepfake posts attacking critics (see AI-Generated Deepfakes & 'King Trump' Video).