Stephen Colbert Flips Trump’s Taunts Back on Him in Kennedy Center Honors Review

Stephen Colbert torched President Donald Trump’s stint hosting the Kennedy Center Honors with the same taunts the president had previously lobbed at him, as the late-night host mocked Trump as “no talent” and “low-rated.”

Trump became the first sitting president to host the ceremony in December, opening the night with a 12-minute address that was ultimately trimmed to just two minutes in the CBS broadcast.

The event itself delivered the lowest ratings in the show’s history, averaging an estimated 3.01 million viewers. That marked a sharp decline from the 4.1 million who tuned in last year.

Colbert, a frequent target of attacks by the president, couldn’t help but return fire in a scathing opening monologue on Tuesday night’s The Late Show.

“Trump’s invasion of Venezuela on Saturday threw off my plans for what I really wanted to talk about this week, which of course is how this year’s Kennedy Center Honors drew an all-time low viewership on CBS with host Donald Trump,” Colbert told his audience.

“Nobody saw that coming,” he said, before correcting himself. “Oh, I’m sorry, read that wrong. Nobody saw that.”

Trump had recently lashed out at Colbert in a late-night Christmas Eve tirade, branding him “no talent” with “nonexistent ratings.”

Colbert, barely restraining his glee, responded in kind: “The president managed to draw only 3 million viewers on CBS. It is beneath me to gloat, but if it weren’t, I’d call him no-talent, low-rated Donald Trump.”

The audience erupted into cheers and chants of “Stephen” as Colbert leaned into Trump’s well-worn excuse-making, suggesting viewers “cut the guy some slack” since it was his first time hosting the event.

“As a former Kennedy Center host myself, I know it can take a while to build up an audience. What were my ratings my first year?” he asked, revealing a graphic showing 9.25 million viewers in 2014.

“What?! 9.25 million viewers! Three times as many?! And I didn’t even name the building after myself.”

Watch above via CBS.

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