Stephen Colbert Torches Bid to Hide East Wing Demolition With Savage Epstein Joke
The Late Show host Stephen Colbert torched President Donald Trump’s attempt to hide the White House East Wing demolition from curious press photojournalists with a savage Jeffrey Epstein joke.
The East Wing has been dismantled to clear ground for what aides describe as a grand new ballroom structure, despite the president’s past promises the building would be unaffected by the project.
But images of the destruction have sparked public backlash and curiosity, which reportedly prompted the Secret Service to block media access to Ellipse Park, where construction crews had been filmed tearing down the structure.
Colbert, who already likened Trump’s move this week to the anger-fueled destruction of a “Hulk Smash,” weighed in on the move to hide construction work from the start of his Thursday monologue.
“As of this morning, the East Wing looked like a rotisserie chicken your dog got into,” he began, flashing the image on screen. “That is very upsetting to look at, I realize that.”
He continued: “And you know the administration knows that because today the Secret Service closed access to the Ellipse Park, which is a public park, from which journalists had been capturing live images of the East Wing demolition.”
Rounding on the jab, he added: “Well, that makes sense. If none of it’s on camera, they can just claim the East Wing hanged itself in prison.”
Epstein, the disgraced financier and one-time Trump associate, died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, though persistent speculation has fueled conspiracy theories that he was murdered and about who has benefited from his silence.
The joke also landed as a bipartisan cohort of lawmakers in Congress push for the release of the Epstein case files, which Trump pledged to reveal while on the campaign trail. Democrats have accused House Speaker Mike Johnson of prolonging the government shutdown to delay a vote.
Watch above via CBS.
