--- title: Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Like His Old Character description: Donald Trump is the real-life version of Stephen Colbert’s old parody persona on 'The Colbert Report,' the former late-night host says canonical: https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-27T19:12:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:53.730Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Just Like His Old Character og:description: With 1 exception. og:url: https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb79b055e0342d8/698876eca988ca48b06b5e1f/stephen-colbert-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Obama Tapes An Interview For The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Just Like His Old Character twitter:description: With 1 exception. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb79b055e0342d8/698876eca988ca48b06b5e1f/stephen-colbert-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Just Like His Old Character — With 1 Exception > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 27, 2015 7:12 PM UTC  Stephen Colbert says Donald Trump is just like his old character on “The Colbert Report.” Stephen Colbert says Donald Trump is just like his old character on “The Colbert Report.” Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Dec 27, 2015 7:12 PM UTC Donald Trump is the real-life version of Stephen Colbert’s old persona on _The Colbert Report,_ [the former late-night host said](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-is-my-old-character-with-10-billion/) — except Trump has money. “I’m not the first person to say this, but I completely agree that he’s my old character with $10 billion,” [Colbert said Sunday on CBS’s _Face the Nation_](http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/john-dickerson-and-stephen-colbert-on-the-dream-interview/), referring to the faux conservative pundit he used to play on Comedy Central. “I mean it’s one of the reasons why I just can’t do that old character anymore because he’s doing it better than I ever could, because he’s willing to drink his own Kool-Aid and manufacture and distribute it because he’s got all the cash.” “He’s this very interesting like Frankenstein of the idea that facts don’t matter and only money does,” Colbert added. “Because if money is speech, he’s got a $10 billion mouth, and doesn’t have to spend any of it because everyone will point a camera at him.” The _Late Show_ said he respects the Republican presidential front-runner’s populist appeal even if he may not agree with rhetoric and controversial proposals that are “more than a little shocking.” “I have a respect for Trump for knowing who the real audience is, that if you really want to win you got to get the people,” Colbert said. “There’s a populism to Trump that I find very appealing. And it’s only this, is that the party elders would like him to go away but the people have decided that he is not going to.” See video of the interview below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Just Like His Old Character — With 1 Exception","datePublished":"2015-12-27T19:12:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:53.730Z","description":"\"He's got a $10 billion mouth","url":"https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb79b055e0342d8/698876eca988ca48b06b5e1f/stephen-colbert-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bb79b055e0342d8/698876eca988ca48b06b5e1f/stephen-colbert-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Tapes An Interview For The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert","caption":"Stephen Colbert says Donald Trump is just like his old character on “The Colbert Report.”","creditText":"Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4161774/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-2016/","name":"Stephen Colbert Says Donald Trump Is Just Like His Old Character — With 1 Exception"}}]}] ```