--- title: Stephen Colbert on Rachel Maddow Trump Tax Return VIDEO description: Stephen Colbert apparently didn't appreciate Rachel Maddow's long-winded buildup to revealing President Donald Trump's 2005 tax return. canonical: https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-16T15:46:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:57.420Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Spoofs Rachel Maddow's Slow Trump Reveal og:description: "I hold in my hand, something very significant" og:url: https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Spoofs Rachel Maddow's Slow Trump Reveal twitter:description: "I hold in my hand, something very significant" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen Colbert Spoofs Rachel Maddow's Slow-Building Trump Tax Return Reveal  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 16, 2017 3:46 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 16, 2017 3:46 PM UTC Like [many on Twitter](http://people.com/politics/rachel-maddow-exposes-donald-trump-tax-return-twitter-reaction-social-media-disappointment/), [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4702108/stephen-colbert-paul-ryan-trump-audio/) apparently didn’t appreciate [Rachel Maddow’s](http://time.com/4701756/trump-tax-returns-rachel-maddow-richard-nixon/) contextual buildup to revealing [President Donald Trump’s 2005 tax return](http://time.com/4703013/donald-trump-leaked-tax-returns-rachel-maddow/) Tuesday night. During Wednesday’s episode of _The Late Show_, the host spoofed the MSNBC pundit’s take on breaking news with a cold open that poked fun at her lengthy introduction to the scoop. “I hold in my hand something very significant,” Colbert said, holding up a piece of paper. “It is a joke — a joke that we have confirmed has been heard by Donald Trump. We believe this is the first time any joke connected with Donald Trump has been released.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Spoofs Rachel Maddow's Slow-Building Trump Tax Return Reveal","datePublished":"2017-03-16T15:46:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:57.420Z","description":"\"I hold in my hand, something very significant\"","url":"https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","politics","stephen colbert","TV","Donald Trump","the late show","Late Night Television","the late show with stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4703504/stephen-colbert-rachel-maddow-trump-tax-return/","name":"Stephen Colbert Spoofs Rachel Maddow's Slow-Building Trump Tax Return Reveal"}}]}] ```