--- title: Colbert Addresses Trump No-Talent Guy Comment Controversy description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" canonical: https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T14:38:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:02:16.797Z og:title: Colbert Doesn't Mind Trump Calling Him "A No-Talent Guy" og:description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" og:url: https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=839&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 839 og:image:height: 472 og:image:alt: stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colbert Doesn't Mind Trump Calling Him "A No-Talent Guy" twitter:description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=839&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Has a Carefree Response to Donald Trump Saying He Is 'A No-Talent Guy' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=79b504fb-f244-4978-9410-622a06e39579&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: After Hours with President Trump [Watch (HLS stream): After Hours with President Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/arT4wYAV.m3u8) (1:18)  _Published 2017-05-11. Trump meets with three TIME reporters/editors in the evening and shows them his new home._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 12, 2017 2:38 PM UTC Trump meets with three TIME reporters/editors in the evening and shows them his new home. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 12, 2017 2:38 PM UTC Colbert is taking the President’s criticism in stride. [Donald Trump](http://time.com/donald-trump-after-hours/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod) recently sat down with TIME and had a few thoughts on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,_ in the wake of a joke that Stephen Colbert made in his[ May 1 monologue](http://fortune.com/2017/05/06/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-fcc/), involving the Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and oral sex. “You see a no-talent guy like Colbert. There’s nothing funny about what he says. And what he says is filthy,” Trump [told TIME ](http://time.com/4775633/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-cnn-msnbc-chris-cuomo/). “And you have kids watching. And it only builds up my base. It only helps me, people like him.” [Trump](http://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/?xid=homepage) also took credit for boosting Colbert’s ratings: “The guy was dying. By the way, they were going to take him off television. Then he started attacking me and he started doing better. But his show was dying. I’ve done his show. … But when I did his show, which by the way was very highly rated. It was high — highest rating. The highest rating he’s ever had.” Turns out that Colbert doesn’t mind the president’s words at all. “The president of the United States has personally come after me and my show,” he said in the opening monologue of his Thursday night show. “And there’s only one thing to say.” Colbert then broke into a giant grin: “Yayyy!” Of course, Colbert wasn’t the only television star or network to earn the President’s criticism. He also had choice words for MSNBC, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and Don Lemon, who he [dubbed](http://time.com/4775633/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-cnn-msnbc-chris-cuomo/) “perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting.” Hopefully Lemon can laugh it off like Colbert. ## Transcript [00:00] My name is Zeke Miller. I'm a white house [00:01] correspondent for Time magazine. On the evening of [00:03] May 8th, I went to the White House to interview the [00:06] President of the United States and have dinner with [00:08] him along with Time Washington bureau chief Michael [00:11] Scherer. and Time magazine editor Nancy Gibbs. The [00:13] president was obviously trying to put on a show for us. [00:15] It was choreographed. There was a whole bunch of [00:18] stage direction. It started in the oval office. He took us [00:21] behind the scenes Into his private study or room where [00:24] he does a lot of his work during the day. We then [00:26] walked into the executive mansion. He rode in the [00:30] elevator. We thought he was going to go to the first [00:33] floor. Instead, he took us up to the second floor, the [00:36] private residence. Secret service doesn't allow most [00:39] photographs. In these resident's levels and we were [00:43] essentially not permitted to take photo's up there. No, [00:46] I've interviewed the President, seven, eight, nine times, [00:50] I've never seen him like that and I've never seen the [00:52] White House like that. And this is a sort of unusual level [00:54] of access for anyone, reporters included. It speaks to [00:58] how the President likes to use the powers of [ MUSIC ] [01:02] Pageantry to achieve these aims, they certainly do get [01:06] people a little bit off guard and there's an element you [01:09] are walking through history and he likes to try to use [01:11] that to his advantage. 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