--- title: Stephen Colbert Monologue Takes on Trump and Putin Summit description: Stephen Colbert went into overtime over questions of whether President Trump is “the Siberian candidate.” canonical: https://time.com/5340570/stephen-colbert-trump-putin/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-17T14:18:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:34:40.423Z og:title: Putin's Press Conference With Trump Shook Colbert to His Core og:description: Colbert went overtime getting into the "nitty crazy" of Trump's day og:url: https://time.com/5340570/stephen-colbert-trump-putin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac5d6040c7a938c6/6989358c7cdbac7083d5d6db/stephencolbertontrumpputtinsummit.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1312 og:image:height: 738 og:image:alt: StephenColbertonTrumpPuttinSummit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Putin's Press Conference With Trump Shook Colbert to His Core twitter:description: Colbert went overtime getting into the "nitty crazy" of Trump's day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac5d6040c7a938c6/6989358c7cdbac7083d5d6db/stephencolbertontrumpputtinsummit.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Putin's Press Conference With Trump Shook Stephen Colbert to His Core > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2b4e181a-f1eb-4324-9d3e-e912520a8449&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said [Watch (HLS stream): Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2018-07-16. Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 17, 2018 2:18 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 17, 2018 2:18 PM UTC Stephen Colbert went overtime to get into the “nitty crazy” of President Donald Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir [Putin](http://time.com/author/bill-browder/) on Monday, noting that, he was shaken to his core, but “at 54, there’s not a lot of core left.” Colbert devoted a two-part “Double Stuf Oreo” version of _The Late Show’s_ opening monologue on Monday night to [Trump](http://time.com/author/brian-bennett/) and Putin after the two leaders met for a summit in Helsinki on Monday. The meeting and Trump’s statements at their joint press conference, left Colbert shaken by questions of whether President Trump is “the Siberian candidate.” “I’m thinking that maybe the most patriotic thing we can do right now, is not point out the alarming behavior of our president, which could be divisive. But instead, just take it until he’s gone,” Colbert joked with the audience. “Does anybody feel like just taking it?” The audience loudly said no, which reassured Colbert.“OK, me neither. I was worried there for just a second.” He then got into the “nitty crazy” of Trump’s press conference with Putin, which he classified as “treason.” Despite the fact that their meeting came just days after the U.S. [indicted](http://time.com/5340695/putin-trump-press-conference-robert-mueller-russia/) 12 Russian military intelligence agents for allegedly hacking DNC servers ahead of the 2016 election, Trump seemed to side with Putin over the U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump said Putin vehemently [denied charges of collusion](http://time.com/5339995/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-congress-reaction/) saying that “he didn’t see any reason why it would be.” Colbert said he found that hard to believe. “You don’t see any reason? Do you own a mirror?” Colbert joked. “Because after throwing your intelligence community under the bus, you threw it in reverse and turned them into road burger.” It wasn’t just Colbert who was alarmed by the president’s statements and actions. Even members of his own political party were [dismayed](http://time.com/5339932/john-mccain-statement-trump-putin-meeting/) by Trump’s actions. After reading a few reactions from both sides of the political aisle, Colbert said, “Wow! Those are the worst reviews I’ve seen since Titanic. And I don’t mean the movie.” ## Transcript Once again president Trump mentioned the issue of the so called interference of Russia when the American elections. And I had to literate things I said several times including during out personal context that the Russian state has never interfered and it's not going to interfere Into internal American affairs, including election process. During today's meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person, spent a great deal of time talking about it. And President Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly. Because he feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea. To say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't even know the President. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign and every time you hear these you know all of these twelve and fourteen and frankly they admit these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader maybe it does. It doesn't. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out to the floor. So far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the campaign. And they're gonna have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the campaign. It was a clean campaign. Zero collusion. And it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 % of nuclear power between the two countries. 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