--- title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Peachy Dory Comment description: Stephen Colbert does not share Trump's assessment that things in the United States are "peachy dory." canonical: https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-11T15:59:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:19:46.967Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Saying Things Are 'Peachy Dory' og:description: "You can't just mix phrases like that" og:url: https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6553236c75d812/69894318bc6cfc081f3e7e5e/screen-shot-2019-01-11-at-10.22.52-am.png?branch=production&width=1135&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1135 og:image:height: 638 og:image:alt: Stephen-Colbert-Trump-Peachy-Dory og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Saying Things Are 'Peachy Dory' twitter:description: "You can't just mix phrases like that" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6553236c75d812/69894318bc6cfc081f3e7e5e/screen-shot-2019-01-11-at-10.22.52-am.png?branch=production&width=1135&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Does Not Share Trump's Assessment About How 'Peachy Dory' Things Are > 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=cdb52366-df90-4e39-912a-9f5ba99a9a1a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Says It Will Be 'Very Surprising' If He Doesn't Declare Emergency to Build the Wall [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Says It Will Be 'Very Surprising' If He Doesn't Declare Emergency to Build the Wall](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ypcBu9RR.m3u8) (1:10)  _Published 2019-01-10. President Donald Trump says it would be “very surprising” for him not to declare a national emergency if he can’t make a deal with Democrats to pay for his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 11, 2019 3:59 PM UTC President Donald Trump says it would be “very surprising” for him not to declare a national emergency if he can’t make a deal with Democrats to pay for his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 11, 2019 3:59 PM UTC As the United States slogs through the third week of its [government shutdown](http://time.com/5494109/shutdown-third-longest-us-history/), [Stephen Colbert](time.com stephen colbert) does not share President Donald Trump’s assessment that things in the country are “peachy dory.” In fact, he’s not even sure that he knows what that means. During Thursday’s edition of “Chopper Talk” on _The Late Show_, Colbert weighed in on the [Thursday press conference Trump gave](http://time.com/5499166/president-trump-national-emergency/) when he threatened to declare a national emergency to bypass Congress if he can’t convince Democrats to approve more than $5 billion in funding for a border wall. He also said that reports that he slammed the table and stormed out of a [Wednesday meeting](http://time.com/5498428/donald-trump-pelosi-schumer-meeting/) with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were incorrect. “Well the news incorrectly reported, because I said, ‘Well, if we go back and everything is peachy dory and you say we’ll talk over thirty days, at the end of thirty days are you going to give us great border security, which includes a wall or a steel barrier?’ She said no,” Trump said. “I didn’t pound the table, I didn’t raise my voice. That was a lie.” However, it was Trump’s turn of phrase, rather than the statement itself, that got Colbert’s attention. “Peachy dory? You can’t just mix phrases like that,” the late-night host quipped. “It makes it sound like you’re not playing with a full deck of marbles. Not the sharpest knife in the spoon.” Watch the full clip below. ## Transcript [00:00] I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency, [00:03] the lawyers have so advised me. I'm not prepared to do [00:08] that yet, but if I have to, I will. I have no doubt about it, I will. I [00:12] have the absolute right to declare. This was passed by [00:14] Congress. So when you say, was it passed [00:18] by Congress, it was. Other presidents have used it, some [00:22] fairly often. I have the absolute right to declare a national [00:26] emergency. I haven't done it yet, I may do it. If [00:30] this doesn't work out, probably I will do it, I would almost [00:33] say definitely. If we don't make a deal, I mean I [00:38] would say 100 %, but I don't wanna say 100 %, because [00:42] maybe something else comes up. But I would say if we [00:44] don't make a deal, I would say it would be very surprising [00:49] to me that I would not declare a national emergency as just [00:53] funded through the various mechanisms. And by the way, [00:56] there's more than one mechanism. There's various [01:00] mechanisms. And the lawyers tell me 100 %. It would be [01:03] nice if we could make a deal. But dealing with these people [01:07] is ridiculous, I don't know if they know how to make a deal. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Does Not Share Trump's Assessment About How 'Peachy Dory' Things Are","datePublished":"2019-01-11T15:59:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T08:19:46.967Z","description":"\"You can't just mix phrases like that\"","url":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","stephen colbert","TV","the late show","Late Night Television","the late show with stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6553236c75d812/69894318bc6cfc081f3e7e5e/screen-shot-2019-01-11-at-10.22.52-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6553236c75d812/69894318bc6cfc081f3e7e5e/screen-shot-2019-01-11-at-10.22.52-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Stephen-Colbert-Trump-Peachy-Dory","caption":"","creditText":"CBS/The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","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":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/","name":"Stephen Colbert Does Not Share Trump's Assessment About How 'Peachy Dory' Things Are"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Says It Will Be 'Very Surprising' If He Doesn't Declare Emergency to Build the Wall","description":"President Donald Trump says it would be “very surprising” for him not to declare a national emergency if he can’t make a deal with Democrats to pay for his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ypcBu9RR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-01-10T16:05:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ypcBu9RR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/","duration":"PT1M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5500358/stephen-colbert-trump-national-emergency-conference/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```