--- title: Stephen Colbert Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 description: On the 'Late Show,' Stephen Colbert called out government for not getting much done in 2019, calling Trump's antics "Kabuki Theater." canonical: https://time.com/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-14T16:19:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:30.013Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 og:description: Colbert is not impressed with Trump and government's latest anti-shutdown antics og:url: https://time.com/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/ 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 Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 twitter:description: Colbert is not impressed with Trump and government's latest anti-shutdown antics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen Colbert Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 So Far  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2019 4:19 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2019 4:19 PM UTC [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/5522787/stephen-colbert-live-sotu/) is pretty fed up with the politics of today. In fact, Colbert doesn’t think anything that’s going on in the White House is all that noteworthy this week, despite plenty of ink being devoted to [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5528673/donald-trump-congress-border-security-compromise-republicans/)‘s latest movements toward appearing to accept a smaller border wall deal. “I truly believe that years from now people will look back on this day and say, why are we looking back on that day?” Colbert said on his _Late Show_ on Wednesday night, referring to the [national conversation](http://time.com/5527318/trump-border-wall-shutdown-deal/) around the deal. He went on to explain: “Nothing that has happened in government in 2019 has effected anyone. Where’s the infrastructure bill? Where’s the immigration bill? Where’s the fix on healthcare? We are celebrating — or supposed to be celebrating — that they’re close to a deal to achieve the absolute minimum: _having_ a government.” (The government was [already shut down](http://time.com/5111979/government-shutdown-day-two-congress/) for 35 days earlier this winter, with Trump temporarily ending the shutdown despite stalling on border wall talks.) But Colbert had even sharper jokes for the latest news about averting another shutdown. “Celebrating that is like celebrating that your child finally used the potty on his first day of medical school,” he said. “It’s not impressive anymore.” As for Trump’s posturing as decides whether or not he’s signing the latest deal? “It’s just Kabuki Theater… He’s got to do the dance to get to yes, which is a refreshing change from his usual MO, the [grope to get past no](http://time.com/4538729/donald-trump-accuser-karena-virginia/),” Colbert joked. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 So Far","datePublished":"2019-02-14T16:19:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:30.013Z","description":"\"It's not impressive anymore.\"","url":"https://time.com/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Late Night Television","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"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/5529612/colbert-shutdown-trump/","name":"Stephen Colbert Is Not Impressed With Government in 2019 So Far"}}]}] ```