--- title: Stephen Colbert Interviews Donald Trump on "The Late Show" description: New York real estate mogul Donald Trump appeared on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert Tuesday. canonical: https://time.com/4045724/donald-trump-stephen-colbert/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-23T04:23:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:49.101Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Again Calls for a Border Wall og:description: The billionaire returned to his proposal in an interview with Stephen Colbert. og:url: https://time.com/4045724/donald-trump-stephen-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73aa1c50e30f827b/698864e32dce0139239e5a6d/donald-trump-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=366&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 366 og:image:height: 206 og:image:alt: Stephen Colbert during a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thursday Sept 10, 2015 on the CBS Television Network. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Again Calls for a Border Wall twitter:description: The billionaire returned to his proposal in an interview with Stephen Colbert. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73aa1c50e30f827b/698864e32dce0139239e5a6d/donald-trump-stephen-colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=366&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump on Stephen Colbert: Mexico Will Have to Build the Wall > Sponsored content. 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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=b7dd38ba-7514-4d7b-93db-4bf7b612ff16&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Best Quotes By Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7MzTpVq2.m3u8) (1:21)  _Published 2015-07-23. Donald Trump's Most Ridiculous Quotes_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 23, 2015 4:23 AM UTC  Stephen Colbert during a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thursday Sept 10, 2015 on the CBS Television Network. Stephen Colbert during a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thursday Sept 10, 2015 on the CBS Television Network. CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 23, 2015 4:23 AM UTC Donald Trump is returning to the issue that helped propel him to the top of the Republican race for the presidential nomination, telling _The Late Show_ host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday that he would build a “great and beautiful wall” along the Mexican border. “We are going to build a wall. You’re going to pay for the wall,” the brash billionaire said he would tell the Mexican government. “The wall itself, we own.” Trump, who has been riding high in the polls since he entered the topsy-turvy chase for the GOP presidential nomination. He spent the summer hurling invectives at his rivals and offering a string of insensitive assessments of Americans. He also had ugly words for immigrants in the country illegally, and vowed to erect a thousand-mile wall to block new immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexican border. Voters, in turn, rewarded him with increasingly strong support. **Read More:** [_The Donald Has Landed_](http://time.com/trump/) Until recently, that is. Last week’s debate at the Reagan presidential library seemed to be the first signs of vulnerability. Fellow business executive Carly Fiorina delivered a stand-out performance and directly confronted Trump about his impolitic remarks about her appearance. Trump was left blushing and spent much of the rest of the debate sulking. Trump, however, is retrenching. He was his typical self on Colbert’s program, boasting of his crowd sizes, poll numbers and personal wealth. Trump repeatedly says he is not accepting donations from supporters and instead prefers to pay for the campaign out of his deep pockets. After all, that’s the perk of being a billionaire. “I don’t want the money from the lobbyists and special interests,” Trump said. When asked by Colbert if the really thought President Obama was not born in the United States, Trump refused to answer. Trump has long peddled questions that Obama was born outside the United States and, thus, is ineligible to be President. (For the record: Obama was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii.) Trump said he didn’t want to talk about Obama’s birthplace any more. Instead, he wanted to talk about veterans. “They’re treated worse than illegals,” Trump said of immigrants in the United States illegally. Trump’s entire campaign has been draped with a surreal quality. Colbert nodded to doubts that Trump was serious about being President, or if this is all part of Trump’s elaborate play for publicity. “Would that be a step down for you? You know what the pay is like,” Colbert asked. “It would be my great honor,” Trump replied. Colbert continued: “You seriously want the job?” As Trump sat down on Colbert’s stage, the comedian acknowledged that he, like so many television hosts, had enjoyed Trump’s campaign as a punchline. “You are setting the world on fire,” Colbert said. “I want to think you for running for President. I’m not going to say this stuff writes itself, but you certainly do deliver it on time every day,” Colbert said. ## Transcript Rosie O'Donnell's disgusting, I mean both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob. She talks like a truck driver. So he could have been born in Kenya and gone over to the United States. And everybody wants to be a US citizen. And his grandparents put an ad in saying he was born in the United States. He didn't kill Bin Laden. He gets so much credit for that. Ok excuse me. He had the guts to make that decision. And the genius. Excuse me. Guts. First of all Vince, your grapefruits are no match for my Trump Towers. They're bringing drugs They're bringing crime, they're rapist, and some I assume are good people, and I love the Mexican people. I've had thousands of Mexicans working for me. I sell apartments for millions of dollars to people from Mexico. They love me, they love me. [ CROSSTALK ]. He's a war hero cuz he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you this. And I see your Senator. What a stiff? What a Stiff? Lindsay Graham. I'm not using the lobbyists, I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. 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