‘Please Check Spine at the Door.’ Stephen Colbert Tears Into Ted Cruz’s Dinner With Trump

Although Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and President Donald Trump spent months slinging insults back and forth during some of the most bitter moments of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, the President and First Lady hosted Cruz and his family for what Cruz said was a “principally a social dinner” on Wednesday. Stephen Colbert couldn’t help feasting on the history of the rivalry.

Just as he satirized Trump’s dinner with Mitt Romney before it, the host served up a large helping of jokes during the opening monologue on Thursday’s The Late Show. Colbert kicked off by cycling through a series of insults Cruz and Trump have traded, including the times Trump called him “lyin’ Ted” in tweets. Not to mention Trump’s baseless accusation that Cruz’s father helped assassinate John F. Kennedy and the speech where Cruz dubbed Trump a “pathological liar.”

“I doubt Trump apologized for anything he said. It’s not his style,” Colbert said before reading off a mock formal invitation with great ceremony. “You and your wife — who’s a 3 at best — are invited to dinner,” he quipped, adding, “Please check spine at the door.”

Watch the full clip below.