--- title: Stephen Colbert on Trump Syria Mixup VIDEO description: Stephen Colbert kicked off Monday's episode of The Late Show by blasting President Donald Trump for seeming to confuse Syria with Iraq. canonical: https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-18T15:12:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:55.220Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Getting 'His Wars Mixed Up' og:description: The President recently seemed to confuse Syria with Iraq og:url: https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cfd76a6adbf67f9/6988c35186f68e65226e44dc/stephen-colbert-trump-syria.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Getting 'His Wars Mixed Up' twitter:description: The President recently seemed to confuse Syria with Iraq twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cfd76a6adbf67f9/6988c35186f68e65226e44dc/stephen-colbert-trump-syria.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Slams President Trump for Getting 'His Wars Mixed Up' > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5f1c6912-f0c5-4637-8a9a-5cd9d562745c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 18, 2017 3:12 PM UTC  Stephen Colbert hosts The Late Show on Thursday, April 6, 2017 Stephen Colbert hosts The Late Show on Thursday, April 6, 2017 Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 18, 2017 3:12 PM UTC [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4744165/stephen-colbert-alex-jones-parody/) kicked off Monday night’s episode of _The Late Show_ by taking a few minutes to blast [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4723481/donald-trump-paris-agreement-withdraw/) for recently seeming to confuse [Syria](http://time.com/4741703/syria-mass-evacuations-continue/) with Iraq. After airing a clip in which POTUS revealed to Fox Business Network that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping about ordering a [airstrikes on Syria](http://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/) — but mistakenly said Iraq before correcting himself to say Syria — while enjoying “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake” at Mar-a-Lago, the host slammed Trump for the mix-up. “Hey, South Korea, before the war starts — just to be on the safe side — you might want to break out the spray paint,” he said in reference to [Trump’s warnings to North Korea](http://time.com/4743683/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-gotta-behave/), showing a map of the two countries with the words, “The good Korea (Do not bomb),” graffitied on the southern half. He went on to say “it’s easy for Trump to get his wars mixed up.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Slams President Trump for Getting 'His Wars Mixed Up'","datePublished":"2017-04-18T15:12:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:55.220Z","description":"The President recently seemed to confuse Syria with Iraq","url":"https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/","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/blt7cfd76a6adbf67f9/6988c35186f68e65226e44dc/stephen-colbert-trump-syria.jpg?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/blt7cfd76a6adbf67f9/6988c35186f68e65226e44dc/stephen-colbert-trump-syria.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","caption":"Stephen Colbert hosts The Late Show on Thursday, April 6, 2017","creditText":"Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty Images","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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/","name":"Stephen Colbert Slams President Trump for Getting 'His Wars Mixed Up'"}}]}] ```