--- title: Stephen Colbert on Donald Trump and Russia VIDEO description: Stephen Colbert devoted Tuesday's opening monologue to a major hot button issue: the escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. canonical: https://time.com/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T16:20:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:57.591Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Slams Russian Officials for Criticizing Trump og:description: "You should have thought of that before you elected him." og:url: https://time.com/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/ 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 Slams Russian Officials for Criticizing Trump twitter:description: "You should have thought of that before you elected him." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stephen Colbert Scolds Russian Officials for Criticizing Trump: 'You Should Have Thought of That Before You Elected Him'  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 19, 2017 4:20 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Apr 19, 2017 4:20 PM UTC After slamming [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4745178/donald-trump-newtown-sandy-hook-conspiracy-theorists/) for refusing to release [his tax returns](http://time.com/money/4732925/trump-tax-returns-released-poll/), [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4744355/stephen-colbert-on-trump-war/) pivoted Tuesday’s opening monologue to another hot button issue: the[ escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea](http://time.com/4735853/donald-trump-north-korea-fox-business-interview/). “Of course, who has time to worry about tax returns when we’re about to go to war with North Korea,” the _Late Show_ host said, referencing the [North Korean UN ambassador’s recent threat](http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/17/world/north-korea-united-nations-envoy/) of [“weekly” missile tests](http://time.com/4743040/north-korea-missile-tests-2/). “Now, this show pre-tapes, so if you’re at home watching right now, we made it!” Colbert then moved on to scolding one Russian official’s recent criticism of Trump’s handling of the North Korea situation. “And this time, it isn’t North Korea with an erratic, trigger-happy leader. According to \[[Russian state TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov](https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-17/russia-warns-u-s-not-to-use-force-unilaterally-against-n-korea)\], ‘Trump is more impulsive and unpredictable than Kim Jong Un,'” he explained. “Well then, Russia, you should have thought of that before you elected him.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Scolds Russian Officials for Criticizing Trump: 'You Should Have Thought of That Before You Elected Him'","datePublished":"2017-04-19T16:20:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:57.591Z","description":"\"If you're at home watching right now, we made it!\"","url":"https://time.com/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","politics","stephen colbert","TV","Donald Trump","the late show","Late Night Television","the late show wih stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"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/4746256/stephen-colbert-on-trump-russia/","name":"Stephen Colbert Scolds Russian Officials for Criticizing Trump: 'You Should Have Thought of That Before You Elected Him'"}}]}] ```