--- title: Colbert Addresses Trump No-Talent Guy Comment Controversy description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" canonical: https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T14:38:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:35.392Z og:title: Colbert Doesn't Mind Trump Calling Him "A No-Talent Guy" og:description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" og:url: https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=839&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 839 og:image:height: 472 og:image:alt: stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colbert Doesn't Mind Trump Calling Him "A No-Talent Guy" twitter:description: Colbert's response to the president's words? "Yay!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=839&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Has a Carefree Response to Donald Trump Saying He Is 'A No-Talent Guy' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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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=33fc69da-195f-49ba-ac21-c5bf55733654&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 12, 2017 2:38 PM UTC  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on May 11, 2017 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on May 11, 2017 CBS by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 12, 2017 2:38 PM UTC Colbert is taking the President’s criticism in stride. [Donald Trump](http://time.com/donald-trump-after-hours/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod) recently sat down with TIME and had a few thoughts on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,_ in the wake of a joke that Stephen Colbert made in his[ May 1 monologue](http://fortune.com/2017/05/06/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-fcc/), involving the Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and oral sex. “You see a no-talent guy like Colbert. There’s nothing funny about what he says. And what he says is filthy,” Trump [told TIME ](http://time.com/4775633/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-cnn-msnbc-chris-cuomo/). “And you have kids watching. And it only builds up my base. It only helps me, people like him.” [Trump](http://time.com/4776968/donald-trump-white-house-press-comey/?xid=homepage) also took credit for boosting Colbert’s ratings: “The guy was dying. By the way, they were going to take him off television. Then he started attacking me and he started doing better. But his show was dying. I’ve done his show. … But when I did his show, which by the way was very highly rated. It was high — highest rating. The highest rating he’s ever had.” Turns out that Colbert doesn’t mind the president’s words at all. “The president of the United States has personally come after me and my show,” he said in the opening monologue of his Thursday night show. “And there’s only one thing to say.” Colbert then broke into a giant grin: “Yayyy!” Of course, Colbert wasn’t the only television star or network to earn the President’s criticism. He also had choice words for MSNBC, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and Don Lemon, who he [dubbed](http://time.com/4775633/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-cnn-msnbc-chris-cuomo/) “perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting.” Hopefully Lemon can laugh it off like Colbert. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Has a Carefree Response to Donald Trump Saying He Is 'A No-Talent Guy'","datePublished":"2017-05-12T14:38:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:35.392Z","description":"Colbert's response to the president's words? \"Yay!\"","url":"https://time.com/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Donald Trump","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta17c6d6d66eba840/6988cd10cf40a8522dc47a86/stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump1.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump","caption":"stephen-colbert-cbs-late-night-show-trump","creditText":"CBS","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/4777029/colbert-on-trump-no-talent/","name":"Stephen Colbert Has a Carefree Response to Donald Trump Saying He Is 'A No-Talent Guy'"}}]}] ```