--- title: Kevin Spacey Talks Trump and House of Cards on Colbert description: Watch Kevin Spacey tell Stephen Colbert that House of Cards "did it first" before President Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-24T17:42:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:56:44.615Z og:title: 'We Did it First.' Kevin Spacey Says 'House of Cards' Is Trumping Trump og:description: Spacey talked about the strangely timely fifth season og:url: https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8511ac94443fab94/6988ceb8196cf4070f04043c/spaceycolbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: SpaceyColbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'We Did it First.' Kevin Spacey Says 'House of Cards' Is Trumping Trump twitter:description: Spacey talked about the strangely timely fifth season twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8511ac94443fab94/6988ceb8196cf4070f04043c/spaceycolbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'We Did it First.' Kevin Spacey Says _House of Cards_ Is Trumping Trump ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. Spacey talked about the strangely timely fifth season_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 24, 2017 5:42 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 24, 2017 5:42 PM UTC _House of Cards_ star Kevin Spacey has a pointed message to deliver to Trump: been there, done that. Spacey stopped by _The Late Show_ to talk to [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/4790412/stephen-colbert-trump-saudi-arabia/) about the strangely timely fifth season of his Netflix political drama [_House of Cards_](http://time.com/4640910/house-of-cards-season-five-inauguration-day/) on Wednesday. Naturally, Colbert asked Spacey who plays Washington’s most charismatic Machiavellian power player, Frank Underwood, about overlapping themes. “Is it odd to do a show like [_House of Cards_](http://time.com/4791572/fcc-stephen-colbert-late-show-donald-trump/) that does not seem as crazy as reality anymore?” Colbert asked. The consummate impressionist’s response: As Christopher Walken might say, ‘it’s crazy.’ Spacey whose fictional character is now POTUS on the show, told the host the series came up with several plot points that invite comparison to the current political landscape before the actual news hit. “At some point between when we shot the season and before it dropped, 3-4-5 things happened in the real world, and we go ‘everyone’s going to assume we stole it from the headlines.’…I think we’ve never been more relevant,” he said. Oddly enough, Spacey famously said that Frank Underwood, was actually talking to Donald Trump long before he announced his campaign, which afforded Spacey the chance to comment on the President the Netflix show imagines vs. the President for real. “What has become clear since then, he’s just not listening at all. I do believe we have better writers. We did it first.” Watch below. _House of Cards_ comes out on May 30. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/"},"headline":"'We Did it First.' Kevin Spacey Says House of Cards Is Trumping Trump","datePublished":"2017-05-24T17:42:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:44.615Z","description":"Spacey talked about the strangely timely fifth season","url":"https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","stephen colbert","Kevin Spacey","Late Night Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8511ac94443fab94/6988ceb8196cf4070f04043c/spaceycolbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8511ac94443fab94/6988ceb8196cf4070f04043c/spaceycolbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SpaceyColbert","caption":"","creditText":"","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/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/","name":"'We Did it First.' Kevin Spacey Says House of Cards Is Trumping Trump"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"Spacey talked about the strangely timely fifth season","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4792659/kevin-spacey-trump-colbert-house-of-cards/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```