--- title: Colbert Does Not Think Trump Understands the Constitution description: Colbert doesn't think Trump remembers that whole 'We The People' thing canonical: https://time.com/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-12T15:01:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:57.625Z og:title: Colbert Just Gave Trump a Refresher on the Constitution og:description: Colbert doesn't think Trump remembers that whole 'We The People' thing og:url: https://time.com/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfee70e9926a74bd6/6988e1ab22fb851eebe233ee/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1454 og:image:height: 818 og:image:alt: Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colbert Just Gave Trump a Refresher on the Constitution twitter:description: Colbert doesn't think Trump remembers that whole 'We The People' thing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfee70e9926a74bd6/6988e1ab22fb851eebe233ee/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Is Here to Give President Donald Trump a Refresher on the Constitution > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 12, 2017 3:01 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 12, 2017 3:01 PM UTC Stephen Colbert does not think that President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4952750/kim-jong-un-donald-trump-dotard-north-korea/) agrees with the whole “we the people” thing embodied in the the U.S. Constitution. During his monologue on Wednesday night’s episode of _The Late Show_, Colbert reminded viewers of the very recent report of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson allegedly calling [Trump a “moron.”](http://time.com/4975666/donald-trump-rex-tillerson-secretary-of-state/) “We were so young then,” [said Colbert](http://time.com/4970357/stephen-colbert-to-rex-tillerson-nobody-calls-our-president-a-moron-except-me/), wistfully. He then explained what he believes is the reason for Tillerson’s derogatory comment, which the Secretary denied. Referencing NBC reporting that earlier this summer Trump had called for a “nearly ten-fold increase” in the U.S.’s nuclear arsenals. “A ten-fold increase? Excuse me as I one-fold into the fetal position,” says Colbert. Trump [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918110279367643137) his denial of the story, saying [NBC’s story](http://time.com/4979000/donald-trump-nbc-news-network-licenses-revoked/) was “pure fiction” comparing the network to CNN. The president then questioned, in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/918112884630093825), when it was “appropriate” to “challenge” NBC’s license. The President later said in an interview: “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they wanna write and people should look into it.” Colbert had a response to that comment, “Sir, people did look into it. ‘We the people’ looked into it and thought, ‘yeah, they should write whatever they want.’” He suggested that the president should check it out sometime, “It’s a quick read.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Is Here to Give President Donald Trump a Refresher on the Constitution","datePublished":"2017-10-12T15:01:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:57.625Z","description":"Colbert doesn't think Trump remembers that whole 'We The People' thing","url":"https://time.com/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Donald Trump","the late show with stephen colbert","Late Night Comedy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfee70e9926a74bd6/6988e1ab22fb851eebe233ee/colbert.jpg?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/bltfee70e9926a74bd6/6988e1ab22fb851eebe233ee/colbert.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Colbert","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/4979494/stephen-colbert-on-trump-nbc-tweets/","name":"Stephen Colbert Is Here to Give President Donald Trump a Refresher on the Constitution"}}]}] ```