--- title: Stephen Colbert Mocks Trump Water Speech Moment in Video description: Colbert tried to toast Trump's return, but couldn't quite manage it canonical: https://time.com/5027341/colbert-trump-water/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-16T16:34:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:50.477Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Mercilessly Mocks Trump's Water Drink og:description: Colbert tried to toast Trump's return, but couldn't quite manage it og:url: https://time.com/5027341/colbert-trump-water/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76167b3a32b39b/6988e621cf40a896cbc4a3d7/water.jpg?branch=production&width=1077&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1077 og:image:height: 606 og:image:alt: water og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Mercilessly Mocks Trump's Water Drink twitter:description: Colbert tried to toast Trump's return, but couldn't quite manage it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76167b3a32b39b/6988e621cf40a896cbc4a3d7/water.jpg?branch=production&width=1077&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's No Way Stephen Colbert Was Going to Let Trump's Water Break Slide > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=7750f063-982e-41db-b9e0-2eb72cf7ce58&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 16, 2017 4:34 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 16, 2017 4:34 PM UTC On Wednesday night’s episode of _The Late Show_, Stephen Colbert wanted to welcome President Donald Trump back from [Asia](http://time.com/5022965/donald-trump-asia-trip-duterte/) with a drink, but couldn’t quite manage the feat. Colbert’s gag was yet another person poking fun at the president for his water-drinking method, which he put on display when he, as _The Late Show_ captioned their video, “took a break mid-speech Wednesday to wet his dog whistle.” Colbert aired a clip of the president’s press conference, which Trump paused in order to take a two-handed drink from a bottle of water. “That is hard to watch,” Colbert said, adding, “After watching that, I need a drink.” Colbert then imitated the president’s sip of water. While the audience laughed, Colbert noted that “everybody gets dry mouth”, so it wasn’t fair to tease a politician for staying hydrated. “I can’t stand here and make fun of a politician for drinking water,” said Colbert. “And Trump already did it way better with Rubio.” Colbert then aired a clip of Trump mocking Florida Sen.[ Marco Rubio](http://time.com/4825715/ivanka-trump-met-with-lawmakers-to-discuss-paid-family-leave/) for drinking water during his State of the Union response in 2013. Rubio got his revenge on Trump, though, [rating the president’s water-drinking technique](http://time.com/5026390/trump-water-reactions/?xid=homepage), as a means of karmic retribution. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5027341/colbert-trump-water/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5027341/colbert-trump-water/"},"headline":"There's No Way Stephen Colbert Was Going to Let Trump's Water Break Slide","datePublished":"2017-11-16T16:34:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:50.477Z","description":"Colbert tried to toast Trump's return, but couldn't quite manage it","url":"https://time.com/5027341/colbert-trump-water/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Late Night Television","late show with stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef76167b3a32b39b/6988e621cf40a896cbc4a3d7/water.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/bltef76167b3a32b39b/6988e621cf40a896cbc4a3d7/water.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"water","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/5027341/colbert-trump-water/","name":"There's No Way Stephen Colbert Was Going to Let Trump's Water Break Slide"}}]}] ```