--- title: Stephen Colbert Cracks Up at Trump Jerusalem Speech description: Late night host Stephen Colbert couldn't contain his laughter after watching a clip of Donald Trump's slurred speech about Jerusalem. canonical: https://time.com/5053907/stephen-colbert-lost-it-over-that-word-flub-in-his-speech-declaring-jerusalem-the-capital-of-israel/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-07T17:08:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:08.429Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Cracks Up at Trump's Jerusalem Speech Flub og:description: Welcome to the United Shursh og:url: https://time.com/5053907/stephen-colbert-lost-it-over-that-word-flub-in-his-speech-declaring-jerusalem-the-capital-of-israel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4bc49fb2c1ebb74/6988f43397cdff52236b38bb/shush.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: shush og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Cracks Up at Trump's Jerusalem Speech Flub twitter:description: Welcome to the United Shursh twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4bc49fb2c1ebb74/6988f43397cdff52236b38bb/shush.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Lost It Over That Word Flub in Trump's Speech Declaring Jerusalem the Capital of Israel  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 7, 2017 5:08 PM UTC   by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 7, 2017 5:08 PM UTC While President Trump’s decision to recognize [Jerusalem as the capital of Israel](http://time.com/5053704/trump-jerusalem-move-palestinians-israelis/) [triggered alarm](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42261000) for a possible escalation of conflict in the Middle East, late night funnyman[ Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/5003734/stephen-colbert-on-manafort/) couldn’t help but find some humor in Trump’s delivery of the news. At the end of the speech, Trump appeared to have an odd verbal tic when he declared “God bless the United States,” with “states” sounding more like “shursh,” a flub that wasn’t lost on Colbert, who played the clip of the President’s speech twice on his eponymous show. “He managed to get every word in the speech right, except the last one,” Colbert said before joking about what a speech snafu might sound like in the future. “I am really looking forward to this Jan. 30\. We’re live when Trump addresses a joint session of Congress for the ‘Shshh’ of the Union.” Colbert later addressed the gravity of the situation and the potential it could have for stirring up political tensions internationally. Because Jerusalem is home to three world religions and both Israel and Palestine claim it as their capital and said that Trump could be making this move [to fulfill campaign promises](http://time.com/4644948/what-president-trump-has-done-so-far/). 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