--- title: Stephen Colbert Slams Trump for Kim Jong Un Nuclear Tweets description: Stephen Colbert takes Donald Trump to task for "taking all the credit" for the hope that North and South Korea possibly reconciling. canonical: https://time.com/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-03T16:27:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:29.864Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Hit Back After Trump's Nuclear Button Tweet og:description: He had some choice words about the President's tweets og:url: https://time.com/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d2c27d88cf23ae/6988f6e6096a9429276a0f7d/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-global-warming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Hit Back After Trump's Nuclear Button Tweet twitter:description: He had some choice words about the President's tweets twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d2c27d88cf23ae/6988f6e6096a9429276a0f7d/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-global-warming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Went Right Back to Work on Trump's Tweets About Kim Jong Un > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 3, 2018 4:27 PM UTC  NEW YORK - JANUARY 19: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday's 01/19/16 show in New York. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) NEW YORK - JANUARY 19: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday's 01/19/16 show in New York. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 3, 2018 4:27 PM UTC If the past year is any indication, there’s nothing late night funnyman [Stephen Colbert](http://time.com/5003734/stephen-colbert-on-manafort/) enjoys more than [skewering President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5023261/stephen-colbert-on-trump-late-show-interview/) for his decisions in the Oval Office during his show _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_. However, on Tuesday night, Colbert had to settle for calling out Trump via social media as opposed to on camera. Because Colbert had taped Tuesday night’s episode earlier in the evening, before Trump let loose with [a series of tweets from his personal account](http://time.com/5085367/donald-trump-north-korea-nuclear-button-tweet/) where he countered North Korean leader Kim Jung Un’s claim that he has a “nuclear button” that could affect the U.S. by tweeting that he has a nuclear button that is “much bigger and more powerful” than Kim Jong Un’s. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948355557022420992) Colbert responded with a series of pithy tweets of his own, leaving plenty to his fans’ imaginations. > [](https://twitter.com/StephenAtHome/status/948400904016973824) While he didn’t have as much to say about the “nuclear button” during his show, Colbert addressed Trump’s other tweets about Kim Jung Un, specifically when it came to the tensions between South Korea and North Korea. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948194400114487296) “We will see?” Colbert said. “That’s a little nonchalant. ‘Maybe it’ll lead to peace, maybe it’ll lead to thermonuclear war. No way of knowing. I, as the President, would do something about it, but I’m too busy keeping all the planes in the sky.’” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Went Right Back to Work on Trump's Tweets About Kim Jong Un","datePublished":"2018-01-03T16:27:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:29.864Z","description":"He had some choice words about the President's tweets","url":"https://time.com/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Donald Trump","Late Night Television","the late show with stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d2c27d88cf23ae/6988f6e6096a9429276a0f7d/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-global-warming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4d2c27d88cf23ae/6988f6e6096a9429276a0f7d/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-global-warming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","caption":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert","creditText":"CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images","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/5085710/stephen-colbert-trump-tweets-kim-jung-un-nuclear-button/","name":"Stephen Colbert Went Right Back to Work on Trump's Tweets About Kim Jong Un"}}]}] ```