--- title: Stephen Colbert Is in Disbelief About Trump's NATO Remarks description: “He’s a human air horn,” Colbert said on Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show canonical: https://time.com/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-12T14:34:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:47.709Z og:title: Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Surprise Stephen Colbert at All og:description: “He’s a human air horn,” Colbert said on The Late Show og:url: https://time.com/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c0f2a8b9578b698/6989352ffb4eac73b4897199/stephencolbert.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: stephencolbert og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Surprise Stephen Colbert at All twitter:description: “He’s a human air horn,” Colbert said on The Late Show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c0f2a8b9578b698/6989352ffb4eac73b4897199/stephencolbert.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Surprise Stephen Colbert at All by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 12, 2018 2:34 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 12, 2018 2:34 PM UTC Stephen Colbert thinks President Donald Trump’s [meeting with NATO](http://time.com/5335111/donald-trump-nato-spending-facts/) started on “a contentious note.” Colbert was not surprised by the president’s tone, though. “Contentious is his only note! He’s a human air horn,” Colbert said on Wednesday night’s episode of _The Late Show_. Colbert’s comments came in the wake of Trump’s claim that Germany is “[captive to Russia](http://time.com/5335412/trump-nato-summit-germany-controlled-russia/)” due to a gas pipeline that links the two nations. “It’s true,” Colbert said. “We’re all controlled by the people who give us our gas, which is why I’m forever beholden to the Chevron on Route 3.” Colbert went on to say that [Trump](http://time.com/5335462/trump-administration-cuts-26-million-in-funds-for-organizations-that-help-people-sign-up-for-obamacare/) is making such claims about Germany to distract from his own relationship with the Kremlin, noting that Trump predicted that his upcoming meeting with Russian President [Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/5333104/putin-trump-summit-helsinki-winner/) “may be [easiest of them all](http://time.com/5334381/president-trump-putin-europe-nato/) – who would think?” “I would think. Everyone would think,” Colbert said. Russia has been accused of [meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections](http://time.com/5324479/russia-used-facebook-to-influence-the-2016-election-regulators-cant-agree-on-how-to-stop-it-in-2018/), and Robert Mueller is still investigating whether there was collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials. “I’m not ready to say that our president is a Russian agent, but I have an agent, and he doesn’t do as much for me as Trump does for Russia,” he said. “I love you, baby doll, but you never swung an election for me. I lost to John Oliver!” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/"},"headline":"Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Surprise Stephen Colbert at All","datePublished":"2018-07-12T14:34:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:47.709Z","description":"“He’s a human air horn,” Colbert said on Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show.","url":"https://time.com/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","NATO","Donald Trump","Late Night Television","late show with stephen colbert"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7c0f2a8b9578b698/6989352ffb4eac73b4897199/stephencolbert.jpeg?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/blt7c0f2a8b9578b698/6989352ffb4eac73b4897199/stephencolbert.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"stephencolbert","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/5335626/trump-nato-colbert/","name":"Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Surprise Stephen Colbert at All"}}]}] ```