Colbert Denounces Trump's 'Dark' State Of The Union

Alex Christy
February 25th, 2026 1:48 PM

Text to Speech

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CBS’s Stephen Colbert hosted his last-ever live edition of The Late Show in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday as he reacted to President Trump’s State of the Union address, which he labeled “dark.”

During his monologue, Colbert and his audience took a page out of Jimmy Kimmel’s playbook and applauded the gold medal-winning women’s hockey team for not being at the speech, “One team of gold medal winners wasn't there because the U.S. women's hockey team declined Trump’s invite to the State of the Union. Yeah. No show. No show. Or as they say in hockey, 'puck no.' The woman actually got a better offer because, this is true, hip-hop legend Flavor Flav invited the team to party in Vegas.”

 

 

Colbert omitted that Trump announced the women’s team “will soon be coming to the White House.”

Further on, Colbert introduced a clip of Trump by declaring, “Throughout his speech tonight, Trump showed remarkable flexibility for a man his age to toot his own horn.”

In the clip, Trump stated, “In one year we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.”

 

 

Colbert attacked, “Yes, he lifted 2.4 million people off of food stamps in that he kicked 2.4 million people off of food stamps so they are off of food, and now they are just eating stamps, delicious flavors like blueberry, strawberry, and Bruce Lee.”

Summing the whole thing up, Colbert insisted, “Honoring our veterans and first responders aside, it was a dark speech filled with divisive lies, and it's unlikely to win him much support with the voters who have grown disenchanted with the chaos and dysfunction of the second administration, but his was not the only speech tonight.”

At the beginning of his monologue, Colbert joked that he “dropped an edible” to help him get through the speech, and when he concluded, he highlighted some of the Democrats’ counterprogramming, “The Democrats had several rallies across Washington, including one at the National Press Club. Let's check in with what the Democrats had to offer.”

After a clip of Rep. Maxine Dexter hyping “The Portland Frog Brigade!” Colbert quipped, “Whoa. That edible was stronger than I thought.”

 

 

Later, Colbert welcomed former colleague-turned Atlantic contributing writer John Dickerson and tried to wax poetic, “You said when you were on the show last year, you talked about Jefferson believing the ‘chains of the Constitution bind a man down for mischief.’ How—did the founders account for someone like Trump because they—?”

Dickerson—who Colbert said was his second-most frequent guest, ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders, but behind HBO Last Week Tonight host John Oliver—replied, “They did and they didn't. They did for sure. They thought not all men will be virtuous, and we have to create a government that constrains them, but with the president—when they put the presidency together, George Washington was at the front of the room, and they thought, basically, our presidents are going to be like him. They'll have virtue, and their virtue plus the combat with the other branches. That will constrain presidents from going overboard.”

 

 

If George Washington is the standard, then no president can be said to have lived up to the founders’ intentions, even those presidents who were also founding fathers. Then there is the fact that Colbert and Dickerson’s lamentations about Congress not checking a president only seem to pop up when Trump is president and Republicans are in control of Congress.

Here is a transcript for the February 24-25 show:

CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

2/25/2026

12:07 AM ET

STEPHEN COLBERT: Trump honored the gold winning men’s U.S. hockey team, a great bunch of young guys, and made a special announcement about their goalie, Connor Hellebuyck.

DONALD TRUMP: I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years. [jump cut] It's called the highest civilian honor in our country.

COLBERT: [Trump voice] "It's the FIFA hockey prize for ice peace. I'm guessing because ‘cause they’re not scrolling on my prompter here for some reason."

One team of gold medal winners wasn't there because the U.S. women's hockey team declined Trump’s invite to the State of the Union. Yeah. No show. No show. Or as they say in hockey, puck no. The woman actually got a better offer because, this is true, hip-hop legend Flavor Flav invited the team to party in Vegas.

…

COLBERT: Throughout his speech tonight, Trump showed remarkable flexibility for a man his age to toot his own horn.

TRUMP: In one year we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record, off of food stamps.

COLBERT: Yes, he lifted 2.4 million people off of food stamps in that he kicked 2.4 million people off of food stamps so they are off of food, and now they are just eating stamps, delicious flavors like blueberry, strawberry, and Bruce Lee.

…

COLBERT: Honoring our veterans and first responders aside, it was a dark speech filled with divisive lies, and it's unlikely to win him much support with the voters who have grown disenchanted with the chaos and dysfunction of the second administration, but his was not the only speech tonight. The Democrats had several rallies across Washington including one at the National Press Club. Let's check in with what the Democrats had to offer.

MAXINE DEXTER: The Portland Frog Brigade!

COLBERT: Whoa. That edible was stronger than I thought.

…

COLBERT: You said when you were on the show last year, you talked about Jefferson believing the ‘chains of the Constitution bind a man down for mischief.’ How—did the founders account for someone like Trump because they—?

JOHN DICKERSON: They did and they didn't. They did for sure. They thought not all men will be virtuous, and we have to create a government that constrains them, but with the president—when they put the presidency together, George Washington was at the front of the room, and they thought, basically, our presidents are going to be like him. They'll have virtue, and their virtue plus the combat with the other branches. That will constrain presidents from going overboard.

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