Late-night host Stephen Colbert veered from comedy into full-blown hysteria Thursday night, launching into a profanity-laced tirade on The Late Show as he pleaded with the so-called “deep state” to stop President Donald Trump’s new round of reciprocal tariffs. With a straight face, Colbert looked into the camera and begged the mythical “cabal of financial and governmental elites” to halt the administration’s trade agenda — a plan that, unlike Colbert’s jokes, has widespread support among blue-collar voters.
“Anyone feeling liberated?” Colbert quipped sarcastically, referencing Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement that slapped reciprocal tariffs on dozens of foreign nations. “Worst day for our economy since COVID. Just a little reminder: This time, he’s the disease.”
As usual, Colbert didn’t bother explaining the rationale behind the policy. Trump’s tariffs were designed to punish foreign countries that have long exploited one-sided trade deals and flooded U.S. markets with cheap goods while slapping their own tariffs on American products. That’s not speculation — that’s the data. Free trade agreements like NAFTA decimated entire sectors of American manufacturing, hollowed out small towns, and helped create the Rust Belt in the first place. But those facts never make the cut in Colbert’s monologues.
Instead, the CBS host descended into bizarre conspiracy-theory satire, mocking those who believe in a globalist deep state while simultaneously begging that very group to stop Trump.
“If [the deep state] does exist, I just want to say to the cabal of financial and governmental elites who pull all the strings behind the scenes,” Colbert said, “maybe put a pause on your 5G chip JFK Jr. adrenochrome chemtrail orgy and jump in here because we’re f***ing dying.”
That was the punchline. Or maybe the cry for help.
Notably absent from Colbert’s 13-minute meltdown was any actual engagement with the issues at hand. No acknowledgment that working-class Americans overwhelmingly support Trump’s trade policies. No mention that nearly 4.5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished since the signing of NAFTA. No word on the billions in lost wages or the small towns that were gutted by outsourcing and deindustrialization — the exact grievances Trump’s tariffs are designed to address.
Why would Colbert touch that? After all, he’s worth an estimated $75 million, and his show is taped in midtown Manhattan — ground zero for the elite bubble that never saw 2016 coming and is still throwing tantrums about 2024.
Trump, meanwhile, has made it clear that these tariffs aren’t just economic policy — they’re about sovereignty. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far,” he said this week. “American steel workers, auto workers, farmers, and skilled craftsmen… they watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs.”
That message resonates far more in Toledo or Tulsa than in the greenrooms of late-night TV.
Colbert’s rant wasn’t just unhinged — it was unintentionally revealing. The Left, which once championed fair trade and working-class solidarity, is now openly mocking the very policies that protect American jobs. Worse, they’re fantasizing about shadowy elites overriding democratic decisions just because they don’t like who’s in the White House.
At the end of the day, Stephen Colbert’s “joke” wasn’t funny — it was a snapshot of a media class in total panic. They see Trump restoring economic leverage, dismantling the globalist consensus, and putting the forgotten American worker first.
And they just can’t handle it.
Let them keep whining. Main Street’s cheering.
