The news that President Trump’s chief economics adviser Gary Cohn was adding his name to the list of former White House officials broke late enough Tuesday that Stephen Colbert didn’t have time to get it into his Late Show monologue. But that didn’t stop him from talking about it on his show.
As showrunner Chris Licht revealed on Twitter, the resignation announcement actually happened during the taping. So writers huddled during Colbert’s interview with Oprah Winfrey and delivered him a last-minute bit he could deliver from his desk midway through the show.
“Now, listen, folks, I told you earlier about Trump’s tariffs and they might already be creating problems,” Colbert said after Winfrey had left the stage. “During this taping we found out Gary Cohn is resigning as Trump’s top economic adviser. Damn! I had Jared in my Trump resignation fantasy league!”
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Colbert chalked up the Cohn departure to a simple case of “supply and demand”: “He saw his boss demand a dumbass steel tariff, so he supplied himself an exit before shit hit the fan.”
“Now, it’s odd that Cohn would choose to resign now, seeing as how he had drafted a resignation letter after the tragedy in Charlottesville, which Trump responded to by saying there were good people on both sides,” Colbert added. “However, Cohn ultimately changed his mind and decided to remain on. So for the record, for Cohn, supporting Nazis is OK. But imposing import taxes? Now you’ve gone too far, sir!”
“Seems like every day another rat flees the sinking ship,” the host concluded. “Soon Trump will be down to Mike Pence, Kellyanne Conway, and a statue of Justice with the name Ivanka spray-painted on it.”
