Bruce Springsteen didn’t hold back on how he feels about Donald Trump during his final guest spot on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert’s program is set to wrap up later this month after 33 years on television, ending with an extended final episode on May 21.
Across the show’s long run, Colbert has fronted the CBS late-night staple for more than a decade. Before him, David Letterman launched and led the series beginning in 1993.
With The Late Show nearing its conclusion, a stream of high-profile guests has appeared, and Springsteen took the stage for the penultimate episode last night (May 20).
Just before performing his song ‘Streets of Minneapolis’, the 76-year-old rock icon praised Colbert while also aiming a pointed remark at Trump.
“I’m here in support tonight for Stephen, because you are the first guy in America who lost his show because we got a president who can’t take a joke,” Springsteen said, adding: “And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want.”
The musician continued: “Stephen, these are small-minded people. They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.”
CBS confirmed last July that it would be canceling The Late Show.
Although the network attributed the decision to shrinking advertising revenue and expensive production, plenty of observers — including Colbert himself — suspected politics played a role, prompting him to take aim at Trump at the time.
“They’re pointing out that last Monday, just two days before my cancellation, I delivered a blistering monologue in which I showed the courage to have a moustache,” the veteran host said last summer. The monologue in question saw the 62-year-old mock a $16,000,000 legal settlement between CBS’s parent company Paramount and Trump.
“I mean, obviously, CBS saw my upper lip and boom, cancelled,” Colbert continued. “Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is statism.”
Trump welcomed the announcement that Colbert was losing his job, writing on Truth Social: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
When The Late Show ends tonight (May 21), there won’t be any other live late-night episodes airing either, as Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have said their shows will also be off, according to Entertainment Weekly. ABC and NBC are expected to run repeats instead.