President Donald Trump seemed to be so rankled by late-night comedians poking fun at his takeover of the Kennedy Center and its annual honors gala on Tuesday night that it led him to renew threats to take away their networks’ broadcasting licenses, but his penchant for bragging without evidence ha s come back to bite him again. The day began brightly for the president, who proudly posted on Truth Social at 9:55 a.m.: “THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER HONORS will be broadcast tonight, on CBS, and Stream on Paramount+. Tune in at 8 P.M. EST! At the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America, I am hosting the event.” US President Donald Trump takes questions from journalists after announcing the US Navy’s new Golden Fleet initiative, unveiling a new class of warships, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 22, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images) Trump continued, even considering leaving one of the most coveted jobs, “Tell me what you think of my “Master of Ceremony” abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make “hosting” a full time job?” The Kennedy Center show honored celebrities handpicked by Trump, including singer Gloria Gaynor, actor Sylvester Stallone, country music legend George Strait and the rock band KISS. ‘Had the Balls to Say This’: Trump Erupts on World Leader Who Refused to Back Down —What He Said Next Lit Up the Internet The show’s producers cut down Trump’s 12-minute opening remarks taped at the live event held on Dec. 7 to just two minutes for the show broadcast for viewers, The Washington Post reported, leaving out several of his off-color jokes, including a reference to the laughing audience as “miserable, horrible people.” President Trump’s introduction and full opening remarks at the 48th Annual Trump Kennedy Center Awards Much better than Jimmy Kimmel if you ask me! pic.twitter.com/OhxJhO55dQ— TheStormHasArrived (@TheStormRedux) December 24, 2025 “The Kennedy Center is very special and we’re bringing this building back to life like nobody ever thought was even possible,” the president told the audience. He also accidentally-on-purpose referred to the venue as the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” Last week comedian Stephen Colbert derided Trump’s vanity play on the Kennedy Center, originally named to memorialize an assassinated president.“So buckle up, America,” Colbert continued. “Before this is over, [Trump’s] gonna rub his balls on everything. Why not just replace the Liberty Bell with Trump? I mean, he’s got a bigger crack.” By midnight after the Kennedy honors show aired on TV, Trump was apparently watching “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and steamed by the comedian’s making fun of his management of the center and his hosting prowess. At 12:15 a.m., Trump posted what many considered to be a veiled threat: He ordered a hit.— Cathamand (@cathamand) December 24, 2025 “Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success. Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!” “The Late Show” is currently on a holiday break, noted TV Insider, but on Tuesday CBS aired a rerun from Dec. 8 in which Colbert ridiculed Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, saying, “It seems like the commander in chief shouldn’t have enough time to run a theater.” Colbert also fileted Trump’s comments ahead of his hosting of the Kennedy Center event. In an Oval Office press meeting, the president said he’d watched footage of previous hosts, adding, “Jimmy Kimmel was horrible…. If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.” “You can’t and you shouldn’t,” Colbert retorted before clarifying “for Grandpa Puddin’ Skull” that Kimmel has never actually hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, producing a huge laugh from the audience. Kimmel also had his fun responding to the 79-year-old president mistakenly calling him a terrible host of the event during his monologue the night after the gala.“That is very hurtful,” Kimmel said. “I thought we were friends. I don’t know what’s going on. He is really fixated. I’m starting to think he might have a crush on me. Do you think he even knows I’ve never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors? Maybe he’s confusing me with Queen Latifah.” In his second Truth Social post early Wednesday morning, Trump wrote: “Who has the worst Late Night host, CBS, ABC, or NBC??? They all have three things in common: High Salaries, No Talent, REALLY LOW RATINGS!” View on Threads Followed by: “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!” View on Threads But it seems Kimmel and Colbert will have the last laugh as Trump’s hosting debut landed with a thud for ratings. According to an X post by Programming Insider, “preliminary Nielsen data, “The Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers.” The report was even more bleak when put into historical perspective, “the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million viewers, which itself had already marked a historical low.” . Nothing will upset The Donald more than bad ratings— E Harder (@erharder) December 24, 2025 And while it’s true that all late-night network TV shows have lost audience share over time as younger viewers have peeled off to play video games and watch other online content, Trump’s attacks on Colbert and Kimmel have often backfired by producing spikes of record viewership. After Trump and his Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr called for Kimmel’s ousting and for ABC to lose its broadcast license in September in the wake of comments Kimmel made about right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk, resulting in Kimmel’s suspension for several days, Kimmel’s triumphant return show drew 6.2 million viewers, a big jump from his prior season average of 1.6 million. ABC renewed Kimmel’s contract through 2027 in December. Colbert’s “Late Show” remains the top-rated late-night program by total audience in 2025, averaging 2.4 million to 2.7 million nightly viewers. CBS announced in July that it would end “The Late Show” in May 2026 for financial reasons unrelated to “performance” or “content,” a move Trump gleefully celebrated. “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. ‘Do You Think He Even Knows?’: Trump Picked a Nasty Fight with His Comic Rivals — Forgot Who Did What, Kept Swinging, and Let Something Slip He Couldn’t Take Back ...read more read less