Colbert points out one eerie sign that Trump’s mental sharpness just isn’t what it used to be
Late-night host Stephen Colbert didn’t hold back Thursday night as he tore into Donald Trump’s latest Truth Social rant—this time targeting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In the post, Trump referred to Powell as “Too Late,” criticizing his delayed response in slashing interest rates:
“Too Late—Powell is the WORST. A real dummy, who’s costing America $Billions!” Trump posted. He later added: “TOO LATE’s an American Disgrace!” But for Colbert, the real disgrace wasn’t Powell—it was Trump’s declining knack for coming up with punchy put-downs.
“You want a real American disgrace?” Colbert quipped. “That half-a—d nickname! ‘Too Late?’ ‘Too Late?’ You can’t do better than ‘Too Late?’” Colbert then offered a few tongue-in-cheek alternatives for the former president to consider:
“What about ‘Loose Bowel Jerome Powell?’” he said, to audience laughter. “What about, ‘Jerome, Jerome, the business gnome, won’t lower mortgage rates on your home?’ Come on!” He added with mock exasperation, “This country used to have standards.”
“Meatball Ron! Sloppy Steve! Little Marco!”—reminding viewers of the memorable monikers once wielded by Trump against political rivals. “Meatball Ron,” an insult reportedly aimed at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, was long speculated to be a dig at his appearance, though Trump claimed in 2023 he never actually used it. He more frequently refers to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious” or “Ron DeSanctus.”
Then there’s “Sloppy Steve,” the label Trump stuck on former adviser Steve Bannon after their falling out, and “Little Marco,” his nickname for Senator Marco Rubio, coined during their 2016 GOP primary showdown. Rubio had clapped back at the insult in a rally at the time, poking fun at Trump’s stature and infamously small hands:
“He’s like 6-foot-2, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5-foot-2. And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”
Trump fired back days later, declaring, “I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee it.” Interestingly, Colbert didn’t mention one of Trump’s more recent jabs—“Sleepy Joe”—his go-to nickname for President Joe Biden, launched in 2019 to paint Biden as lethargic and mentally unfit.
