Bruce Springsteen took the stage at Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on Wednesday and shared his thoughts on the show coming to an end this week while referencing U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Born in the USA singer performed Streets of Minneapolis, his anti-ICE protest song that was released in January after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, who were both shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Before performing the song, Springsteen spoke about the decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will air its final episode on Thursday.
“I’m here in support tonight for Stephen, because you’re the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke,” Springsteen told the crowd.
“And uh, because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want,” the 76-year-old singer said of the CEO of Paramount and his son.
“Stephen, these are small-minded people who got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about. This is for you,” he added.
In response to Springsteen’s comments on The Late Show, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Global News that Colbert “is a pathetic trainwreck with no talent and terrible ratings, which is exactly why CBS cancelled his show and is booting him off the airwaves.”
Ingle also shared a prior Truth Social post from Trump with Global News, dating back to April, calling Springsteen a “bad and very boring singer.”
“Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS,” Trump wrote. “The guy is a total loser who spews hate against a President who won a Landslide Election, including the popular vote, all Seven Swing States, and 86% of the Counties across America.”
Trump also suggested that Americans should “boycott his overpriced concerts, which suck.”
“Save your hard earned money,” Trump added.
Last May, Trump escalated his feud with Springsteen, calling for a “major investigation” into the rock legend after Springsteen branded the Trump administration as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” during a concert in England.
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Springsteen, a longtime opponent of the president, told a Manchester audience last May that he believes Trump is “unfit” for the Oval Office.
While introducing his and the E Street Band’s song Land of Hopes and Dreams, Springsteen said, “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
“The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now — that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. So at the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other,” Springsteen continued later in the show.
The next morning, Trump called Springsteen highly overrated. “Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK,” he wrote on social media.
“This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back in the Country,” he said.
With Colbert’s series finale of The Late Show set to air on Thursday, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel announced “a quick programming note” during a Wednesday episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Kimmel said that his show will go dark on Thursday “out of respect for our colleague and friend, Stephen Colbert, and the writers, producers, staff and crew at The Late Show, whose final show on CBS airs opposite ours.”
“Everyone at that show has always been very gracious to us,” Kimmel added. “We never felt like we were competing against them. It was nothing like the old days of late night.”
Jimmy Fallon closed Wednesday’s Tonight Show with a message to Colbert, saying, “Stephen, have a great show tomorrow. We’ll be watching. Good night, everybody.”
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will air a repeat episode on Thursday in a “sign of late-night solidarity,” with a new episode airing Friday instead, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
David Letterman, who hosted The Late Show from 1993 until 2015, also spoke about the end of the series, calling it a “huge mistake.”
He shared his thoughts on the Today show and said that the show’s cancellation “kind of makes me sad.”
“We always relied on, you would read the newspaper in the morning, and at night you would see Johnny Carson. And Johnny would give you a perspective whether you agreed with it or not, but it was always funny,” he said.
Letterman continued: “And without that, I think we’re losing a valuable perspective. I think it’s very, very important to the American culture.”
“I think it’s too bad that Stephen is gone,” Letterman told Today co-anchor Craig Melvin. “I think it’s a huge mistake.”
Colbert shared the news of The Late Show’s cancellation with his audience last July at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater, saying he learned that after a decade on air, “next year will be our last season.”
“The network will be ending The Late Show in May,” Colbert said as the crowd erupted in boos. “Yeah, I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS.”
The 62-year-old comic said he was not being replaced as host and that the entire show “is just going away.”
Last July, Trump celebrated CBS’s decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also called for Colbert to be taken off the air immediately in December, referring to him as a “dead man walking.”
“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success,” Trump wrote. “Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings.”
Trump said Colbert is “running on hatred and fumes.”
“A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do,” Trump added.
What is planned for the finale has not been revealed but people who work at The Late Show have had months to prepare for the end of the network’s 33-year franchise.
Guests in the final week have included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne and Springsteen.
After the show’s finale episode airs, CBS will fill The Late Show slot with Comics Unleashed, in which comedians share stories. Host Byron Allen has vowed to avoid politics.
—with files from The Associated Press