Bruce Springsteen reignited his feud with Donald Trump during an appearance on Stephen Colbert's penultimate episode of The Late Show, delivering a pointed jab at the president and the network executives who cancelled the program.
Springsteen's Message to Colbert
The Boss took the stage on Wednesday night to perform his protest song Streets of Minneapolis, but before he began, he addressed the audience with a sharp remark directed at Trump. 'You are the first guy in America who lost his show because we got a president who can't take a joke,' Springsteen said, referring to Colbert. He continued, 'And because Larry and David Ellison [the owners of CBS parent company, Paramount] feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. Stephen, these are small-minded people. They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.'
Performance and Donation
Springsteen then performed his anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ballad, which he wrote following the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE. Their tragic final moments were captured on camera in January, sparking widespread outrage. Springsteen has pledged to donate all proceeds from the track to the families of Good and Pretti, in perpetuity.
Why The Late Show Is Ending
In July last year, Colbert confirmed that the iconic series, originally hosted by David Letterman from 1993 to 2015, had been cancelled. 'It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS,' Colbert told a stunned studio audience. 'I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.' CBS cited budgetary pressures for the cancellation, but another theory suggests the show was axed due to Colbert's criticism of the Trump administration. Days before the announcement, Colbert had lambasted Paramount's decision to pay Trump $16 million (£13.5 million) to settle a legal dispute over a deceptively edited 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
Final Week Guests
Colbert's final week featured a star-studded lineup, including Aubrey Plaza, Martha Stewart, and Robert De Niro. The format was switched up, with the celebrities interviewing Colbert using Hinge-prompt-style questions. De Niro, a vocal Trump critic, seized the opportunity to take a dig at the president while asking Colbert what number he was thinking of. When Colbert explained he often changes his answer, De Niro replied, 'Okay, because I thought it would have been two million point five, or two and a half million. That's the number of Epstein files Trump still hasn't released,' drawing raucous applause.
