Stephen Colbert sounded off on President Donald Trump’s decision to commute former Representative George Santos’ prison sentence during his monologue Monday.
The comedian weighed in on the president’s decision on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” where he laid into Trump for setting free “no smalltime crook.”
“Last year, the former congressman pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and identity theft and was sentenced to seven years in prison,” he said. “But, defying all logic, king, not a king [Trump], arbitrarily commuted Santos’ sentence and released him from prison after he served just 84 days, making Santos just the next pile of crap Trump is dropping on New York.”
Colbert was referring to the AI videos Trump released during the “No Kings” protests this weekend, which saw AI-generated footage of the president dropping feces on to protesters. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson later defended the videos as “satire” — and so, Colbert cheekily had the word “satire” splash across the screen during his Santos dig.
He continued: “And let’s be clear, Santos is no smalltime crook. He admitted to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people, including his own family members, if those are his real family members, cause I heard they had their identity stolen.”
As he went on, Colbert roasted Trump for making the announcement on Truth Social, which the comedian compared to a “royal decree.”
“[Santos’] not a rogue. He’s a criminal,” Colbert noted before doing a Trump impression. “‘Jack the Ripper. Something of a rapscallion. But there are many rippers out there, folks. And since when is it a crime to love your big, beautiful knife? You know what they say, happy knife, happy life.”
Before concluding his criticism, Colbert took one last shot at Santos, who had recently complained about his yellow getup in prison.
“Yes, that is the worst part of being in prison, the fashion,” he joked. “Who can forget Nelson Mandela’s memoir, ‘Long Walk to Nordstrom.’”
Watch Colbert’s full monologue above.
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS.
