The Wednesday edition of CBS’s The Late Show was defined by host Stephen Colbert giving two odes to liberal budget priorities. First, Colbert insisted that PBS documentaries on transgender people in Ohio bowling leagues are of vital importance before marveling at Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “righteous anger” at President Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE.
Colbert declared that, “Voters are about to have even more to get mad about, because we just learned that Trump is planning to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS.”
He further added, “The White House says PBS funding does not ‘Align with the Trump administration's priorities,’ including a PBS program from 2022 about a transgender woman who comes out to members of their bowling league in Ohio. Okay, well, I get that. 'Cause America can't be allowed to find out that trans people bowl.”
Colbert then tried to mock what he thought was the logic behind opposing such a subsidized documentary, “Because then, other trans bowlers might bowl as well, and if the bowling alleys—allow—the pins are women, the pins clearly are women, and the balls are boys, if you use two balls—and then—and then—and then where do the fingers go? And the bowling shoe spray turns my feet into women—I don't—what would the problem be? I don't—”
Are Ohio bowlers, transgender or otherwise, really so vitally important that taxpayers must subsidize documentaries about them? If Colbert really wants to go down this road, one could also recall that one time PBS rolled out allegedly conservative Christians to advocate for transitioning four-year olds.
Colbert concluded his defense of public broadcasting by warning, “Trump might get these cuts soon because all the administration needs is simple majorities in both the House and Senate. And with the administration calling the shots, it could mean changes to public programming. So NPR fans, get ready for Fresh Air to become *coughs* coughs and PBS fans can look forward to Sesame Street: Bert and Ernie Have Wives Now.”
That was not Colbert's first trip to Sesame Street. Earlier, during the cold open, The Late Show had Elmo call Trump a "dumb fascist" and flip him off.
Later, Colbert welcomed Warren for a three-segment love fest and pep talk, which he began by recalling, “We've had far too many conversations about the state of America under the Trump regime, but I love talking to you because you are a great explainer. You have a great love of the country, and you feel it with a good dollop of righteous anger about people who abuse their office.”
He then wondered, “He hasn't signed many bills into law, but he's managed to sow chaos with executive orders and this, sort of, made-up agency called DOGE, which isn’t even a real thing. It's just handing power to some unelected billionaire. Is this what you expected, and if so, did you expect this much and this fast?”
Warren replied with the left’s usual list of horribles, even if there was precious little evidence for them:
The plan is Donald Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk, the guy with a chainsaw. What their plan is they want to make sure that billionaires get more tax giveaways, more out of this country, and they want to pay for it on the backs of cutting access to Social Security for seniors, they want to pay for it on the backs of little babies losing access to their health care, breaking our promises to our veterans and just cutting as much of the VA as they can, and on the backs of doing what they can to break the back of our public schools.
Trump has not made entitlement reform part of his agenda, but if cutting money for PBS and NPR is worth freaking out about, then how do Colbert and Warren seriously plan to get the nation’s finances under control?
Sign the petition to help us defund another MSNBC in PBS and NPR at defundpbsnpr.org.
Here is a transcript for the April 16 show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
4/16/2025
11:35 PM ET
ELMO: Everybody, everybody, Snuffy, Big Bird, come see what Elmo did.
MR. SNUFFLEUPAGUS: What have you done, Elmo?
ELMO: Well, Elmo wrote a diss track.
BIG BIRD: He's going full Kendrick Lamar!
ELMO: Trump’s threatening our funds, has two stupid sons, Elmo’s pissed. Says that we’re woke, his brain is broke, dumb fascist.
MR. SNUFFLEUPAGUS: Damn, son.
ELMO: It's clear he's not seen our show. Can’t pronounce words he should know. What's next? Will he tariff cookies?
COOKIE MONSTER: Cookie’s pissed.
BIG BIRD: You’re going to El Salvador.
ELMO: My song is finished. My song is done. Brought to you by number one.
...
STEPHEN COLBERT: Voters are about to have even more to get mad about, because we just learned that Trump is planning to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS. They can't cut it anymore. They're already operating on a shoestring budget! Daniel Tiger can't even afford pants. The White House says PBS funding does not "Align with the Trump administration's priorities" including a PBS program from 2022 about a transgender woman who comes out to members of their bowling league in Ohio. Okay, well, I get that. 'Cause America can't be allowed to find out that trans people bowl.
Because then, other trans bowlers might bowl as well, and if the bowling alleys—allow—the pins are women, the pins clearly are women, and the balls are boys, if you use two balls—and then—and then—and then where do the fingers go? And the bowling shoe spray turns my feet into women—I don't—what would the problem be? I don't—
Trump might get these cuts soon because all the administration needs is simple majorities in both the House and Senate. And with the administration calling the shots, it could mean changes to public programming. So NPR fans, get ready for Fresh Air to become *coughs* *coughs* and PBS fans can look forward to Sesame Street: Bert and Ernie Have Wives Now.
…
COLBERT: We've had far too many conversations about the state of America under the Trump regime, but I love talking to you because you are a great explainer. You have a great love of the country, and you feel it with a good dollop of righteous anger about people who abuse their office.
ELIZABETH WARREN: Right. Okay.
COLBERT: Let's get straight into this—
WARREN: Okay.
COLBERT: — Trump has been in office for 86 days.
WARREN: Yeah, I've heard.
COLBERT: He hasn't signed many bills into law, but he's managed to sow chaos with executive orders and this, sort of, made-up agency called DOGE, which isn’t even a real thing.
WARREN: Right.
COLBERT: It's just handing power to some unelected billionaire. Is this what you expected, and if so, did you expect this much and this fast?
WARREN: So, it is not what I expected. It is worse. And worse because let's just remember where we were. Donald Trump ran for president saying over and over and over “I will cut costs for American families on day one.” On day one. Those were his words. Over and over. So, after he's a few weeks and, he is doing this tariff thing and people say to him, someone says to him, you realize that's going to raise costs on American consumers. And his words were that “he couldn't care less.”
So why — but they got a plan here and the plan is Donald Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk, the guy with a chainsaw. What their plan is they want to make sure that billionaires get more tax giveaways, more out of this country, and they want to pay for it on the backs of cutting access to Social Security for seniors, they want to pay for it on the backs of little babies losing access to their health care, breaking our promises to our veterans and just cutting as much of the VA as they can, and on the backs of doing what they can to break the back of our public schools.
