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Donald Trump and Stephen Colbert’s long-running feud has just entered its strangest chapter (yet), and unsurprisingly, it involved AI, trash cans, and villagers.
exactly 1 day later The Late Show with Stephen Colbert During the emotional finale, Trump shared an AI-generated video imagining the late-night host being literally thrown in the trash.
The video, which quickly went viral on social media, shows an animated version of President Trump walking up to Colbert’s stage, grabbing him from behind and throwing him into a trash can, before performing his signature “YMCA” dance.
Yes, clearly that is the current state of American political discourse.
Why did Donald Trump post the viral Colbert clip right after? late show Ended
The bizarre video first appeared on President Trump’s “Truth Social” account and has since spread to Instagram, X, YouTube Shorts, and basically every corner of the internet built for chaotic virality.
Within hours, clips of the AI-generated skit were all over the place, with reactions ranging from hilarious trolls to others calling it deeply unpresidential and disturbing.
The timing was not so delicate.
Colbert had just finished his final episode. late show After 11 years at CBS, one of television’s most politically outspoken late-night eras has come to an end. Mr. Trump (who has been abused by Mr. Colbert on air for years) wasted no time in congratulating the host on his exit. In another post, the president reportedly called Colbert “talentless” and mocked the show’s cancellation while hinting that he might host another late-night show next.
The AI clip itself only lasts a few seconds, but somehow it feels like the perfect encapsulation of the internet’s current political culture: surreal, hyper-online, aggressively meme-driven, and impossible to ignore.
And let’s be honest, the trash can part might not even be the weirdest element. After tossing the animated Colbert into the trash, AI Trump immediately launched into his now-infamous fist-pumping dance routine to Village People’s “YMCA,” making the whole thing seem like a fever dream generated entirely by a social media algorithm.
But for those who have been following the Trump-Colbert feud over the years, this video feels like more than a coincidence, the latest escalation in a feud that’s been brewing for nearly a decade.
Colbert made Trump one of the defining punchlines of his late-night career, especially during Trump’s first and second presidential campaigns. The host’s monologues regularly targeted President Trump’s speeches, scandals, legal battles and online actions, but the president frequently fired back at rallies and through social media posts. At one point, Colbert famously told Trump to “get off himself” during a live monologue, a moment that instantly became late-night TV history.
Now, late show Although it’s officially over, Trump seems determined to frame the ending as some kind of personal victory lap.
How AI memes will change political culture
The AI-generated video also continues President Trump’s increasingly bizarre relationship with online artificial intelligence content.
Over the past year, Trump-linked accounts have repeatedly shared AI-generated memes, doctored videos, and digitally manipulated political clips aimed at trolling critics and dominating the social media cycle. Some works have become a hot topic simply for their absurdity, while others have crossed ethical and political lines and caused a backlash.
That’s one of the reasons Colbert’s clip feels like something bigger than just a meme.
This is another example of how AI-generated content is rapidly becoming part of mainstream political communication. Often the goal is not realism, but attention.
And it was this video that really caught our attention.
Within hours, the clip was a trending topic on multiple platforms, with users debating whether it was funny satire, digital propaganda, or just a symptom of how politics functions like a never-ending reality show. Some viewers compared this to the internet’s meme culture, while critics argued that the president was crossing a line by sharing AI-generated violent images of media opponents.
Meanwhile, while Colbert himself has yet to respond directly to the trash video, longtime fans have pointed out the irony of Trump expending so much energy targeting a host whose show has already ended.
Ironically, the controversy may have only reinforced Colbert’s final cultural moment. Reports suggest the final episode of late show ” was a huge ratings success, with fans tuning in in their millions to watch the comedian step down after not sitting behind a desk for more than a decade.
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