Stephen Colbert opened his late-night show with a full troll impression, gravelly voice and all, to deliver a riddle aimed at President Donald Trump—and his cankles.
Colbert zeroed in on the House vote to force the release of long-sealed Jeffrey Epstein–related documents, skewering Trump in the process. The measure passed with 427 votes in favor and one opposed. The host then made a quip about the process of getting the bill to the president’s desk, before rolling out his best troll impression.
“Of course, this vote doesn’t mean the Epstein files will be released right away. The bill now has to go to the Senate, where it may be amended. And if it’s passed there, it would go back to the House, where it has to cross a river, and under the bridge is a troll, and to get by him you have to answer his riddle,” Colbert said, before slipping into a gravelly voice for the punch line.
“What walks on two cankles in the morning, rides a golf cart in the afternoon, and is totally in the Epstein files?” he said.
Hours earlier, the House had voted to advance a bill to force the release of the long-shielded Epstein files.
Once the troll had done his work, Colbert shifted to another Trump-Epstein flashpoint: the lewd 2003 birthday note Trump allegedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal and later released publicly by the House Oversight Committee, the note featured a scrawled drawing of a woman’s torso with a birthday message and Trump’s signature placed directly on the pubic area.
“Trump has clearly given up the fight,” Colbert said, introducing a clip from the president’s press conference the previous day.
Trump, when posed with questions about the files, said: “I’m for any—I don’t c—they can do whatever they want. We’ll give them everything.”
“You’d sign it?” a reporter asked. President Trump responded: “Sure, I would.”
Colbert didn’t let the opening pass. “Yes, when it comes to anything to do with Epstein, he’ll always sign, right on the dotted pube.”
