Former President Barack Obama implied that late-night host Stephen Colbert would make a better president than the current one.
Colbert interviewed Obama on Tuesday, perhaps for the final time on his show. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is officially ending on May 21. While Obama didn’t mention Trump by name, the 64-year-old made his intentions fairly clear.
Obama previously appeared three times on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, and twice before on The Late Show. In his Tuesday night interview, Colbert interviewed him in the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, a library that Trump has called a “disaster.”
“I’m looking for a new gig soon,” Colbert told Obama, “and a lot of people tell me I should run for president.”
The late-night host asked Obama “how dumb” of an idea he thought this was.
Obama answered slyly, “Well, you know, the bar has changed.”
“Let me put it this way,” Obama told Colbert. “I think that you could perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen.”
The audience applauded as Obama added, “I have great confidence in that.”
When Colbert announced Obama as his upcoming guest back in April, the move from Obama was seen by many as a subtle dig against Trump.
The Trump administration has been openly hostile towards most late-night comedians. When Colbert announced his show was ending, Trump celebrated on Truth Social.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” Trump, 79, posted last July. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
Meanwhile, Obama has shown support for late-night comedians, particularly Kimmel, after MAGA backlash pressured ABC into temporarily pre-empting his show.
In a post on X after Kimmel’s suspension, Obama accused the Trump administration of trying to “muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”
Although Obama’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert made for a strong show of support for the comedian, he didn’t go as far as to actually support Colbert for president.
When Colbert asked if his answer was intended as an endorsement of his presidential run, Obama answered firmly, “It was not.”
