Stephen Colbert has lamented the decline in the nicknames Donald Trump dishes out to his foes after the president’s “half-a---d” attack against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
In his most recent attack on Powell, Trump once again labeled him “Too Late,” a reference to his reluctance to reduce interest rates. “Too Late—Powell is the WORST. A real dummy, who’s costing America $Billions!” he said, in part. He later added: “TOO LATE’s an American Disgrace!”
However, the Late Show host thinks the real “disgrace” is Trump’s feeble attempt at a put-down, given his previous scolds.
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After reading out Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday’s show, Colbert said: “You want a real American disgrace?”
“That half-a---d nickname! ‘Too Late?’ ‘Too Late?’ You can’t do better than ‘Too Late?’”
The host then suggested some improvements, saying: “What about ‘Loose Bowel Jerome Powell?’ What about, ‘Jerome, Jerome, the business gnome, won’t lower mortgage rates on your home?’ Come on!”
“This country used to have standards,” Colbert then lamented, reading out some of Trump’s greatest hits: “Meatball Ron! Sloppy Steve! Little Marco!”
“Meatball Ron” is a derogatory nickname reportedly floated by Trump to refer to Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. The nickname is apparently a jab at DeSantis’s appearance, according to some news sources. However, Trump said in 2023 he would never use it.
Trump has also labeled his Republican rival “Ron DeSanctimonious” and “Ron DeSanctus.”
After a falling-out during his first term, Trump started calling Steve Bannon—his former chief strategist—“Sloppy Steve Bannon.”
“Little Marco” is the moniker given to his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, a reference to his relatively diminutive stature—dating back to when the pair were jostling for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
“He’s always calling me Little Marco. And I’ll admit he’s taller than me. He’s like 6-foot-2, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5-foot-2,” Rubio, then a Florida senator, responded at a Virginia rally in February 2016. “And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”
Trump responded in March, saying: “I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee it.”
Absent from Colbert’s list, meanwhile, was “Sleepy Joe,” Trump’s nickname for former president Joe Biden. He started using it in April 2019, aiming to paint his opponent as mentally weak and lacking energy.
