Stephen Colbert recaps Stephen Miller's furious interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, makes some improvements


The Michael Wolff exposé on the Trump White House, Fire and Fury, has apparently gotten under President Trump's skin, so the White House sent policy adviser Stephen Miller on Jake Tapper's CNN show Sunday to defend Trump and discredit the book. Stephen Colbert, for one, wasn't persuaded by Miller's Trump puffery. "Yes, he is a political genius who pioneered groundbreaking strategies like yelling and having a hat," Colbert said on Monday's Late Show.
When Miller lost his cool, Tapper treated him "like a 5-year-old," Colbert said. "Unfortunately, telling Stephen Miller to calm down doesn't work." He played part of the interview, then jumped in. "Hold on, did Jake Tapper just call Stephen Miller an obsequious factotum? Looks like somebody got a word-a-day calendar for the holidays!" Tapper finally cut Miller off, but Miller apparently wasn't done and after several polite requests to leave the set, he reportedly had to be escorted out by security. "Or as they call it in Washington," Colbert said, "the Omarosa goodbye."
Colbert also jumped in to replace Tapper in his interview with Miller, asking his own questions to Miller's answers, and it's pretty brutal. Watch below. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Dash: the UK's 'flawed' domestic violence tool
The Explainer Risk-assessment checklist relied on by police and social services deemed unfit for frontline use
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American cities
Under the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
Sudoku medium: August 26, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play