With President Trump in Cincinnati for a rally on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert declared that "for once, chili on spaghetti was not the most disgusting thing in town."
The Late Show taped before Trump appeared at the rally, but Colbert did have a chance to watch Trump answer questions from reporters as he prepared to leave for Ohio. They centered on his last rally in North Carolina, where audience members started chanting, "Send her back!" about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the U.S. from Somalia as a child. "Fun fact," Colbert said. "She's still here."
A reporter asked Trump if he was prepared to tell Thursday's crowd to stop if they started "chanting something problematic," and Trump gave a non-answer. "I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "I can tell you this, I'm going to Cincinnati. The arena's a very large one, we've sold it out, we could sell it probably 10 times from what I hear." When pressed, Trump added, "If they do chant, we'll have to see what happens. I don't know that you can stop people."
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.
Putting on his best fake Trump voice, Colbert responded, "What am I gong to do, tell my whole audience to go back where they came from? That's not what America's about, folks." As it turns out, the audience did not chant "Send her back!" CNN reports that Trump did, however, insult California, a state he lost in 2016 by 30 percentage points, calling it a "disgrace to our country," and accused Democrats of caring more about undocumented immigrants than U.S. citizens. "The rage-filled Democrat Party is trying to tear America apart," he said. Catherine Garcia
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
-
AI: is the bubble about to burst?In the Spotlight Stock market ever-more reliant on tech stocks whose value relies on assumptions of continued growth and easy financing
-
Sudoku hard: October 19, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
DOJ indicts John Bolton over classified filesSpeed Read Continuing the trend of going after his political enemies, Trump prosecutes his former national security adviser
-
Trump, Putin set summit as Zelenskyy lands in DCSpeed Read Trump and Putin have agreed to meet in Budapest soon to discuss ending the war in Ukraine
-
Courts deal setbacks to Trump’s Chicago operationsSpeed Read President Donald Trump cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois
-
Pentagon reporters turn in badges after refusing rulesSpeed Read They refused to sign a restrictive new press policy imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
-
Supreme Court points to gutting Voting Rights Actspeed read States would no longer be required to consider race when drawing congressional maps
-
Trump says he authorized covert CIA ops in VenezuelaSpeed Read He is also considering military strikes inside the country
-
‘Vile, racist’ leaked chats roil Young RepublicansSpeed Read Leaders of Young Republican groups made racist, antisemitic and violent comments in private chats
-
Trump ties $20B Argentina bailout to Milei votesspeed read Trump will boost Argentina’s economy — if the country’s right-wing president wins upcoming elections
