Brow Beat

Colbert Interviewed Cartoon Donald Trump and He Was Less Cartoonish Than Real Donald Trump

On Tuesday, Anderson Cooper asked Donald Trump why he, a presidential candidate, would retweet an unflattering image of fellow candidate Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz. Trump’s response was predictably childish—“I didn’t start it!”—and Cooper, to the Internet’s delight, called him out on it. Wednesday on Late Show, Stephen Colbert offered his own scathing takedown of Trump before announcing that he had a special guest on the show—but not Trump himself, who Colbert said has turned into a “cartoonish version of himself at this point.” Instead, Colbert welcomed an actual Cartoon Donald Trump to the stage.

Some of the cartoon’s first words for Colbert, of course, were, “He started it.” But when pressed to specify who started what, things got a little ramble-y: “Anybody, Stephen; whatever they started. You know, unless it makes America great again, in which case I started it. It’s very exciting—the best.” Like the original, Cartoon Donald Trump is very litigious and very scared of pens. (The cartoon interview starts at around 5:07.)