Stephen Colbert mocked Donald Trump’s June 8, 2025 stumble while boarding Air Force One with a string of dictator-themed puns on The Late Show the following night. The available coverage and clip record document a monologue—not a parody GOP ad—so that part of the original headline is unverified.
What happened on the Air Force One stairs?
On June 8, 2025, Trump stumbled as he boarded Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, while traveling to Camp David. The Daily Beast identified the footage as having been captured by C-SPAN. The Daily Beast’s June 10 report covered the incident and Colbert’s response.
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This was a stumble on the aircraft stairs in 2025, not Trump’s separate June 2020 walk down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
What did Stephen Colbert say?
In his June 9 monologue, Colbert framed the stumble as an occasion for the joke “Old man fall down,” then added names including “Strongman go boom,” “Benito Whoops-olini,” “Adolf Tripsler,” “Josef Fallin’” and “Kim Jong Oops.” He also joked that a fold in Trump’s neck resembled a map of the greater Los Angeles area, including Interstate 405. Grabien’s clip and transcript record identifies the segment as originating on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; the record is dated June 9, with an upload on June 10.
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The transcript is useful for identifying the jokes, but it contains apparent transcription artifacts. The short phrase “Strongman go boom” is recorded there; longer quotations should be checked against the video for exact wording and punctuation.
Why did the monologue mention Los Angeles?
Colbert placed the stumble joke alongside his criticism of the administration’s response to protests in Los Angeles. The Daily Beast reported that the monologue referred to the deployment of National Guard members and Marines. Its June 10 story gave the reported figures as 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines; those counts concern the Los Angeles context, not the Air Force One incident. The report connects the two subjects in its account of the monologue.
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Was there a parody GOP ad?
The available contemporaneous coverage and clip record substantiate Colbert’s monologue and its jokes, but do not establish that he made or aired a parody GOP ad about the stumble. The ad claim should therefore be treated as unverified, rather than as a description of a documented segment.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How is this different from the 2020 West Point ramp story?
In June 2020, Trump walked cautiously down a ramp after a commencement event at West Point. That separate episode prompted jokes by late-night hosts. The Washington Post’s coverage included a Seth Meyers joke mentioning an Acorn stairlift; it was about the 2020 ramp incident, not Colbert’s 2025 response to the Air Force One stairs stumble. The Washington Post’s June 16, 2020 report documents that earlier story.
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