Trump's Culture War Claims Another Scalp as CBS Replaces Colbert With Advertiser-Friendly Comic

While Donald Trump threatens genocide on social media and prosecutes his chaotic war in Iran, he's quietly winning the war that matters most to him: the culture war. And the entertainment industry is rolling over without a fight.

CBS announced this week that Stephen Colbert -- one of Trump's most consistent late-night critics -- will be replaced by Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed, a syndicated stand-up showcase that explicitly bans political humor. The move comes as the Trump-aligned Ellison family finalizes its $111 billion Skydance-Paramount takeover of Warner Bros.-Discovery, a deal that would hand the family control of both CNN and CBS.

According to the Wall Street Journal, roughly $24 billion of that deal -- about 20 percent -- is coming from sovereign wealth funds in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia. That's the same Saudi Arabia whose Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is reportedly pressuring Trump to escalate the Iran conflict. When foreign powers control a substantial slice of major media revenue streams, they expect American corporations to censor themselves. China's control of the Chinese film market has already silenced any criticism of China in American film and TV. It's not hard to see Saudi Arabia's normalization campaign getting new life under this arrangement.

Allen's show is the perfect replacement for an administration that demands compliance. He's told comedians on Comics Unleashed, "I don't want to hear any political humor. Just be funny, family-friendly and advertiser-friendly." His media company has partnered with Sinclair Broadcasting, the right-wing local broadcasting empire that lobbied to get ABC's Jimmy Kimmel fired last year after he mocked Trump's reaction to the Charlie Kirk assassination attempt.

The Colbert cancellation is just the latest domino to fall. Last week, Netflix announced that Louis CK -- who admitted to masturbating in front of several women without their consent nine years ago -- will headline the Hollywood Bowl as part of its "Netflix Is a Joke" comedy festival. Netflix's corporate leaders have evidently determined that CK's penance is complete, even though his so-called cancellation included a wildly successful live tour and the release of his first novel.

That same week, Kanye West sold out LA's SoFi Center and took in a reported $33 million, less than a year after releasing a song called "Heil Hitler." West introduced Trump to fellow Nazi enthusiast Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago, but his Wall Street Journal apology for antisemitism was apparently enough for LA fans. The UK took a harder line: the Home Office banned West from entering the country, forcing the cancellation of the Wireless Fest after corporate sponsors like Pepsi and Rockstar Energy Drinks bailed.

Meanwhile, actor John Lithgow has spent recent weeks shakily defending his decision to play Dumbledore in the new Harry Potter television series, which will further enrich transphobic author JK Rowling.

Accommodating Nazis, sexual abusers, and transphobes used to be the MAGA brand. Now it's just mainstream culture.

The Ellison family's media empire is already doing Trump's bidding. Paramount-Skydance agreed to distribute disgraced director Brett Ratner's Rush Hour 4 at the request of Ratner's friend, President Trump. Ratner faced multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault in 2017, but that's evidently no obstacle in the new cultural landscape.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth openly celebrated the Ellison family's rise as he derided press coverage of the Iran war, making clear that Trump sees friendly media control as essential to his authoritarian project.

You can't ban someone from working for the rest of their life for bad behavior. But you also don't need to partner with them, promote them, or hand them the biggest platforms in American culture. Unless, of course, you've determined there won't be any consequences -- that people just don't care.

The entertainment industry has made that calculation. Trump's culture war isn't just winning. It's over.