Trump accused of censorship over Colbert

Donald Trump is accused of censorship in an escalating row over Stephen Colbert’s interview of Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.

US journalist Joshua Eakle explained that Trump threatened the US broadcaster CBS over Talarico’s segment. And CBS caved!

It’s important that you understand what happened last night.

Last night, Stephen Colbert interviewed Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a candidate who, by all accounts, is on track in the polls to flip Texas blue.

In response, Trump’s FCC reportedly threatened… pic.twitter.com/IEyWg7KnuW

— Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 (@JoshEakle) February 17, 2026

Eakle posted the segment, which was still published online, adding:

In modern American history, no president has been more hostile to free speech than Donald Trump. But censorship always backfires.

Colbert himself said:

He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast

Cancel Kid Trump for the loss

Now Talarico’s team is making hay with the cancellation – OBVIOUSLY.

.@JamesTalarico: The reason the Trump administration and their billionaire friends are trying to silence me and this movement is because they’re worried that we are going to flip Texas in November.

We have traveled every corner of this state, recruited more than 22,000… pic.twitter.com/kCvQiDrfGu

— Team Talarico (@TeamTalaricoHQ) February 18, 2026

But here is the thing. The young candidate is a liberal Christian with some mild criticisms of US-Israel relations and who has slammed Christian Nationalism:

.@JamesTalarico: For 50 years, the religious right convinced our fellow Christians that the most important issues were abortion and gay marriage—two issues that aren't mentioned in the Bible.

Jesus tells us exactly how we're going to be judged: by feeding the hungry, by healing… pic.twitter.com/FapsoUzZwB

— Team Talarico (@TeamTalaricoHQ) February 17, 2026

As you can see, he’s hardly the second coming of Lenin.

Yet the cancellation has seen a spike in interest in what this guy is saying:

Try to censor @JamesTalarico at your own risk. pic.twitter.com/RkDt95PFHa

— JT Ennis (@jt_ennis) February 17, 2026

LOL.

And the Youtube video of the Colbert interview is in 2.7m view after 24 hours:

As the Guardian reported, CBS’ lawyers allegedly pulled the interview:

stemming from a concern that it would trigger a legal requirement to provide equal access to Talarico’s campaign rivals.

As YouTube is not subject to restrictions from the Federal Communications Commission, the interview is freely available online.

Texas can whup your ass

Texas is a volatile state and one which some argue is a bellwether for US politics. The idea of a left-ish Democrat taking a seat there is obviously terrifying to the Trump regime.

Texas is often viewed by ignorant outsiders as innately right-wing. The state is no stranger to reactionary ideas, but as liberal Texan and Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright has pointed out, the truth is far more complicated. Up until the 1970s, Texas was “an entirely Democratic state”.

And what Texas does can shift US politics entirely:

What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas. …Texas is a behemoth and it has an outsize influence on the direction of America and we have a responsibility, I think as Texans, to make sure that we take care of our state in a way that would enable us to be the proper custodians of the future of America.

It’s hard to say how it will all play out in a place like Texas. But the truth is if Trump isn’t careful the Lone Star state which gave us Megan Thee Stallion, weed-smoking, bio-fuel selling country star Willie Nelson and the Alamo might just whup his orange ass. It’s also a state which has felt the brunt of Trump’s paramilitary thugs in recent months.

Here is Nelson with honorary Texan Johnny Cash and actual Texans Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson speaking out against war, poverty, fascism and the sniveling state of US media 30 years ago: