“He Hides Behind a Flag He Barely Understands”: Stephen Colbert’s Savage Takedown of Pete Hegseth Ignites National Firestorm
By Elena Vasquez, Late-Night & Political Culture Correspondent New York, NY – November 18, 2025
Stephen Colbert just detonated a bomb on live network television, and the shrapnel is still flying.
Monday night’s Late Show opened not with jokes about the weather or celebrity mishaps, but with a cold, merciless, eight-minute evisceration of Fox News host and Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth. The audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater didn’t know whether to laugh or gasp; by the end, they were roaring.
Colbert began innocently enough, holding up a photo of Hegseth in full tactical gear at a Trump rally. Then he dropped the line that instantly became the most-clipped moment of the night:
“Pete Hegseth hides behind a flag he barely understands and a beard he definitely can’t grow without Rogaine.”
The theater exploded.
What followed was a masterclass in controlled fury. Colbert tore through Hegseth’s résumé with surgical precision: the Yale degree bought by family money, the two DUIs, the seven-figure Fox salary while railing against “elites,” the leaked emails bragging about “banging interns,” the tattoo of “Deus Vult” across his chest that he once claimed made him a “modern-day Crusader,” and the now-infamous 2024 Fox & Friends segment where he accidentally saluted the North Korean flag on air.
But Colbert saved the kill-shot for last.
“This is the man Donald Trump wants running the Pentagon,” he said, voice dropping to a near whisper. “A guy who wrote in his own book that the military should be purged of ‘woke’ officers, then got caught paying hush money to a staffer he allegedly assaulted at a Christmas party. A guy who says women have no place in combat while reportedly cheating on his wife with a producer half his age. A guy who cries ‘patriotism’ every morning on television but needed three deferments to avoid ever wearing the uniform himself.”
The audience was on its feet.
Then came the closer:
“Pete Hegseth doesn’t love America. He loves the idea of America as a backdrop for his personal cosplay. He hides behind a flag he barely understands, a Bible he clearly never read, and a beard that’s doing more heavy lifting than his entire moral compass.”
The applause lasted a full 42 seconds, an eternity in late-night.
Within fifteen minutes, #ColbertRoastsHegseth was the number-one trending topic worldwide. The clip racked up 28 million views on YouTube alone before midnight. TikTok teens turned “flag he barely understands” into a sound that has already been used in 1.4 million videos. Progressive accounts hailed Colbert as “the resistance we need.” Even some conservative commentators, off the record, admitted: “He wasn’t wrong, just mean.”
Hegseth’s camp has been radio silent in public, but sources inside Fox News say the nominee is “absolutely livid.” One insider told The Hollywood Sentinel that Hegseth spent Tuesday morning screaming in a green room, demanding his team “find something, anything” to hit back with. Another source claims Trump himself called Colbert “a disgusting never-was” on Truth Social (the post was deleted 11 minutes later).
The timing could not be worse for Hegseth. His confirmation hearings begin December 3, and Senate Republicans, already nervous about his lack of command experience and the growing list of sexual-misconduct allegations, are reportedly reconsidering their votes. Two GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, issued statements Tuesday citing “serious concerns” about his “character and judgment.” Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren, have scheduled a press conference Wednesday titled “Not My Secretary of Defense.”
Colbert, for his part, refused to back down. In a rare post-show interview with Variety, he said simply: “Satire isn’t about being nice. It’s about being true. And sometimes the truth burns.”
Whether the monologue was comedy, catharsis, or a declaration of war, one thing is undeniable: Stephen Colbert just reminded America that late-night television can still draw blood.
And right now, Pete Hegseth is bleeding on national television.
