US President Donald Trump lashed out at several TV hosts on Thursday (11 May), taking particular aim at Late Show host Stephen Colbert. Trump responded to jokes made at his expense by calling Colbert a "no-talent guy" who says "filthy" things.

"There's nothing funny about what he says. And what he says is filthy," the president said in a Time magazine interview.

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According to The Hill, Trump commented on Colbert's remarks earlier in May in which he made a sexually explicit joke about the president and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The president claimed that Colbert's late night show was failing until he began talking about Trump. "And it only builds up my base. It only helps me, people like him," Trump said.

"The guy was dying. By the way, they were going to take him off television. Then he started attacking me and he started doing better."

Trump claimed the show received high ratings when he was a guest. "I've done his show ... But when I did his show, which by the way was very highly rated, I was highest rating. The highest rating he's ever had," he said.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the president may have overstated this claim. Colbert's Daily Show reunion episode on Tuesday (9 May) looks like being the show's highest rated episode of the last 19 months.

CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon were also on the receiving end of Trump's criticisms.

"He's like a boiler ready to explode, the level of hatred," Trump said of Cuomo. "The entire CNN platform is that way." Trump added that Cuomo appears to be a "chained lunatic" on television.

He then took aim at Lemon. "This Don Lemon, who's perhaps the dumbest person in broadcasting, Don Lemon at night it's like - sometimes they'll have a guest who, by mistake, will say something good. And they'll start screaming, 'We're going to commercial!'" the president said.

"They cut him off. Remember? I've seen things where, by mistake, somebody they bring in as a guest turns out to be a positive. And they go, I mean they get just killed. The level of hatred."

"I do watch Fox in the morning, and their ratings have gone through the roof, because everyone knows I'm watching Fox," Trump said. "But they're pleasant. And if I do something wrong they report on it. I don't mean they — if I do something wrong. But it's really, honestly, it's the most accurate."

Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert The Late Show