This is probably the last article about Stephen Colbert you will read at the Gateway Pundit for a while because, as you probably know, tonight is his last night on the air. What a shame.

There will be a lot of talk in liberal media circles over the next few weeks about how things could have gone differently. Colbert’s fans in the media are very sad that the show is ending and they’re going to openly complain about it.

One media analyst, Joe Concha of FOX News and the Washington Examiner, took a hard look at the numbers that finally brought down the Colbert show and they’re very telling.

From the Washington Examiner:

200-plus
That’s the number of staffers The Late Show currently employs. Can anyone explain why a program that consists almost entirely of two people talking across a desk needs more than 200 staffers?

22
That’s the number of writers Colbert has to craft his monologues, according to show credits. Most of those monologues are screeds against Trump and/or conservatives right out of the movie Groundhog Day. The days may change, but everything stays the same. Trump. Trump. Trump.

95%
That’s the number of jokes that targeted Trump and/or conservatives after CBS announced in July 2025 that Colbert would be going off the air, according to the Media Research Center.

100%
That’s the percentage of guests who were liberal on Colbert’s show after his cancellation was announced in July 2025, also per the MRC.

1
That’s how many “Republicans” have been invited on. And of course, that was the anti-Trump Liz Cheney, who campaigned with Democrat Kamala Harris leading up to her shellacking in the 2024 election.

15
That’s the number of times that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has appeared as a guest on the show.

0
That’s the number of times that arguably the most popular comedian in the game today, Sebastian Maniscalco, has appeared on Colbert in the past eight years. His last appearance was in 2018, and he has not been invited back since.

0
That’s the number of times Bill Maher has appeared on Colbert in the past decade. Maher is not shy about criticizing his own party. He also met with Trump last year at the White House. That’s a big no-no in Colbert’s world, where speaking to anyone on the other side of the aisle is completely unacceptable.

14
That’s the number of times CNN anchor Jake Tapper has appeared on Colbert. Tapper recently compared Colbert’s fate to that of a murdered priest in an on-air screed on CNN.

Of course, he also mentions the $40 million that the Colbert show lost annually for the network and at the end of the day, this was probably the most important number.

If the Colbert show had been financially successful, the network would have overlooked the leftism Colbert pushed every night.

So long, Mr. Colbert. You will not be missed.

The post Media Analyst Takes In-Depth Look at the Numbers That Doomed the Colbert Show appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

If you watch a lot of podcasts or follow true crime news, you have probably heard of Michael Franzese. He is a former mobster who was prosecuted by Rudy Giuliani and spent many years in prison as a result. Now he writes books, gives talks and hosts his own podcast.

He recently appeared on the Sean Hannity podcast and said he was blown away by the lawfare tactics Democrats used against Trump. He also said that when you look at Joe Biden’s record, there is more evidence to indict him than the government ever had in his case.

Franzese points to the multiple questionable bank accounts, the millions of dollars flowing in and out, the phone calls and more.

Transcript via Overton News:

FRANZESE: “I want to tell you two things, and this is meaningful. I want people to know this.”

“All this warfare that they put against…lawfare they put against Trump…I never seen anything like that!”

“And I want to tell you this…Joe Biden, the information that the GOP, when they did the investigation on him and his son…”

“Between the suspicious bank accounts, the 27 or something million dollars that went through the account that nobody’s ever answered for yet, the tex messages, the emails, the phone conversations…”

“Sean, there was more evidence to indict him on a RICO statute than there was me.”

“I’m telling you! I know that statute inside and out.”

Here’s the video:

Former Colombo crime family boss Michael Franzese admitted to Sean Hannity that in all his years in the mob, he had never seen anything like the lawfare weaponized against President Trump.

He also said he knows the RICO statute inside and out — and Joe Biden should have been… pic.twitter.com/IbWN2SGSGF

— Overton (@overton_news) May 21, 2026

In another moment on the podcast, Franzese said that at the height of his criminal career, he was delivering about two million dollars PER WEEK to his crime boss. Watch:

“I was bringing him $2 million a week every week.”

Michael Franzese on the operation that changed everything.

Full episode drops tomorrow on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. pic.twitter.com/hQ0LW7oxYI

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 20, 2026

In this clip, he reveals what happened when he became a ‘made man’ in the mob.

“Violate this life, betray your brothers, and you will die and burn in hell like this saint.”

Michael Franzese on the night he became a made man.

Full episode out now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. pic.twitter.com/h8uaJPdLrs

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 21, 2026

It’s fascinating that this world existed in America for so many years.

The post Former Mobster Says There is More Evidence to Indict Joe Biden on Crimes Than There Ever Was on Him (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Apparently, the state of California cares about the health of your soul.

During a recent hearing, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana revealed that in California, the state will reimburse a provider for exorcisms. Yes, really.

Even if you are a person of faith who believes the forces of darkness are real, you would probably have trouble buying the idea that this should be covered by a state’s Medicaid system.

Wouldn’t you love to know how many of these are covered in a year?

FOX News reports:

Taxpayer spending on ‘exorcisms’ derails Senate testimony: ‘What the hell are we doing about it?’

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., railed against California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration over fraud allegations, as Kennedy highlighted reports during a Tuesday hearing that the state covers exorcisms and other faith-based healing practices.

Medi-Cal’s spending practices have faced growing scrutiny as California’s Medicaid spending has more than doubled since 2019, rising from roughly $100.7 billion to a projected $222 billion in 2026.

Just last week, the Trump administration suspended $1.4 billion in federal funding for California home health and hospice programs after Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force identified an estimated $600 million in suspected fraud within the state’s Medicaid system.

Kennedy alleged during his line of questioning to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that taxpayer dollars were being used to cover the cost of exorcisms, a religious practice most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, and other indigenous spiritual practices.

“California’s got 12% of the population in the last 10 years,” Kennedy told Blanche. “They’re responsible for half of these new so-called health providers to provide exorcisms and other things. Now, what the hell are we doing about it? Why has this gone on for so long?”

See the video below:

“Some states like California… they see this as free money, don’t they?”

Sen. John Kennedy calls out reports that California’s Medicaid program reimburses providers for tribal prayers and exorcisms:

SEN. KENNEDY: “California will actually pay a health care provider, I didn’t… pic.twitter.com/cbpTydxlWK

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 19, 2026

If you asked ten Democrat lawmakers in California if they believed in God, the existence of demons, and exorcisms, how many of them do you think would say they do? It’s probably a pretty low number.

This is just another example of the kind of runaway fraud we have seen in state after state in recent months. It’s unreal how much of it there really is.

The post Senator John Kennedy Reveals That California’s Medicaid System Will Pay for EXORCISMS (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Days ago, a 78-year-old pastor stood before a magistrate’s court in Northern Ireland and received a criminal conviction.

His crime was preaching John 3:16.

Not screaming it. Not shouting it through a megaphone at frightened women. Just preaching it.

Pastor Clive Johnston — former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, grandfather of seven, a man who has given his life to the gospel — held a small, quiet, open-air Sunday service near a hospital.

He played the ukulele. He stood beside a large wooden cross. And he preached on the most recognizable verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

A government court looked at the elderly pastor and decided he deserved to be punished.

Johnston was convicted on May 7 under Northern Ireland’s Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act. He was fined, branded a criminal, and told that preaching God’s love constitutes unlawful “influence.”

His sermon never mentioned abortion. He was not violent. He was not threatening.

Authorities did not dispute any of this. He was convicted because he preached the gospel within earshot of a hospital that performs abortions.

“At 78 years old,” he told Fox News, “I never imagined I would leave a courtroom with a criminal conviction for preaching the Christian gospel.”

Read that sentence again. Let it settle. Because what happened in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, on May 7, 2026, is not a distant curiosity. It is a preview. And the American church must pay attention.

This is the hour the prophets warned about. Isaiah saw it coming: a day when men would call good evil and evil good, when darkness would be mistaken for light and light treated as a threat.

Paul warned Timothy plainly that a time would come when sound doctrine would not be endured. The book of Revelation does not picture a church that peacefully faded into cultural irrelevance. It pictures a church under pressure, and it calls her to overcome.

We are living in that moment. And the Western church is largely asleep in it.

Here in America, the Johnson Amendment has functioned for 70 years as a legal gag order, warning pastors that speaking with prophetic courage on the great moral questions of the age could cost their church its tax-exempt status.

For decades it worked. Not because the government enforced it aggressively, but because the threat alone was enough to silence pulpits that should have been roaring.

Two Texas churches finally had enough and sued the IRS. In July 2025, the IRS itself conceded that sermons addressing moral and political issues through the lens of faith do not violate the law.

It was a significant victory. But the fact that churches had to sue the government for the right to preach freely from their own pulpits tells you everything about how far the pressure has already reached.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, what began as buffer zone laws sold to the public as protection for vulnerable women has become a legal mechanism for arresting Christians who pray silently, convicting pastors who quote Scripture, and criminalizing the proclamation of the gospel itself.

England. Scotland. Now Northern Ireland. The trajectory is not ambiguous.

A Scottish grandmother named Rose Docherty was arrested twice simply for holding a sign offering conversation outside a hospital. Others in the United Kingdom have been charged for silently praying near clinics.

Silently praying. A person standing still with their thoughts, prosecuted under a law supposedly designed to stop harassment.

The U.S. State Department was monitoring Pastor Johnston’s case before his conviction. Our own government recognized the threat. The question is whether the American church does too.

Let Paul speak here, because he earned the right. He wrote his most urgent words not from a comfortable study, but from a prison cell.

“Fight the good fight of faith,” he told Timothy. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Paul did not write those words as a man who had played it safe. He wrote them as a man the empire tried and failed to silence.

They could not silence him. They cannot silence the church. Not ultimately. Not if the church refuses to be silent.

Pastor Johnston is planning to appeal his conviction. His word to fellow Christians is to “respond with grace, peace, and courage, never with anger or hostility, but with firm conviction.”

A 78-year-old man with a fresh criminal record for preaching John 3:16 is telling us not to give in to fear. The least we can do is listen.

Pray for your pastor this Sunday. Thank him for standing in a pulpit the world increasingly wants to tear down. And if your church has gone quiet on the things that matter most — on life, on truth, on the gospel itself — it is worth asking why.

The hour is late. The pressure is real. A grandfather in Northern Ireland just showed us what it looks like to stand firm.

The church’s job is not to survive the culture. It is to outlast it. Stand up. Speak up. The world is watching. So is heaven.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post A Pastor Preached John 3:16: The Government Called It a Crime appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

RINO Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) this week went off on President Trump and the Department of Justice over the newly established anti-weaponization fund to compensate victims of Biden-era lawfare and political persecution.  

The fund was created in exchange for Trump dropping more than $10 billion in legal action against the federal government for leaking his tax returns and weaponizing the Justice Department against him. Trump told reporters on Monday that he wants to reimburse “people that were horribly treated.”

“They’ve been weaponized, they’ve been, in some cases, imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees that they didn’t have. They’ve gone bankrupt, their lives have been destroyed, and they turn out to be right,” the President said.

However, Senate Republicans are already teaming up with Democrats to kill the fund, with Senators Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA.) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) leading the charge and drafting legislation.

Tillis voiced his support to block the fund on Wednesday in an interview with Spectrum News’s Reuben Jones, attacking January 6 patriots and President Trump and slamming the fund as “stupid on stilts.”

In another gaggle with reporters on Thursday, Tillis trashed the idea again with left-wing talking points, slamming January 6 victims as “punks” and claiming their show trials were legitimate.

During his Wednesday interview, Tillis decried the thought of recompensating people who were accused of assaulting police officers, saying it would be “as objectionable and as insulting to me as the Democrats’ initiative for all cops are bastards.”

Now, he said, Republicans are looking “no different than” Democrats calling to defund the police, stating, “There’s no moral difference between the Democrats on Act Blue raising money for all cops or bastards and actually rewarding someone for assaulting a police officer on one of the darkest days in Senate history.”

Ironically, Tillis has trashed ICE and Border Patrol agents, claiming they unjustly killed violent leftwing extremists Renee Good and Alex Pretti and saying they need “to learn from that.” He has also justified leftists who are threatening and assaulting ICE agents and blamed Kristi Noem for enabling them to kill Americans.

When asked about what he’s looking for in an Attorney General nominee, he told Jones, “Anybody who equivocates and supports it, the thugs that harm police officers, will never get my vote in committee or on the floor.”

“When they want my vote for confirmation, they better not have anything in their record suggesting that what happened on January 6 was anything but one of the darkest days in American history,” he added.

WATCH:

Jones: Do you believe this is legal what the president is trying to do and what the Department of Justice is trying to do?

Tillis: I’m not going to be an attorney and judge its legality, but I think it’s stupid on stilts because it will invariably put us in a position where your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, and now we’re going to pay them for that? That’s absurd. The American people are going to reject this out of hand.

No reasonable person. Look, I’ve stipulated that the President pardoned a lot of people on january 6 that he probably should have. The dummies that went into the Capitol after it was breached, they weren’t, they weren’t in any altercations with law enforcement, but that front line had a lot of thugs that should still be in prison and be in prison as long as the law would allow, and they too are eligible for this payout. Your dollars, my dollar, that is the definition, as Thomas Jefferson, I think, once said, of tyranny. When you take money from me to give to a purpose that I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny, and that’s what that account is.

While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Tillis, visibly frustrated, called the fund a “payout pot for punks,” again calling it “stupid on stilts.”

Under what circumstances would it ever make sense to provide restitution for people who either pled guilty or were found guilty in a court of law?” he asked.

WATCH:

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senate Republicans broke for a ten-day recess, delaying the reconciliation vote to fund ICE, Border Patrol, and Secret Service to buck Trump over the weaponization fund, his White House Ball Room renovation, and his endorsement of Ken Paxton to replace RINO John Cornyn.

MORE:

Senate GOP Breaks for Vacation, Delays Reconciliation Vote to Fund ICE – Thune Admits It’s Political Hit Against President Trump

The post (VIDEO) “That’s Tyranny!” – RINO Thom Tillis Blasts Trump’s $1.776 Billion Weaponization Fund Amid GOP Push to Kill Fund, Calls it “Stupid on Stilts” and a “Payout Pot for Punks” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.