With the federal government once again on the verge of shutdown before the holidays, Stephen Colbert found himself in an unexpected position: He felt congressional Republicans’ pain.

He quoted from a reporter who said that members of Congress were waiting for President Trump to tweet before they voted on whether to fund a border wall. “That’s what the [expletive] serving in Congress has come to,” one unnamed member of Congress said.

Colbert was outraged — but he couldn’t help but feel some solidarity. “Waiting for Trump to tweet so you can find out what your job is that day? That’s also what the [expletive] hosting a talk show has come to,” he deadpanned.

We’re nearly two years into the Trump administration, and late-night television remains obsessed. Almost every day of the week, the late-night indignation machine seizes on some new comment from Trump, then feeds its interpretations back into a news cycle that Trump himself — a devoted TV watcher — consumes.