President Obama appeared on Monday night’s episode of The Colbert Report for his first and final time.

Among topics – including a hilarious bit in which Obama hijacked Colbert’s classic “The Word” segment – the President was asked about executive action and how he used to criticize President Bush for using the same powers.

“Does that happen to every president, where you get into the office and you think, ‘Oh, you know what, I might be the only one I trust with this much power so I’ll hold onto it?'” Colbert asked Obama.

“For the first time, you’re asking a sensible question,” he replied. “The structure of our democracy is checks and balances, and every president, even if on the outside they were complaining, there’s always the temptation to want to go ahead and get stuff done. And democracy is messy and complicated. So the tendency is to say, well, let me see if I can get this done, just because things are so bottled up, especially at a moment when there’s a lot of gridlock.”

Watch “The Word” “The Decree” below:

Watch an extended portion of Colbert’s interview with Obama below:

Colbert has just a handful of episodes left before he wraps up The Colbert Report for good. He’ll be taking over David Letterman’s Late Show seat on CBS in 2015.