Donald Trump has been a recurring character on Saturday Night Live since Phil Hartman started impersonating him in the late 1980s. Since 2015, however, he’s gone from occasionally showing up to being the most consistent character on the show. Between Darrell Hammond, Alec Baldwin, James Austin Johnson, President Trump himself (he hosted) and others, he’s been featured more than a hundred times. That makes sense given he’s the President and most famous person on Earth, but you could also make a case that SNL has relied on him a little too heavily to scratch the political itch. Thankfully, we got a good reminder this past weekend that he’s not needed for every political sketch.
The cold open of the Olivia Rodrigo episode of SNL 51 was all about politics, but it did not include President Trump, at least outside of references. Instead, it featured Colin Jost doing his terrific impression of Secretary Of War Pete Hegseth, which is basically just a combination of him bullying the press with middle school insults and making outrageous claims like getting a tattoo of Jesus choking out Jimmy Kimmel. He was joined by guest star Aziz Ansari who gave us a really fun take on FBI Director Kash Patel, which featured a lot of hilarious denials to really specific allegations.
Together, the two gave a press conference which provided an opportunity to comment on recent events, which is the sort of basic structure we often get from a President Trump sketch. It was refreshing to see that done with different voices. You can watch it below…
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To be clear, James Austin Johnson is fantastic as President Trump. I liked Hammond and Baldwin’s versions, but his take is, in my opinion, the best we’ve ever gotten from the show. It really captures the essence of the businessman turned politician, from his comedic timing to his stream of consciousness detours to the relationships with many of his subordinates. It’s fantastic, and I want to see it on a regular basis for as long as President Trump is a main character in our lives.
One impression cannot be the totality of SNL’s political coverage though. To be fair, the show obviously talks about President Trump on Weekend Update on a regular basis and does the occasional political sketch that doesn’t involve him, but an overwhelming majority of the coverage over the last decade has been aggressively focused on President Trump. Even during the four year window when he lost the presidency, the show worked him in more than two dozen times and notably, switched President Biden impressions on multiple occasions to try and find something that clicked.
Colin Jost’s impression of Pete Hegseth, however, is clicking. There’s a reason it’s been included as a key support to Johnson’s President Trump in a bunch of recent sketches and why it’s sometimes now getting time to shine on its own. It’s the sort of thing you’d tune into the show hoping to see, and there’s something there with Aziz Ansari’s impression of Kash Patel too. It’s got a really fun spirit to it, and the audience really seemed to enjoy what he was doing with it. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bring it back.
When SNL is at its best, it’s doing a lot of different things. It’s blending different styles of humor. It’s featuring different cast members, and it’s commenting on a variety of things going on in the world, both high brow and low brow. It’s not enough for politics to be part of that diversity. There should be diversity within the political coverage. It should be more than just Johnson’s President Trump. Thankfully, that seems to be happening, and I hope the show sticks with more of a balance moving forward.
SNL only has two episodes left in Season 51. They'll air on the next two consecutive Saturdays and have some exciting guest hosts. You can watch them on NBC or stream via Peacock.
