Saturday Night Live parodies of Donald Trump
The sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live (SNL) has parodied Donald Trump since 1988, covering his time as a real estate broker to his popular run as host of The Apprentice, and during and between his presidencies.
To date, Trump has been portrayed on SNL by performers including Shane Gillis, Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, Taran Killam, Alec Baldwin and James Austin Johnson.
[3][4] The first sketch, from December 1988, shows Donald and Ivana celebrating Christmas, giving large, gold and jewel-encrusted presents to each other, in a parody of the O. Henry short story, "The Gift of the Magi".
[4] The first sketch had Ross Perot (Cheri Oteri) searching for "a new crazy leader" for the Reform Party, with Trump and Pat Buchanan (Chris Parnell) as possible candidates.
In the 2011 sketches, Trump involves himself in the upcoming Republican Party presidential primaries and questions President Obama's birth certificate.
[15] The duo reprised the setup and characters in December, wishing viewers a Merry Christmas and presenting a "Naughty and Nice" list.
[16] Donald Trump hosted SNL a second time in November 2015, and Killam and Hammond appeared during the opening monologue alongside him.
[17] Since Trump was running for president, his appearance triggered the equal-time rule, so his opponents received free air time on NBC affiliate stations.
As a result, Jimmy Fallon was asked to return in the role of Trump (which he had played many times on The Tonight Show) so that Killam could portray Ted Cruz instead.
Killam's contract was terminated early after that season, with some news sources alleging that being replaced as Trump was part of the reason.
[22] In September 2016, SNL announced that Alec Baldwin would replace Hammond in portraying Trump in its parodies of the 2016 presidential debates.
[27] Baldwin's Trump debuted in the October 1, 2016 episode, opposite Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton and Michael Che as debate moderator Lester Holt.
Trump reacted negatively to this episode on Twitter, saying that Baldwin's portrayal "stinks" and that it was "time to retire the boring and unfunny show.
"[32][33] Post-election sketches have included Baldwin's Trump meeting with people such as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mitt Romney (Jason Sudeikis), and Vladimir Putin (Beck Bennett), with humor drawn from the 2016 United States election interference by Russia.
These include Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon),[35] White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (Mikey Day) with a Grim Reaper-like appearance,[36] White House Press Secretaries Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy),[37][38] and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Aidy Bryant),[39] and United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon).
[40][41] Vice President Mike Pence was portrayed by Beck Bennett,[42] and Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr. by Alex Moffat and Mikey Day respectively.
Other parodies of people associated with the Trump Administration post-election included Jared Kushner (Jimmy Fallon), an unmasked Steve Bannon (Bill Murray), Michael Cohen (Ben Stiller), Brett Kavanaugh (Matt Damon), Robert Mueller (Robert de Niro), Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon), Paul Manafort (Alex Moffat), and Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett).
Trump tweeted his displeasure with the show in November, December, and January, saying "Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse."
Trump denied that he has ever made such an inquiry, but claimed that his portrayal by SNL "should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat Party."
