Trump Takes Center Stage on Saturday Night Live
Even though Donald Trump didn’t step outside into the chilly weather this week, he somehow managed to dominate the scene, thanks to an amusing impression by James Austin Johnson on Saturday Night Live.
In the October 18 episode, which featured Sabrina Carpenter as host, Johnson, portraying Trump, made an unexpected appearance on a mock podcast called Snack Homies. The format was straightforward—a group of about twenty people posed questions to a former president about junk food, with wildly entertaining outcomes.
When asked about Airheads candy, Trump went off on an unpredictable tangent, wandering through topics like street protests and the recent release of George Santos from prison.
Trump exclaimed, “My favorite person is George Santos. He’s a freak and a liar. I think he’s great. We don’t really know much about him, but he’s one of our favorite people. It’s like, people are marching because they’re thrilled he’s out. It’s like, ‘Yes, King!’ march. They said, ‘Yes, King!’”
This was quintessential Johnson as Trump—a hilariously nonsensical monologue, loosely tied back to candy. The clip of “Snack Homies” is worth a watch.
The episode kicked off in a rather unusual manner. It was delayed by about 14 minutes due to a crowd at a college football game, setting a different tone. Instead of diving into political commentary right away, SNL opened with the beloved “Domingo” sketch.
George Santos made a reappearance during the “Weekend Update” segment, where Colin Jost took aim at the former congressman’s legal troubles.
“Yesterday, President Trump finally disclosed what everyone was curious about: former Republican Congressman George Santos, who has pled guilty to fraud and something they call ‘aggravated identity theft.’ I think that’s when you force someone into a closet and change clothes with them,” Jost quipped.
Meanwhile, Carpenter joined in with her own humor, throwing light on misconceptions about her image and making some cheeky comments during her monologue, referencing her album cover and her reputation as a “horndog pop star.”
“People see me as just a horndog pop star, but there’s so much more to my story,” she mentioned. “I’m not merely excited; I’m also allured. And I love reading—I mean, my favorite book is an encyclopedia. It’s so large and, uh, challenging…”
Projected on the screen was the controversial album cover, which she claimed had been misinterpreted. “Some folks were taken aback when they saw this cover. I’m not sure why,” Carpenter said, clarifying, “It was just me on all fours and someone invisible pulling my hair. But if you zoom out, it’s clear it’s from the 50th anniversary special of Martin Short pushing me out of the buffet line, while Bowen (Yang) was helping me up.”
