“Oh, it’s wonderful to be here in the city of East Palestine, not a big name,” said the James Austin Johnson, who portrayed Donald Trump tonight, opening Saturday Night Live. “I’m here and I brought hats, cameras and hats,” he added after he smacked Joe Biden over his visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week and was visited by his own legal woes.
“That’s why you need me,” the MAGA Hut continued with SNL Trump. “I feel like I can bring Schitt’s Creek here,” he said of the multi-Emmy-winning comedy — as you can see in the video above
Just over three days after the former POTUS took a self-absorbed trip to the small Ohio town ravaged by a massive chemical fire following a train derailment in hopes of being the future, today’s SNL opening definitely got off to a more timely start than most shows has had this 48th season. After months of doing double duty as both Trump and Biden, Johnson once again enthusiastically showed that the former is his forte.
Johnson modeled what was a train wreck of a February 22 performance by the real Trump in East Palestine, ruffling about the “beautiful rainbows and discolorations” of the city’s water, Rihanna’s halftime show at the Super Bowl and “Your train blew up and who are we giving it to.” Fault?”
The response from SNL’s Trump, as in real life, was Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
“That was his responsibility. Unfortunately, he was too busy being a nerd and being gay,” Johnson said with a near-dead laugh. “But that would never have happened under my government. People say I made the trains less safe. Not true. That’s not true. I’ve done a lot for trains. I made them bigger, faster, maybe less safe.”
A day after the one-year anniversary of Russia’s rash and brutal invasion of still-undefeated Ukraine, today’s edition of NBC’s long-running late-nighter had plenty of material to draw from. Along with the very serious war on NATO’s eastern edge, there’s the crazy and deadly wet weather in California, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green’s President’s Day call for a “national divorce,” and escalating tensions in the GOP ranks as Trump’s ex-boyfriends and Ron DeSantis bickers and stomps over the 2024 nomination and this looming indictment.
Returning to the seemingly bottomless abyss of Trump controversially hosting SNL in the midst of the 2016 election campaign wasn’t exactly the most original approach the show could have taken tonight — but it was a tried-and-true tactic that certainly didn’t seem tired.
Taking Trumpland’s dangerous and absurd twists and turns to a new level, SNL also featured Emily Kohrs, played by actress Chloe Fineman.
If you missed her media tour this week, the talkative Kohrs on the special grand jury chairperson looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election results. Korch’s nudge-nudge, tongue-in-cheek interviews on behind-closed-door deliberations could threaten the case itself. In real life, Trump referred to the Peach State grand jury as a “kangaroo court” and mocked Kohrs himself.
On SNL, the mock Trump said: “Can you believe that? They almost got me, and then this little horse girl comes in and saves the day. Thank you Emily.”
For the first time since February 4th, tonight is SNL host Woody Harrelson joining the Five-Timer Club. White House plumbing star Harrelson, who previously hosted the Cheers days of 1989, followed by 1992, 2014 and 2019, also showed up on SNL in the early days of the 2020 presidential campaign as then-candidate Joe Biden. Probably no coincidence, tonight also marks the fifth time Jack White has rocked Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza as SNL’s musical guest.
Next week, deep into the 48th season of Saturday Night Live, Kansas City chief tight end and Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce will make his debut as host, with Kelsea Ballerini as musical guest. On March 11, the show will have Wednesday star Jenna Ortega fronting SNL with The 1975 as the musical act.