‘SNL’ Tries To Get On Trump’s Good Side With Snarky Cold Open

“Saturday Night Live” wants Donald Trump to know it’s always had his back.
What began as a stark cold open discussing Trump’s 2024 election win turned into a snarky endorsement from “SNL” cast members of the president-elect, who has long promised to seek revenge against his enemies.
Though Ego Nwodim lamented that there is “nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against” the incoming commander in chief, Kenan Thompson claimed he and his cast mates could not be counted among those critics.
“We at ‘SNL’ would like to say to Donald Trump: We have been with you all along,” Thompson declared.
Bowen Yang followed, sarcastically adding, “We have never wavered in our support of you, even when others doubted you!”
“Every single person on this stage believed in you,” Sarah Sherman agreed.
“So if you’re keeping some sort of list of your enemies, then. … We should not be on that list,” Thompson and Marcello Hernandez said in tandem.
After that, “SNL” debuted its new and improved version of the future president: a muscle-bound, Rambo-infused James Austin Johnson playing “Hot Jacked Trump.”
“From now on, we’re going to do a very flattering portrayal of Trump because he’s frankly my hero and he’s going to make an incredible president and eventually king,” Johnson declared.
Hashing out a plan for the “worst-case scenario” under the Trump administration, Thompson said the world could rely on the “other man we love and trust” to ferry the world away to a new life on Mars: Elon Musk.
At that point, Musk, portrayed by “SNL” veteran Dana Carvey, bounded across the stage, pumping his fists and dancing as he pointed to his “Dark MAGA” hat.
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“Yeah, but seriously, I run the country now,” Carvey said. “America’s going to be like one of my rockets. They’re super cool and super fun, but there’s a slight chance it could blow up and everybody dies. Ha-ha!”
Prior to the election, “SNL” showed unabashed support for basically anybody but Trump.
Last week, the show even featured a surprise cameo from Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who acted opposite her onscreen doppelgänger, Maya Rudolph.
Watch the full sketch above.

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