“Saturday Night Live” opened this week’s episode with Donald Trump commenting on the battle to buy Warner Bros. Discovery – wondering why anyone would even want to buy the studio: “They have one of the worst studio tours in Los Angeles,” he grumbled. “You go on this thing, and it’s just a kid pointing to a tree. ‘Oh, it’s the tree from ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ We don’t care.
“Trump,” played as usual by James Austin Johnson, was answering questions from the press on Air Force One – much to the dismay of press secretary Karoline Leavitt (Ashley Padilla).
“It’s your favorite president behind my curtain — behind the curtain, something I loved doing at Miss Teen USA in 1997,” Trump said of Johnson. “You know, it’s exciting. Tonight I took both an Ambien and an Adderall, so we’ll see which one wins.
“How great is Karoline Leavitt,” he then said, turning to Padilla as press secretary. “We love her. Oh, she has a beautiful face and those lips that won’t stop. It’s pretty amazing that I can openly make fun of my young blonde subordinate. It gives the Michigan football coach a hard time. Can we get a close-up? People need to see that. Look at those lips. They go like a machine gun. She liked it because I’m very nice to women.”
He then turned to “CNN’s Kaitlan Collins”: “Yes, you have a question, you evil, horrible witch. (The real Collins, of course, was called “stupid and mean” by Trump for asking about his plans for the White House ballroom.)
Asked by a reporter whether he would continue to carry out strikes against Venezuela in the Caribbean, Trump stressed that he was no longer targeting only drug boats. “We’re also targeting planes suspected of drug trafficking. In fact, we have declassified video of a strike that I can show you now. We have that clip.”
Cut to a black and white video of Santa and his reindeer being bombed. “Is that Santa Claus?” » asked the shocked journalist. Trump responded: “Not anymore! »
And then Trump was asked about the latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein photos released by House Democrats. “Look, the fact is these photos are fake news. A Democratic hoax,” he said. The reporter replied: “Even the photo of a bowl of condoms with your face on them, and the text saying ‘I’m huge’?”
Trump said: “They’re 100 percent legit. I love those files. I’m in the files! I took a lot of great photos.”
Josh O’Connor is the host of the December 13 episode, with Lily Allen as musical guest. This is the first-ever “SNL” appearance for O’Connor, the Emmy-winning “The Crown” star who is promoting his appearance in the Netflix film “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”
As for Allen, this is her first musical appearance on “SNL” since Feb. 3, 2007, when she performed during an episode hosted by Drew Barrymore. It’s the first time the “SNL” host and musical guest have both come from the U.K. since Eric Idle and Kate Bush in 1978.
This marks the eighth episode of “SNL” this season. Previous hosts included Bad Bunny (October 4), Amy Poehler (October 11), Sabrina Carpenter (October 18), Miles Teller (November 1), Nikki Glaser (November 8), Glen Powell (November 15), and Melissa McCarthy (December 6). Ariana Grande is coming (December 20).
And previous musical guests this season have been Doja Cat (October 4), Role Model (October 11), Sabrina Carpenter (October 18), Brandi Carlile (November 1), Dark (November 8), Olivia Dean (November 15), and Dijon (December 6). Coming soon, Dear (December 20).
Watch the cold open below.
