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Before Donald Trump became the President of the United States, he hosted Saturday Night Live on November 7, 2015. In the years since, that episode of Saturday Night Live has become infamous because of Trump’s performance as the show’s host and how he behaved behind the scenes.
Given how well-known Trump is, it was a huge deal for James Austin Johnson when he was chosen to impersonate Donald on Saturday Night Live. After all, since so many people have strong feelings of love or hate for Trump, anyone who impersonates Donald for the world to see is opening themselves up to criticism.
Since there is so much pressure on Johnson to get his Trump impersonation right, it is fascinating to learn what inspired James’ take on Donald. The reason for that is it turns out that got the inspiration for his Trump impersonation from extremely unlikely places.
What Inspired James Austin Johnson’s Impersonation Of Donald Trump?
Back when Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, many people assumed comedians would be overjoyed on a certain level. Since Trump is such a unique person who says things that other politicians would never dream of, many people assumed that comedians were going to have it easy making fun of him.
In reality, many comedians have spoken about how Trump’s ascension has made it difficult for them. After all, it is very hard to find a balance where Trump’s supporters can still laugh while Donald’s detractors have a good time instead of being reminded about what makes them angry.
In 2022, James Austin Johnson appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers. During that appearance, Johnson spoke about why he struggled to figure out how to impersonate Trump since Donald made him feel so much anger.
“I’m from Nashville, Tennessee, I’m from a pretty conservative environment, I went to church like 18 times a week. So the stream of consciousness thing, I think as the more progressive member of my family – I remember the Thanksgiving where I was like, ‘I voted for Obama,’ and nothing.”
“So I’ve always been that guy in my family, so when Trump came on the scene I was pissed… it broke my heart for a long time, and I was a voices guy so obviously I have to try out doing a Trump.” Johnson told Meyers, “So the first times that I tried doing a Trump it just sort of reflected my liberal black sheep anger.”
As Johnson quickly figured out, having his Trump impersonation reflect his personal feelings about Donald ruined it.
“I was saying stuff that no one wanted to hear or I’d say things he actually said, and I just remember the audience always yanking back, especially as I got the voice – as I started sounding like him and I would just say horrific things, people hated it.”
“And you’re performing in noisy bars all the time, you don’t want them to be quiet with no laughs.” Johnson continued, “That means you touched on something that everybody hates.”
Left trying to figure out how to make his Trump impersonation funny, Johnson had an epiphany.
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“At some point I realized like, ‘Oh the stuff he’s talking about we got over hundreds of years ago, he’s bringing up these issues that we don’t even think about anymore. So that’s when I started abstracting him, I made him like a guy talking about the wizard on the hill. I would do like a medieval Trump, like a fantasy movie Trump… and that’s when I started getting the laughs with it.”
If someone asked most people to guess what inspired one of the most famous Trump impersonators, they would bring up The Apprentice or Donald’s political speeches. One thing that people would almost certainly never guess is that Trump impersonator was inspired by fantasy movies and wizards.
Also during the same interview, Johnson spoke about what he did to master Trump’s voice.
While discussing that topic, Johnson spoke about how much Trump’s voice changed between the time he first became famous and when he joined the political fray in the mid-2010s.
“When he came back in the 2010s ready to be president, his voice had deteriorated a lot. Have you ever seen Bob Dylan live now? Like, did I pay for a Tom Waits show? That’s what’s happened to him now… accessing the sort of dark dungeons of my throat was necessary to play this Trump, because he’s not the smooth 80s Trump anymore.”
The Donald Trump Video That Launched James Austin Johnson’s Career
Before James Austin Johnson joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, he was already starting to become famous. The reason for that is very simple, Johnson’s Trump impersonation garnered him a lot of laughs and attention.
In 2020, Vanity Fair published a profile about James Austin Johnson where they revealed the story behind his most famous Trump impersonation at that time.
When Johnson uploaded a video of himself walking around impersonating Trump and ranting about Scooby-Doo, it went viral. By the time Vanity Fair published its piece about that video, it had received more than 1.7 million views on Twitter. While speaking to Vanity Fair, Johnson described what inspired him to come up with his Scooby-Doo rant.
“I had a day job where I was folding clothes with other stand-up comedians and touring musicians, and we were all in this merch warehouse together. That’s really where I got a lot of my Trump takes from. It was like being around friends.”
“There’s a social aspect to it, that we’ll just be chitchatting about something, having a conversation at work.” Johnson continued, “That’s where the Scooby-Doo one came from.”
“That was just some lunch break horsing around,” Johnson added. “I literally ran out to get sandwiches in downtown L.A. and bring them back, and while I was walking back to my truck, I just started doing that video. And that’s probably the best one, circulation-wise.”
