Saturday Night Live’s 51st season opened with a familiar face — and an even more familiar rant. James Austin Johnson reprised his uncanny Donald Trump impression in a cold open that cast the former president as NBC’s self-appointed censorship czar, dropping in to warn the show’s cast not to “go too far” with their jokes.

The sketch began with Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost), here recast as Secretary of Defense, laying down a few eyebrow-raising “new rules” for the military. “No fatties, no facial hair, no body hair,” he ordered. “Just hot, shredded, hairless men who are definitely not gay.” He then declared that America was facing “the greatest threat to freedom and democracy the world has ever known.” The camera cut to Johnson’s Trump, who didn’t miss a beat: “Late night TV!”

That set the tone for what followed — a shot at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s recent pressure on Disney and ABC after Jimmy Kimmel joked about the death of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. “I’m just here keeping an eye on SNL making sure they don’t do anything too mean about me,” Trump said, claiming he knows “late night TV like the back of my hands.” Cue the punchline: the orange makeup smeared across the back of his right hand. “Not looking great right now!”

From there, Johnson’s Trump moved on to roasting SNL itself. “We all know they were never going to let [Jost] do the whole opening by himself,” he said, before adding, “I thought he would be with his friends at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.” He quickly followed that up with one of the darker jokes of the night: “That’s sad. We love the Saudis because they like to ‘saw these’ journalists in half. That’s the kind of thing that would kill over there.” The line referenced recent backlash against Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, and other comics who accepted Saudi Arabia’s invitation to perform.

Trump then shifted to another headline from the real world — a recently surfaced 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, which The Wall Street Journal reported was written by Trump, though he denies it. “All right, Colin, those Spirit Airlines jokes aren’t going to write themselves,” he said while shooing Jost away, before adding, “Oh, and Colin: ‘May every day be another wonderful secret.’ That was a quote from a poem I wrote to a horrible man I’ve never met before.”

As the sketch drew to a close, Johnson’s Trump couldn’t resist one last jab at the show itself. “But here we are, SNL season 51. Should have called it at 50, right?” he said. “It’s so sad to see something get old and confused yet still demand constant attention. Oh, well. But they better be on their best behavior, otherwise they’re going to have to answer to my attack dog at the FCC, Brandon Carr.” When Mikey Day’s Carr corrected him—“It’s actually ‘Brendan,’ sir”—Trump snapped back, “It’s crazy that you think I care.”

Before wrapping, Trump offered a few final “updates” from his summer: “I took a little vacation time for golf and travel and stroke. Kidding! Or not. We’ll never know, will we?” Then came a new campaign promise no one asked for: “I ended every war, except the two main ones still happening and more vicious than ever. Now starting a new war in Venezuela soon.”

His final note summed up the sketch’s chaotic spirit: the new war, he said, will be paid for “with my scams.”

You can watch the full Saturday Night Live Season 51 premiere’s cold open above.