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Although Donald Trump didn’t feature in the cold open of this week’s Saturday Night Live, his presence was unmistakably felt, thanks to James Austin Johnson’s spot-on, eccentric impersonation.
In the October 18 episode, which saw Sabrina Carpenter flexing both her hosting and musical talents, Johnson’s portrayal of Trump made an unexpected entry on the satirical segment “Snack Homiez.” The faux podcast, hosted by Carpenter alongside Chloe Fineman, Jane Wickline, and Veronika Slowikowska, set the stage for a delightfully absurd scenario: a group of young adults engaging the former president in a conversation about junk food. As expected, the dialogue quickly spiraled into chaos.
When asked for his opinion on the candy Airheads, Johnson’s Trump embarked on a wild, disjointed monologue that ranged from street protests to the recent release of George Santos from prison.
“You know who I like is that George Santos,” Trump mused. “He’s weird, he’s a liar. I think he’s great. We don’t know anything about him, he’s one of our favorite people. I don’t know him at all, but one of our favorite people. People are marching because they’re happy he’s free. It’s a ‘Yes, King!’ march. They say, ‘Yes, King!’”
The sketch was quintessential Johnson-as-Trump: a blend of absurdity, incoherence, and comedic brilliance, all tied back to the topic of candy. The “Snack Homiez” sketch can be seen below, capturing the hilarity of the moment.
The episode itself got off to an unusual start. A college football overrun delayed the show’s start by about 14 minutes, and instead of a political cold open, SNL kicked things off with a revival of the beloved “Domingo” sketch.
George Santos’ name resurfaced later during “Weekend Update,” where Colin Jost took aim at the former congressman’s release from prison.
“Yesterday, President Trump finally released what everyone has been asking him to release: George Santos, the former Republican congressman who pled guilty to fraud and something called ‘aggravated identity theft,’ which I think is when you push someone in a closet and change clothes with them,” Jost joked.
Carpenter, meanwhile, poked fun at her own image during her monologue, addressing her racy Man’s Best Friend album cover and her reputation as a “horndog pop star.”
“Everyone thinks of me as this, like, horndog pop star, but there’s really so much more to me,” she told the audience. “I’m not just horny. I’m also turned on and I’m sexually charged. And I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big and it’s hard…”
She even projected the controversial album image for the audience, claiming it was misunderstood.
“Some people got a little freaked out by the cover. I’m not sure why,” Carpenter said. “It was just this me on all fours with an unseen figure pulling my hair. But what people don’t realize is, that’s just how they cropped it. If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the 50th anniversary special of Bowen (Yang) helping me up by the hair… after Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line.”
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