Donald Trump has been a recurring character on Saturday Night Live since Phil Hartman started impersonating him in the late 1980s. Since 2015, however, he’s gone from occasionally showing up to being the most consistent character on the show. Between Darrell Hammond, Alec Baldwin, James Austin Johnson, President Trump himself (he hosted) and others, he’s been featured more than a hundred times. That makes sense given he’s the President and most famous person on Earth, but you could also make a case that SNL has relied on him a little too heavily to scratch the political itch. Thankfully, we got a good reminder this past weekend that he’s not needed for every political sketch.
The cold open of the Olivia Rodrigo episode of SNL 51 was all about politics, but it did not include President Trump, at least outside of references. Instead, it featured Colin Jost doing his terrific impression of Secretary Of War Pete Hegseth, which is basically just a combination of him bullying the press with middle school insults and making outrageous claims like getting a tattoo of Jesus choking out Jimmy Kimmel. He was joined by guest star Aziz Ansari who gave us a really fun take on FBI Director Kash Patel, which featured a lot of hilarious denials to really specific allegations.
