“Saturday Night Live” returned to Melania Trump’s impassioned speech by the president (played by James Austin Johnson) about Jeffrey Epstein, the Gilgo Beach killer and Diddy in its April 11 cold open.
‘SNL’ mocks President Trump over rising gas prices during cold weather
“Saturday Night Live” began its latest episode with a cold opening in which Donald Trump discusses Iran and rising gas prices.
“Saturday Night Live” features first lady Melania Trump’s “massive and random” Epstein speech.
The show kicked off with an April 11 episode in which James Austin Johnson played President Donald Trump and made a series of phone calls in the Oval Office, covering an eventful week in the news. One of the calls was with his wife, who held an unusual press conference this week denying any knowledge of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s abuses.
In the skit, Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) said that Epstein “just came out of nowhere and decided to give a big bullshit speech,” only to be told by the president that “that sounds a little insane.” He asked, “Who are you, me?”
“It’s not just Epstein,” she said. “I thought I could also say, ‘I, Melania Trump, never helped the Gilgo Beach serial killer,’ so no one would suspect anything.”
Trump suggested that the first lady should also announce in the sketch that she “barely partyed with Diddy,” even though Trump pointed out that this would only raise suspicions.
Trump, played by Johnson, also called Tiger Woods (Keenan Thompson) and called Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) “if there’s anything I can do to help” following Woods’ recent DUI. Hegseth assured Trump that Iran is “supposedly disappearing every Saturday night, just like me,” adding: “You’ve probably heard that I want to restart the military draft, which is a great sign for a ceasefire.”
But President Trump told Hegseth that he had used a secret weapon: sending Vice President J.D. Vance to assist in negotiations. “The Iranians spent 20 hours talking to JD and then said, ‘Please, go back to bombing.'”
The sketch also depicts Trump dictating a controversial Easter Sunday post about Iran, which ended with “Praise be to Allah.” President Trump, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, callously called it “a sarcastic attack on the world’s largest religion. They are famous for having a great sense of humor about that kind of thing.”
The sketch was a return to the show’s usual format of opening with sketches focused on Trump. “SNL” took the president’s day off last week and kicked off the show with a cold open depicting postgame coverage of the NCAA Final Four. Although Johnson’s Trump character did not appear, the sketches still had political undertones, including an appearance by recently fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi, played by Ashley Padilla.
Colman Domingo made his hosting debut on the April 11 episode with musical guest Anitta. This will be the last new episode of “SNL” in April, as the show will take a few weeks off before returning in early May.
Who will be the next “SNL” host?
The next episode of “SNL” will be hosted by Olivia Rodrigo on May 2, serving as both host and musical guest. Rodrigo has served as a musical guest twice so far, but this will be his first time hosting the event.
The following week, on May 9th, Matt Damon will host for the third time with musical guest Noah Cahan. And on May 16, Will Ferrell will host the season finale of “SNL” with musical guest Paul McCartney. “SNL” will then be canceled in the summer, with Season 52 scheduled to begin in the fall.
