Saturday Night Live opened its 51st season with a skit skewering Donald Trump‘s crackdown on late-night TV, as the president (James Austin Johnson) warned that “daddy’s watching.”
The skit also featured Mikey Day as FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who last month came to national prominence after he warned of agency action over comments that Jimmy Kimmel made on his ABC show. Hours later, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the schedule, only to return it several days later after a backlash that the network had capitulated to Trump administration pressure.
Tonight’s SNL skit was hardly surprising, given that Carr, in his first weeks in office, is investigating a complaint over the show’s decision last year to feature Kamala Harris in a cameo just a few days before the election.
On SNL, Johnson’s Trump said, “I’m just here keeping my eye on SNL, making sure they don’t do anything too mean about me, and they better be careful, because I know late-night TV like the back of my hand.” He then held it up, showing the strange discoloring that has never been explained.
“Not looking great right now,” Trump said. “Gonna cover this up for the rest of my life.”
The premise of the SNL cold open was a spoof on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) summoning of generals this week to Quantico, VA, where they heard him speak on the warrior ethos — and an obsession with the appearance of Pentagon personnel.
“In summary, this is the whole meeting: No fuggos, no fatties, no facial hair, no body hair — just hot shredded, hairless men who are definitely not gay,” Jost’s Hegseth, in a tight-fitting suit, said.
Hegseth’s speech was followed by remarks from Trump, a blatantly partisan address that veered from topic to topic while the generals largely remained stonefaced. As Jost froze in character, Johnson’s Trump broke the fourth wall and did a bit of riffing on the Weekend Update co-host.
“I’m surprised Colin’s here,” Johnson’s Trump said. “I thought he would be with his friends at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.”
Then Jost interjected, “I didn’t get an offer.”
“Well, that’s sad. We like the Saudis because they like to saw deez journalists in half,” Trump said. The line earned some groans in the audience.
The point of Trump’s appearance appeared to be to play catch-up on some of what was missed over the summer, not just his attacks on late-night TV but also his claims to have ended wars while started new conflicts with Venezuela.
“They all say to me, ‘Sir, how will you pay for all of this?’ And I tell them, with my scams! My beautiful scams!” Johnson’s Trump said.
In finishing up, Trump said, “Well, here we go, and remember, daddy’s watching.”
Check out the sketch above.