One of the most successful seasons in the history of Saturday Night Live drew to a close this weekend, and it was only fitting that the primary protagonist of the cold open for the season finale was none other than U.S. President Donald Trump, the man who perhaps deserves the most credit for inspiring the show’s writers over the past eight months.
Indeed earlier Saturday, actor Alec Baldwin tweeted a photo of himself in his now-famous Trump get-up, teasing his appearance on the episode – as if it was ever in doubt.
But while most of Baldwin’s appearances up until this point have portrayed Trump as bumbling and blustery, this weekend’s opening sketch showed a softer side to the president, who was depicted performing a cover of Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah.”
The sketch was a hat-tip to the first SNL episode after the Canadian singer’s death and the American president’s election victory in November, in which the defeated Hillary Clinton was depicted performing the melancholic number.
READ MORE: Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton sings Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah on SNL
Baldwin wasn’t alone in the spotlight for this performance however. On hand to provide support – and backing vocals – were a number of people tied to the president in some way, including daughter Ivanka (played by Scarlett Johansson), the Grim Reaper (previously called upon on the show to depict White House strategist Steve Bannon) and Vice President Mike Pence)
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The performance ends with generous applause from the audience, at which point Baldwin’s Trump delivers a single line that appears to poke fun at the president’s recent utterance, in which he said he could only speak for himself rather than his entire campaign team when it came to denying collusion between his team and Russia during the presidential campaign.
“I’m not giving up ‘coz I didn’t do anything wrong. But I can’t speak for these people,” Baldwin’s Trump says, pointing at his entourage.
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