At the dawn of the Donald Trump administration, Saturday Night Live’s own “Trump” — Alec Baldwin — will be back as the show’s guest host for the 17th time.
The NBC show said Monday that Baldwin will host the Feb. 11 show, a Valentine’s Day treat for viewers. Baldwin, who has been portraying Trump on a semi-regular basis this season, has hosted the venerable comedy show more times than anyone else.
Baldwin has played many different versions of Trump on SNL. At the beginning of October, Baldwin debuted his Trump character while he played up all the memorable moments from the first debate between former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and Trump.
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He yelled “wrong” multiple times, brought up Rosie O’Donnell, and could be heard sniffling loudly into the microphone while blaming it on his rival.
He also answered his first question saying “I won the debate, I stayed calm, and it is over.” He also riffed on Trump’s pronunciation of “China.”
Baldwin reprised his Trump role to mock the third presidential debate on Oct. 22.
Tom Hanks starred as debate moderator Chris Wallace, who called this debate “a lot like the third Lord of the Rings movie, you don’t really want to watch, but hey, you’ve come this far.”
Baldwin also brought up the “bad hombres” comment — which was a major trending topic after the third presidential debate.
In the first episode of 2017, SNL decided to take on Trump’s now infamous press conference. (Trump called BuzzFeed “a failing pile of garbage” for publishing an unverified report on him, and argued with CNN’s Jim Acosta during his first news conference since July, calling him “fake news.”)
Baldwin’s Trump returned to SNL, hitting all the major highlights of the show’s “rebroadcast” of the conference. (You can see the skit in the video at the top of the article.)
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Attacking BuzzFeed, he said: “You’re a failing pile of garbage, do you want to know why? I took your test yesterday and I’ll tell you right now, I’m not a Joey, I’m a Rachel!”
Baldwin has his Trump impersonation down to a science, and explained his approach to the New York Times.
“I see a guy who seems to pause and dig for the more precise and better language he wants to use, and never finds it,” Baldwin said in an interview. “It’s the same dish — it’s a grilled-cheese sandwich rhetorically over and over again.”
Trump spoke out about Baldwin’s recurring role on Twitter.
Baldwin replied to the tweet saying he would agree to stop playing the character if Trump released his tax returns. Trump refused.
During a rally against Trump, Baldwin mocked him by doing an impression of him but also told Americans to stand up during the “100 days of resistance,” fight for their rights and remember there is hope.
“I just want to say, I’ve been standing out here in the freezing cold for a long time. I have to go to the bathroom — I have to pee,” Baldwin-as-Trump said at the New York City rally. “But I’m holding it in, holding it in. I’m not going to pee. I’m going to a function at the Russian consulate tonight; I’m going to hold it in until I get there. And then when I get to the Russian consulate, I’m going to have a really, really long pee. Like the biggest pee I’ve ever had in my lifetime.”
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In an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show, Trump went off on many SNL skits depicting him, even attacking Baldwin.
Trump called the comedy show “terrible,” and Baldwin’s impersonations “mean-spirited” and “biased.”
“Well, I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not a good show anymore,” he said, referring to his hosting duties in 2015. “Nothing to do with me — there’s nothing funny about it. The skits are terrible. I mean, I like Alec, but his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good. I don’t think it’s good. I do like him, and I like him as an actor, but I don’t think his imitation of me gets me at all. And it’s meant to be very mean-spirited, which is very biased. I don’t like it. So I can tweet that out.”
Baldwin is paid US$1,400 for each appearance on the show; he does not write the sketches. SNL announced that actress Kristen Stewart will debut as a host on the Feb. 4 show.
Alessia Cara will be the musical guest on Stewart’s show, with Ed Sheeran performing on the episode Baldwin is hosting.
— With files from The Associated Press, Chris Jancelewicz & Rebecca Joseph
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