Saturday Night Live’s 45th season hasn’t budged from its focus on poking fun at politics, with its latest cold open featuring Alec Baldwin as U.S. President Donald Trump and Will Ferrell as Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
The scene opened with Baldwin portraying Trump on the lawn of the White House, in front of a gaggle of waiting reporters. A loud helicopter is pictured in the background.
He says he recognizes the media likely has a lot of questions for him “about this impeachment nonsense.”
“I’d love to answer every single one of them,” Baldwin jokes. “But as you can see from this very loud running helicopter behind me, I’m in a big hurry right now so I don’t really have the time, but everything is perfect, okay, thanks.”
When the reporters — SNL cast members among them — insist on lobbing questions about Sondland’s latest testimony in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, Baldwin pretends not to hear them over the hum of the chopper.
“It sounds like you said Sondland’s testimony completely exonerated me,” he said in character.
The skit also poked fun at large talking points written in black marker that had been photographed earlier this week in the hands of the real Trump.
“I used the biggest fattest Magic Marker I could find,” Baldwin joked.
Ferrell appeared toward the end of the relatively short cold open, quipping: “Keep the quid pro quo on the low low, got it!”
Ferell, an SNL alumnus, hosted the show, marking his fifth time doing so.
Each episode of this season of SNL has opened with a political cold open, mostly about the Trump impeachment inquiry.