Saturday Night Live (SNL) kicked off its 51st season with chaos and a cameo from James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump, who stormed the cold open to issue a tongue-in-cheek warning: “Just keeping my eye on SNL, making sure they don’t do anything too mean about me.”
The sketch began with Colin Jost as ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth, lamenting that the US military was “gay as hell” and “never been fatter,” a pointed parody of real-life comments made during Trump’s recent meeting with military leaders.
Trump’s interruption turned the scene self-referential. He mocked the show’s reshuffled cast, “SNL 51 off to a rough start: 17 new cast members and they’ve got the Update guy doing the open”, and took a jab at Jost, quipping that he expected him to be performing at the “Riyadh Comedy Festival.”
Threatening mock retaliation, Trump warned that if the jokes went too far, SNL would “answer to my attack dog at the FCC, Brandon Carr.”
Mikey Day then entered as commissioner Brendan Carr, correcting Trump’s blunder over his name before being brushed aside.
The sketch ended with Johnson’s Trump delivering a parting line in trademark style: “Remember Daddy’s watching.”
Johnson has portrayed Trump on SNL since 2021.
