SNL brings back Donald Trump one year after Alec Baldwin ‘loses’ job
Baldwin retired the role after Trump lost election to Joe Biden
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Donald Trump returned to Saturday Night Live a whole year after Alec Baldwin retired the role.
Baldwin regularly played the former president on the US sketch show, but found himself “overjoyed” to lose the job after Trump was defeated in the 2020 presidential election by Joe Biden.
SNL has now decided to bring Trump back, with new cast member James Austin Johnson playing the role.
Johnson, a skilled impressionist who also plays Biden, appeared in the cold open of the latest episode (6 November), which was presented by Succession star Kieran Culkin.
The sketch saw Johnson’s Trump rant about subjects ranging from new film Dune to Chris Pratt, who was criticised this week for a “gross” Instagram post in which he thanked his wife for giving him a “healthy daughter”.
Many felt that the post was insensitive to Faris, 44, and their son Jack, who is nine.
Jack was born prematurely, with Faris previously saying that their son weighed just three pounds and 12 ounces at birth and spent his first month in the NICU.
Johnson’s Trump called new Marvel film Eternals “awful”, adding: “It was too diverse and no one wants to see that.”
Baldwin won an Emmy for playing Trump on SNL.
Hours after Trump lost the election to Biden in November 2020, he played the character one final time, announcing: “As anyone who died halfway through Tuesday knows, I was re-elected president of the United States.”
This was in reference to the fact that Trump repeatedly refused to accept defeat and has made numerous unfounded claims that the election results were rigged.
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