SNL skewers Trump and ‘bad’ pick JD Vance over campaign lies in hilarious Cold Open

‘People are saying he was a bad pick and in many ways he was,’ James Austin Johnson said on the first episode of SNL’s 50th season

James Austin Johnson reprised his role as Donald J Trump on Saturday Night Live, making a joke about the former president picking the wrong running mate with Ohio SenatorJD Vance.

“People are saying he was a bad pick and in many ways he was,” Johnson’s character says before introducing Vance, played by Bowen Yang, at a rally. An enthusiastic Yang walks on stage, saying Johnson’s version of Trump told him: “JD, you're like a son to me, because I don't like you. I'm stuck with you.”

Johnson’s character continued to poke fun at the Republican nominee, particularly his recent comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which have been proven false by city officials.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re taking your pets, and they’re doing freak offs,” he said. “They’re doing freak offs with the dogs and they’re making the geese watch.”

James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump on ’SNL’ . He reprised his role on Saturday (YouTube)

“They’re doing a Diddy, at least that’s what I’m told by my running mate,” Johnson continued, referring to allegations made against Sean “Diddy” Combs earlier this month that he forced his ex-partner, singer Cassie, to engage in sex acts with male sex workers in sessions he called “freak offs.”

The cast then turned to the false claims Trump made about Harris’s racial identity.

During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists in July, Trump said the vice president “happened to turn black.”

“They say that me blaming the Democrats for inciting violence is the pot calling the kettle black,” Johnson said in character.

Bowen Yang appears as JD Vance on Saturday Night Live on Saturday (Saturday Night Live/NBC)

“But frankly I didn’t know the kettle was black until very recetly...I thought it was Indian.” The SNL Trump also concedes he “misses” former Democrat nominee Joe Biden.

The episode also featured Maya Rudolph playing Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg playing her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and Dana Carvey playing President Joe Biden.

Rudolph thanked her husband for giving her “the most Brooklyn daughter,” a reference to Ella Emhoff, Harris’s stepdaughter. She then thanked Carvey’s character for handing her the reigns of the election, to which Carvey bluntly replied: “I didn’t want to.”