Saturday Night Live parodies of Donald Trump

The sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live (SNL) has parodied Donald Trump since 1988, from his time as a real estate broker, to his popular run as host of The Celebrity Apprentice, and ultimately during his presidency.

To date, Trump has been portrayed by five SNL performers: Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, Taran Killam and Alec Baldwin. Darrell Hammond has portrayed him most frequently (27 times), originally while in the cast in the late '90s, and then reprising the role in a series of cameos in 2016. The other performers held the role briefly, with five appearances by Hartman, three by Killam, and only one by Sudeikis. In September 2016, SNL announced that the role of Trump would next be taken on by Alec Baldwin, who has made many appearances on the series through its run.

SNL has frequently paired parodies of Trump with impressions of his wives and children or, since he took office, various staff-members.

Hartman parodies (1988–1990)

Cast member Phil Hartman was the show's first portrayer of Donald Trump, from 1988 until 1990. Hartman portrayed Trump five times, and was paired with Jan Hooks as Trump's then-wife Ivana Trump or, in one case, Marla Maples, Trump's second wife-to-be.

The first sketch, from December 1988, shows Donald and Ivana celebrating Christmas, giving large, gold and jewel-encrusted presents to each other.

Trump himself is seen in the audience at the Saturday Night Live 15th Anniversary Special from 1989, where Chevy Chase spills popcorn on him.

A sketch from February 1990 parodies the Trumps' divorce. Ivana demands more money since Donald has been unfaithful, but he refutes this by referring to their extensive prenuptial agreement. It states, among other things, that he is entitled to have mistresses provided they are younger than her, and that she will be paid in giant stonecoins.

The next episode had Marla Maples and Trump appearing on Church Chat. The couple are referred to as a "satanic sandwich", and the sketch shows press coverage of their relationship, including a "Best Sex I've Ever Had" headline.

Hammond parodies (1999–2011, 2015–2016)

Hartman didn´t do more Trump-sketches after 1990, and Darrell Hammond's first two portrayals came in 1999. The first sketch had Ross Perot (Cheri Oteri) searching for "a new crazy leader" for the Reform Party, with Trump and Pat Buchanan (Chris Parnell) as possible candidates. Their meeting is crashed by a violent Jessie Ventura (Will Ferell). In the second sketch Trump announces that he is running for president, and asks the audience "Eh, don´t try to fight it. Alright?". He also introduces his runningmate, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? winner John Carpenter.

Hammond resumed playing Trump in 2004, doing so a total of 16 times up to 2011, though he left the cast in 2009. His parodies focused on Trump's interest and involvement with politics, commercials, and his appearances on The Apprentice. On April 3, 2004, Trump hosted the show, praising Hammond in his opening monologue, and appeared in a sketch next to Hammond's Trump.

An early 2005 episode introduced Trump's third wife, Melania (Paris Hilton). Trump brings her home to let his children, Eric Trump (Fred Armisen), Donald Trump Jr. (Seth Meyers), and Ivanka Trump (Maya Rudolph), "meet their new mommy". Melania would be portrayed later by Molly Shannon and, from 2015 and onwards (without Hammond), by Cecily Strong.

Hammond is the show's longest running Trump impersonator. He played the role for ten years in the cast, 1999 to 2009, and reprised it twice in 2011. In the 2011 sketches Trump involves himsef in the upcoming Republican Party presidential primaries and questions President Obama's birth certificate.

After returning to serve as the show's announcer in 2014, he began regularly reprising his role as Trump beginning in December 2015. Due to the wide field of GOP candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the show needed at least one cameo appearance to cover all of the candidates. Rather than have Killam (who had by this point begun playing Trump) remain in the role, he instead portrayed Ted Cruz. SNL had asked alumnus Jimmy Fallon (who had portrayed Trump on his own show) to play the part. When a last minute change prevented this, Hammond returned to the role. Cecily Strong continued to appear alongside the recast Trump as his wife Melania, who she began portraying across from Killam's Trump.

Hammond subsequently appeared as Trump in seven more episodes of the season. His appearance in the role was critically acclaimed, but some outlets reported that the role should be moved to a permanent cast member at some point.

Sudeikis parody (2012)

Jason Sudeikis appeared in the role once, during a Fox & Friends parody. Sudeikis' Trump comments on Barack Obamas's handling of hurricane Sandy.

Killam parodies (2015)

It was announced prior to the show's 41st season that Taran Killam would be taking over the role for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Reportedly, several cast members had auditioned for the role.

Killam's Trump debuted on the October 2015 sketch "A Message From Donald & Melania Trump", which also debuted Cecily Strong as Melania Trump. The message is sent from "our humble gold house", and Donald presents himself as "the man who's almost certainly your next president". The couple praise Donald's qualities as a person and a politician, although he becomes uncomfortable when she claims that he "was democrat before he was republican". The duo reprised the setup and characters in December, wishing viewers a Merry Christmas and presenting a "Naughty and Nice" list. Donald placed Santa on the "naughty" list since he doesn´t trust anybody who can fly over a wall.

Donald Trump hosted SNL a second time in November 2015, and Killam and Hammond appeared during the opening monologue alongside him. Trumps apperance triggered the equal-time rule, and Trumps opponents received free air time on NBC affiliate stations. Trump appeared in a sketch with himself as an incredibly successful president in 2018. Cecily Strong parodied Melania, and Trump's daughter Ivanka appeared in a cameo. Trump ends the sketch by telling the audience that his actual presidency would be even better.

For the December 19, 2015 episode (co-hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler), SNL lacked enough cast members the portray all of the GOP candidates in a debate sketch. As a result, Jimmy Fallon was asked to return in the role of Trump (which he had played many times on The Tonight Show) so that Killam could portray Ted Cruz instead. Ultimately, that plan fell through at the last minute, and Hammond instead played Trump in the debate.

Hammond continued to play Trump for the remainder of the season. Killam's contract was terminated early after that season, with some news sources alleging that being replaced as Trump was part of the reason.

Baldwin parodies (2016–present)

On September 28, 2016, SNL announced that Alec Baldwin would replace Hammond in portraying Trump in its parodies of the 2016 presidential debates. He has continued portraying Trump in 2017. Baldwin received a Critics' Choice Award for his portrayal of Trump.

Before election

Baldwin's Trump debuted in the October 1, 2016 episode, opposite Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton and Michael Che as debate moderator Lester Holt. The sketch was based on Trump and Clinton´s first presidential debate. The episode also included impressions of members of Trump's family in a parody of the gameshow Family Feud.

Further sketches with Baldwin included elements of the other presidential debates, the Vice presidential debate and the Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording controversy.

The October 15 episode featured a parody of the third presidential debate. Later in the episode, Baldwin and Cecily Strong appeared as Donald and Melania Trump, in a parody of Beyoncé's Lemonade. Host Emily Blunt portrayed Ivanka Trump, and Vanessa Bayer appeared as Trump's youngest daughter Tiffany Trump.

Trump reacted negatively to this episode on Twitter, saying that Baldwin's portrayal "stinks", and that it was "time to retire the boring and unfunny show."

After election

Post-election sketches have included Baldwin's Trump meeting with people such as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mitt Romney and Vladimir Putin, with humor drawn from the 2016 United States election interference by Russia. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon), appears frequently.

Trump has continued tweeting his displeasure with the show in November, December and January, saying "Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse." and "NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!".

In January 2017, SNL writer Katie Rich was suspended from the show after she wrote a joking tweet saying that Trump's youngest son, Barron, would become "this country's first homeschool shooter." The tweet provoked significant outrage, and Rich apologized, calling it "inexcusable".

A February episode introduced White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer played by Melissa McCarthy. The sketch received favorable comments in media, and Spicer thought the sketch was "funny". Trump was reported to have disliked the sketch.

See also

• Saturday Night Live parodies of Bill Clinton
• Saturday Night Live parodies of Hillary Clinton
• Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin

References

• Things You Most Likely Didn't Know About Melania Trump Lawsuit.