SNL Season 51 Premiere Features Donald Trump Parody; White House Responds

Saturday Night Live’s season 51 premiere on Saturday, Oct. 4 featured a Cold Open in which James Austin Johnson, portraying Donald Trump, interrupted the sketch to warn the show not to “do anything too mean,” saying, “daddy’s watching.”

In the episode hosted by Bad Bunny with Doja Cat as the musical guest, the Cold Open began with Colin Jost as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth outlining new requirements for members of the armed services. When Hegseth referenced the “greatest threat to freedom and democracy the world has ever known,” Johnson appeared as Trump and declared the threat was “late-night TV,” a nod to “the ongoing saga surrounding the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Johnson, 36, portraying a 79-year-old Donald Trump, said he was watching SNL to ensure the show didn’t go “too mean” toward him and warned the cast to be careful. He claimed he knows late-night TV “like the back of [his] hands,” then revealed uneven makeup and noted it wasn’t looking great. He needled Colin Jost to step out and write Spirit Airlines jokes, and he alluded to a poem that Trump has denied authoring for Jeffrey Epstein.

Continuing the parody, Johnson said, “Here we are, SNL season 51. Should have called it at 50, right? It’s so sad to see something get old and confused yet still demand constant attention.” He warned, “they’d better be on their best behavior, otherwise they’ll have to answer to my attack dog at the FCC, Brandon Carr.” Mikey Day then appeared as a dancing Carr, corrected the name—“It’s actually Brendan, sir”—and Johnson replied, “It’s crazy that you think I care.”

A recent sketch used Johnson’s take on Trump to riff on the summer’s biggest headlines. In it, the character bragged about ending every war—aside from the two still raging—joked that a new conflict in Venezuela was on the horizon despite a government shutdown, and boasted that the funding would come from his “scams.” The bit wrapped with a wink that “dad” was keeping an eye on things.

By Sunday, Oct. 5, the White House fired back. In a note to Entertainment Weekly, spokeswoman Abigail Jackson brushed the sketch off, saying she wouldn’t bother watching and, like many viewers who’ve tuned out of SNL, she had better ways to spend her time—up to and including watching paint dry.