Update Baldwin returned later in the show as both Trump and Bill O’Reilly – performing in split-screen with himself. “I’d like to thank you, Donald Trump, for promoting Sexual Assault Awareness month,” Baldwin’s O’Reilly said, to which his Trump replied, “That’s right, Bill, it’s a subject near and dear to my hand.”
Previous Alec Baldwin returned to Saturday Night Live as Donald Trump tonight, in a cold open more pointed than hilarious. Addressing a town hall in a Kentucky coal community, Baldwin’s Trump answered questions that got progressively more desperate, from a coal miner pleading for a job – any job – to a mother worrying about daycare. (Watch a clip below).
“We all love Trump,” Baldwin-as-Trump said. “Don’t we? Don’t we?”
Baldwin’s impression is sharp as ever, or sharp as can be expected after the initial novelty’s worn off, but the punchlines seemed less about laughs than unfiltered anger. Noting his warm reception, Baldwin’s Trump said, “What a difference 50 Tomahawk missiles can make.”
First questioner was Mikey Day’s coal miner, asking for a job. Baldwin responded, “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you people will work in coal the rest of your life.” In Trump’s America, he said, “men work in two places – coal mines and Goldman Sachs.”
“You’re going to get rid of my healthcare?” Beck Bennet’s townie asked. “All of it, gone,” responded Trump. When another complained that his opioid-addicted wife had to attend rehab an hour away, Baldwin’s president sympathized: “My wife doesn’t want to move either.”
As each of the disappointed town hall attendees maintained their loyalty (“You’re my president,” said Aidy Bryant’s mom character, after being told she’d lose just about everything but the lead in her water), Baldwin’s Trump compared himself to a severed finger in their chili – “but you still eat the chili.”
The sketch wrapped up quickly, it’s points bluntly made.
Tonight’s guest host, Louis C.K., wasn’t in the cold open.
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