‘Saturday Night Live’ cast jokingly ask Trump to keep them off his ‘enemies list’ : NPR

The cast of Saturday Night Live sarcastically pledged their allegiance to President-elect Donald Trump and jokingly touted their support for him and his billionaire backer Elon Musk in their first episode since Trump’s re-election this week.

During the show’s cold open, cast members, including Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner, somberly spoke of the election results, calling them “shocking and even horrifying”.

“Donald Trump, who tried to forcibly overturn the results of the last election, was returned to office by an overwhelming majority. This is the same Donald Trump who openly called for vengeance against his political enemies,” the cast said. “And now, thanks to the Supreme Court, there are no guardrails. Nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him.”

Then, the mood took a sarcastic turn when the cast said, “And that is why we at SNL would like to say to Donald Trump, we have been with you all along. We have never wavered in our support of you, even when others doubted you.”

Colin Jost, co-anchor of SNL’s “Weekend Update,” teased his co-anchor, Michael Che, saying Che was from the “lamestream media”, and joking he had tried to spin their news updates to make Trump look “foolish.”

“So, if you’re keeping some sort of list of your enemies, then we should not be on that list. And it’s c-h-e. Che,” Jost joked.

The comedy show’s joking attempt to get on Trump’s good side comes as the president-elect prepares to return to the White House and has vowed to punish his perceived enemies.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise trip to New York City to appear on Saturday Night Live, in the hope of boosting her chances in this week’s election. But Harris resoundingly lost, winning 226 electoral college votes to Trump’s 312.

Multiple people have impersonated Trump since 1988 on SNL, from his days as a businessman to his first presidency, when actor Alec Baldwin famously played Trump. Trump was a host on the show in 2015 but has frequently railed against the show, calling for the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Election Commission to “look into” the show’s coverage of him in 2019.

The show also debuted an impression of Elon Musk by Dana Carvey and “Hot Jacked Trump”, portrayed by James Austin Johnson wearing a red bandana and flexing fake muscles, who said, “they finally got the body right.”

“From now on, we’re going to do [a] very flattering portrayal of Trump,” Johnson said. “Because he’s frankly my hero and he’s going to make an incredible president and eventually King. We love you, buddy.”