The season 49 finale of Saturday Night Live opened with Donald Trump teasing his pick for vice president.
The show’s cold open saw Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, speaking at barricades outside of a Manhattan courthouse—where the real former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee has been regularly speaking to reporters during his hush-money criminal trial.
“Unfortunately, at the end of this trial, it looks like I’m getting a very harsh sentence and being sent to horrible place I do not want to go to: the White House,” Johnson’s Trump tells reporters.
“I don’t want to go back to the White House, but it appears people want to send me there. Why? I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.”
Johnson’s Trump then takes aim at the baseless claims of the 2020 election being stolen from him, saying: “For me, much better for me to not win and say it was rigged and get very rich raising money to stop the steal and you never have to do president again. I like that a lot.”
He then goes on to introduce some of his potential running mates.
First, he brings out South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, played by Devon Walker.
“I’m here to help Trump win the Black vote,” he said. “Specifically my vote, you know. No other Black votes though ’cause Black people do not like me.”
Johnson’s Trump adds: “It’s true. I’m more popular than you among the Blacks, which is really saying something.”
“Saturday Night Live’s” season 49 finale. The episode began with James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump speaking outside of a Manhattan courthouse.
NBC/Saturday Night Live
He then brings out South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, played by Heidi Gardner, who appears holding a stuffed dog at gunpoint—a reference to Noem’s admission that she once killed her own dog.
“She shot a dog, which you really can’t do, don’t shoot dogs, folks, but on the other hand, she shot a dog, which is pretty awesome,” Johnson’s Trump says.
“I kill goats, too!” Gardner’s Noem adds.
Trump’s final pick is then wheeled out—literally.
Hannibal Lecter, played by Michael Longfellow, is rolled into the frame, masked and in an orange jumpsuit and straitjacket as the character was depicted in The Silence of the Lambs.
“It’s the late, great Hannibal Lecter!” Johnson’s Trump declares. (Trump praised the fictional serial killer and cannibal during a speech at a rally last weekend.)
“I keep calling him late and great even though he’s not dead, he’s not great and he’s not real. But I think he’d really scare everybody at the border, right?”
But moments later, he asks for Lecter to be wheeled away. “Okay, get him out of here. We’re done. He’s giving me Pence vibes,” he says, referring to his former Vice President Mike Pence.
Johnson’s Trump then promises that it’s going to be “the summer of Trump.”
“So many fun things to look forward to. I’ll be selling more Trump Bibles, but this summer I’m doing Jewish Bible as well. They call it Torah.”
He wrapped things up with a suggestion for those who are tired of hearing about his many trials.
“All you’ve got to do is vote for me, and it’ll all go away,” he says.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.