“Saturday Night Live” is taking aim at President Donald Trump − and its own recent musical guest Morgan Wallen.
In the sketch comedy show’s latest cold open, Trump (James Austin Johnson) unveiled his administration’s new tariffs, which he described as a “series of random numbers, like the numbers on the computer screen in ‘Severance.’ ” He riffed about how confusing the rollout of the tariffs was while declaring that this was all part of his plan to “Make America Great Depression Again,” or “MAGDA.”
“It’ll be better than great,” Johnson’s Trump said. “It’ll be a fantastic, unbelievable depression, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. This depression is going to be so great, we’ll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.”
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As Trump continued speaking, the sketch took a dig at Wallen, who served as musical guest last week but abruptly walked off stage before the credits finished rolling. After Trump displayed a graphic of McDonald Island occupied by actual McDonald’s hamburgers, he said, “Get me to God’s country, right?” The line prompted applause from the studio audience.
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Wallen posted the phrase “Get me to God’s country” on Instagram with a photo of a plane after he exited during the “SNL” signoff rather than sticking around to mingle with the cast, as is tradition. The country singer later began selling “Get me to God’s country” merchandise in his online store.
Mike Myers also returned as Elon Musk in the cold open to introduce a new Tesla car that’s “fully self-vandalizing.” But when the billionaire said that Trump’s tariffs sounded “really dumb,” the president quickly ushered him away.
Later, “Weekend Update” similarly mocked Trump’s tariffs while simultaneously roasting Wallen.
While joking about the stock market having its worst week since 2020, anchor Colin Jost said, “Just in the past two days, investors have lost over $6 trillion. Money is leaving the stock market faster than Morgan Wallen at goodnights.” The segment displayed an image of Wallen walking off the stage.
‘Get me to God’s country’: Morgan Wallen abruptly leaves ‘SNL’ stage
Ego Nwodim accidentally prompts audience to curse on ‘Weekend Update’: ‘Lorne’s gonna be mad’
One moment of the show may have left the network’s censors unhappy.
During “Weekend Update,” Ego Nwodim argued she should host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, even though the organization announced it would not showcase a comedian this year. To pitch herself for the job, Nwodim declared she would avoid controversy by simply making jokes about the food being served at the dinner.
This launched Nwodim into a food-themed stand-up set, which also included jokes complaining about men. At one point, she prompted the audience to participate by pointing the microphone toward the crowd and asking, “These men ain’t what?”
But Nwodim, Jost and Michael Che all appeared shocked when the crowd responded with a curse word, which went out uncensored on NBC’s East Coast broadcast. It was removed from the YouTube clip of the segment, though it remained on the Peacock version of the show.
“Y’all gonna have to pay for that,” Nwodim joked. “Lorne’s gonna be mad at y’all,” referencing “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels.
Morgan Wallen: The country singer is selling ‘get me to God’s country’ merch after abrupt ‘SNL’ exit
‘SNL’ pays tribute to past host Val Kilmer, who died on April 1
The show ended on a touching note with a tribute to Val Kilmer, who died Tuesday from pneumonia at age 65. Just before the end credits, a graphic of Kilmer was shown on screen.
The “Top Gun” star hosted “SNL” in 2000 with musical guest U2.
Jack Black hosted Saturday’s episode and said during the signoff that doing so was a “life highlight” for him. “SNL” will return next week with host Jon Hamm and musical guest Lizzo.