The first Saturday Night Live sketch of 2026 launched with a biting political satire, as James Austin Johnson returned to portray a fictionalised Donald Trump presenting his so-called 'Cabinet of curiosities'. The cold open, which aired on Sunday 18 January 2026, took aim at recent aggressive foreign and domestic policies.
A Nobel Prize and a Captured President
In the sketch, Johnson's Trump boasted of receiving an unusual Christmas gift: the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize medal from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. He then revealed his other prize was the captured former Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, who now faces US federal drug charges. Trump quipped about doing a 'reverse Santa' operation, claiming US oil companies would rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure.
The 'Freaks and Monsters' of the Cabinet
Trump introduced his cabinet as fellow 'freaks, various monsters and nightmares from the twisted mind of Guillermo del Trump'. Returning cast included Marcello Hernandez as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colin Jost as an explosively aggressive Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A notable newcomer was Ashley Padilla debuting as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who sarcastically thanked a hair and makeup team she claimed 'obviously hate me'.
The sketch also mentioned White House deputy policy chief Stephen Miller, described as being 'on the ceiling' of the White House, having scampered up a wall when someone brought in a Bible.
Satirising ICE Raids and Foreign Threats
The comedy turned to domestic controversy, focusing on the Trump administration's deployment of hundreds of federal officers to Minneapolis to support a mass deportation agenda. Padilla's Noem addressed the volatile situation, which included fierce protests and the fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, whom the administration labelled an 'agitator' and domestic terrorist.
In a darkly comic recruitment pitch, Noem asked viewers if their 'neck wider than your head' and if they'd ever 'punched a hole in the wall because your son took a dance class', suggesting they 'grab a gun, any gun, and saddle up' to join ICE.
Colin Jost's Hegseth then returned to boast about foreign interventions, crudely claiming the US 'tea-bagged' Venezuela and threatening to 'sack-tap Iran'. He issued a warning to Iran's Ayatollah not to kill protesters, stating 'That's our thing!' This mirrored real-world concerns, as monitoring groups reported hundreds of deaths and over 10,000 arrests in Iran since the previous Thursday.
The sketch served as a sharp parody of the administration's rhetoric and actions, blending absurdist humour with critiques of real-world military threats and contentious immigration enforcement.
