In its highly anticipated return, Saturday Night Live launched 2026 with a biting political cold open, parodying the second Trump administration's aggressive foreign policy and controversial domestic immigration tactics.
A 'Cabinet of Curiosities' Assembles
The sketch, which aired on Monday 19 January 2026, saw cast member James Austin Johnson reprise his role as Donald Trump, delivering a status update from the Oval Office. He boasted of receiving a curious Christmas gift: "my very own someone else's Nobel Prize," a medal gifted by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. His other prize was the capture of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, now facing US federal drug charges. "We did a reverse Santa on him. We came down the chimney with a bag and took him away," Johnson's Trump quipped, vowing US oil companies would rebuild the nation's infrastructure.
He then introduced his administration, described as his "fellow freaks, various monsters and nightmares from the twisted mind of Guillermo del Trump." The returning ensemble included Marcello Hernandez as a timid Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colin Jost as a hyper-aggressive Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, seen drinking from a jar of protein mix. A new face, Ashley Padilla, debuted as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Satirising Domestic Turmoil and Foreign Threats
The sketch quickly turned to domestic strife, focusing on the volatile situation in Minneapolis. The administration's deployment of hundreds of federal officers to support mass deportations was met with fierce protest, a situation exacerbated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good. The administration has repeatedly labelled Good an "agitator" involved in "domestic terrorism."
Padilla's Noem, thanking a hair and makeup team she said "obviously hate me," addressed the clashes with sarcasm. "And have we been perfect? Yes," she stated. In a recruitment pitch parodying the agency's ethos, she asked: "Is your neck wider than your head? Are you currently wearing a Punisher T-shirt?"
Jost's Hegseth returned to boast about military action, threatening Venezuela and Iran. "We went into Venezuela and, como se dice? We tea-bagged their country!" he shouted. He then warned Iran, "I'm gonna tell him, 'if Ayatollah you once, Ayatollah you 1,000 times. You don't dare kill your protesters. That's our thing!'" This mirrored real-world concerns, as monitoring groups reported hundreds of protester deaths in Iran that week.
A Sharp Return to Political Sketch Comedy
This first sketch of the year continued SNL's long tradition of skewering the sitting president, following recent episodes that tackled the Epstein files. By blending absurd characterisations with real, grim headlines—from the capture of Maduro to the fatal ICE shooting in Minnesota—the show offered a darkly comedic critique of the administration's rhetoric and actions. The "Cabinet of curiosities" served as a potent metaphor for a political landscape the show portrays as increasingly bizarre and confrontational.
