Saturday Night Live returned for its first episode of 2026 with a cold open sketch lampooning Donald Trump and his administration, featuring James Austin Johnson reprising his impression of the US president. The sketch, titled 'Cabinet of curiosities', addressed recent events including the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and the deployment of federal officers in Minnesota.
Johnson's Trump claimed to have received María Corina Machado's Nobel Peace Prize medal as a Christmas gift and boasted about Maduro's capture, saying: 'We did a reverse Santa on him. We came down the chimney with a bag and took him away.' The sketch referenced US oil companies rebuilding Venezuela's infrastructure and re-introduced Trump's cabinet as 'fellow freaks, various monsters and nightmares from the twisted mind of Guillermo del Trump.'
Familiar cast members returned, including Marcello Hernandez as a bashful Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colin Jost as an explosive Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who drank from a jar of protein mix. Ashley Padilla debuted as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who joked about her hair and makeup team and discussed the volatile situation in Minneapolis, where federal officers have been deployed for mass deportations.
Padilla's Noem addressed clashes in Minneapolis, saying: 'Obviously, there's been clashes on both sides in Minneapolis... And have we been perfect? Yes.' She then delivered a satirical recruitment pitch for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking rhetorical questions about neck width, Punisher T-shirts, and punching walls. Jost's Hegseth threatened Iran, saying: 'if Ayatollah you once, Ayatollah you 1,000 times. You don't dare kill your protesters. That's our thing!'
The sketch followed Trump's suggestion of military action in Iran if protesters are killed, despite monitoring groups reporting hundreds of deaths and over 10,000 arrests since Thursday. The SNL episode also featured Johnson's Trump noting that White House deputy policy chief Stephen Miller is 'on the ceiling' after someone brought a Bible into the room.
