Saturday Night Live's cold open on December 20 mocked President Donald Trump over the heavily redacted Epstein files and his renaming of the Kennedy Center. James Austin Johnson portrayed Trump, ridiculing the administration's claim to be “the most transparent in history” after hundreds of pages of long-awaited documents were redacted upon partial release by the Justice Department.
Johnson's Trump said: “With regard to files, we're being very transparent. Because Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible man, and I didn't know him, and I liked him a lot.” He added: “We released all the files, and I come out looking, frankly, very good. We had to redact a few sensitive things, but you'll get the gist here.” He then turned to a giant redacted file beside him that read: “Trump Didn’t Do Nothing Bad.”
The skit also targeted Trump's renaming of the Kennedy Center to the “Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts No Homo,” and listed other monuments he planned to rename, including the “Trump-Washington Monument” and “Trump Lincoln Memorial.” Johnson mimicked Trump's meandering speeches, including boasts about cognitive test scores, saying: “I always get camel right. It's bumpy horse. That's how I know camel bumpy horse.”
The episode, hosted by Ariana Grande, also marked Bowen Yang's last show after seven years. Yang announced his mid-season exit on Instagram, saying: “I loved working at SNL, and most of all i loved the people.”
