Topline
“Saturday Night Live” opened Saturday night by taking on President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs in a sketch in which they portrayed the president interrupting Jesus Christ to compare his sweeping tariffs to the biblical cleansing of the temple (watch below).
James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” on April 12.
Key Facts
The “Saturday Night Live” cold open began with the “Cleansing of the Temple,” a biblical tale in which Jesus Christ was enraged over business transactions within places of worship, flipping tables and expelling the money changers.
Trump, portrayed by James Austin Johnson, interrupts the scene, saying, “Remind you of anyone?” because he “also got rid of money last week” with his tariffs.
Trump imposed tariffs on imported goods from nearly all nations last week that roiled the stock market and sparked fears of a recession, with the president unexpectedly paring back the worst of his tariffs on most countries Wednesday amid the chaos—though he left a 10% baseline tariff in effect along with 125% additional tariffs on Chinese imports.
Johnson’s Trump said on “SNL” he was “comparing myself to the son of God once again,” saying people were “comparing me to the messiah because of the ‘Mess-I-Ah’ made out of the economy” from “my beautiful tariffs,” and boasted the tariffs were “working so well that I had to stop them.”
Mimicking Trump’s stream of consciousness speeches, Johnson continued to speak as the president, commenting on cast members in the scene behind him and musing on Easter, saying, “We love easter, we love bunny, we love hunting for eggs because that’s what everyone’s doing at the grocery store right now.”
The sketch ended with Johnson’s Trump saying Americans should “remember the lesson that Mr. Jesus taught us, when he went buckwild on those money changers, we must never mix religion with commerce”—adding, “You can read all about that in my Trump Bible, now made in America so it costs $1,300 and it falls apart even faster.”
Crucial Quote
“The stock market did a Jesus” in response to Trump’s tariffs, Johnson said as Trump on “SNL.” “It died, then on the third day it was risen. And then on the fourth day it died again.”
Chief Critic
Trump has not responded to this week’s “SNL” cold open yet, though the president has been critical of how the comedy show has portrayed him in the past. “Nothing funny about tired ‘Saturday Night Live’ on Fake News NBC!” he tweeted in 2019. “Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”
Key Background
“SNL”’s Trump sketch is the latest in a string of Easter-themed sketches in which the comedy show has combined Trump with religion. The show celebrated Easter last year by using the story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection to mock Trump selling Bibles, after having the now-president interrupt The Last Supper in 2023 to compare his recent indictment on criminal charges—stemming from his alleged hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels—to Jesus’ plight. “If you haven’t put it together folks, I’ve compared myself to Jesus, again,” Johnson said as Trump that year, adding, “Because just like Jesus, all I did was be friendly to a sex worker and now they want to put me in jail.” The comedy program’s mockery comes after Trump has drawn controversy for publicly comparing himself to Jesus or invoking Jesus on multiple occasions to complain about his legal troubles, sharing a fake courtroom sketch of Jesus by his side during his civil fraud trial in October 2023 and posting on Truth Social in March 2024 that he received a message saying, “It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you.” The president also garnered criticism in 2020 for doing a photo shoot outside a church amid the unrest over George Floyd’s death, holding up a Bible.
