In this week’s Saturday Night Live cold open, James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump sat by the White House fireplace alongside Dana Carvey’s Joe Biden. After joking about the real meeting’s awkward, polite atmosphere, Trump introduced Biden to some of his latest cabinet picks.
Playing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, was Alec Baldwin.
“I’m so honored,” Baldwin said, imitating RFK Jr.’s distinctive voice. “Americans need someone to teach them how to be healthy. Someone like me, a 70-year-old man with movie star looks and a worm in his brain.”
“Bobby, I love you,” Trump said. “I can’t wait to see what you do with this country, both in terms of health and with regard to a measles outbreak.”
“I care deeply about a woman’s right to choose,” Baldwin’s RFK Jr. said, before clarifying, “To choose to give her child polio.”
Referencing the scandal where RFK Jr. reportedly decapitated a whale, as well as the scandal where he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park, RFK Jr. added, “I just wish people would take my appointment more seriously. All right, I gotta go; I got a dead dolphin in my car. I think I might saw it in half and dump it in Central Park.”
The cold open also introduced SNL’s newest version of Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for Attorney General who has been under investigation for alleged sex trafficking. Gaetz was played by cast member Sarah Sherman; it continued the long-running pattern of major figures from the Trump administration being portrayed by women.
“Mr. Trump, thank you for having me,” Sherman’s Gaetz said. “And might I say, giggity-giggity.”
Referencing how the real-life Gaetz resigned from Congress this week in an attempt to stop the House ethics committee from releasing a “highly damaging” report about him, Gaetz added, “Of course, I had to resign from Congress because the confirmation process comes at the busiest time of year for me.”
“The holidays?” Trump asked.
Gaetz answered, “Girls’ volleyball season.”
