Saturday Night Live opened its Season 50 finale with the show’s Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) taking his seat in the audience and saying farewell until the fall.
“After tonight, you won’t be seeing me here for a while,” said Johnson’s Trump. “Well, not the fake, fun version of me that makes you smile. The real one will still be omnipresent. You can’t escape me, right? I’m everywhere, even in your dreams, like the late, great Freddy Krueger.”
Johnson was right: the real president has been posting on Truth Social throughout the evening, including an attack on ABC News for its report that he is planning to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar, to be used as Air Force One and later for his presidential library.
That gift of a 747 was the subject of some of the quips earlier in the sketch, as Trump, speaking to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, relished in his deal-making trip to the Middle East and all the love and affection shown to him.
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“The Qataris gave me a $400 million plane, can you believe that? And people said that it was some sort of a bribe. Not true, not true. Because they haven’t asked for anything in return.”
The crown prince chimed in, “Well, not yet.”
Trump responded, “So it’s a pre-bribe. But now people are saying I should really be flying in an American plane. Ah, no thanks, sonny. Have you seen what is going on with our planes?”
About an hour before SNL, the real Trump was insisting this evening that the plane was not a gift to him personally. In a Truth Social post, he again appeared to be threatening ABC News, which broke the story on Sunday.
The real Trump wrote, “Everyone, including their lawyers, has been told that ABC must not say that Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane, because they are not. Instead, and as Fake News ABC fully knows and understands, this highly respected country is donating the plane to the United States Air Force/ Defense Department, AND NOT TO ME. By so doing, they are saving our country, and the American Taxpayer, hundreds of millions of dollars. ABC Fake News is one of the WORST.”
The Qatar gift has drawn criticism not just from Democrats, but from some Republicans and those who have otherwise defended the president.
In his weeklong trip in the Middle East, Trump also showered praise on MBS, even though U.S. intelligence concluded that he approved the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for The Washington Post.
“I didn’t make this trip for myself,” SNL‘s Trump told MBS. “I want to make that clear. I did this for the American people, and in many ways myself, my personal enrichment. I did that too.”
The sketch concluded with Johnson “breaking the fourth wall” by walking off the stage to the audience. Trump told MBS, “Gonna have to leave. You know what? Because it is the SNL season finale. Season 50 — worst one yet!”
Sitting down with a group of women, he told them, “It’s nice here, with all the young pretty people. Look at her — wow. Sevens and more, sit on the floor, six and below to the bleachers you go.”
He added, “That’s like a Gutfeld joke. Kind of rhymed, right?”
Watch it above.